The very idea that the rules of the system are rigged is so threatening to the white racial self-image of earned privilege that it cannot be seriously entertained.
The slave patrol in the classroom
That time we sank the Santa Maria
In the winter of 1987-88 I was back in Puerto Rico visiting and read that a flotilla of canoes was leaving South America, tracing the Taino migration up the Antilles to Puerto […]
Martin Luther King Goes to the Mall (or WWMD?)
“It’s important to make an example out of these organizers, so that this never happens again.” This message was sent to the managers of the Mall of America by Sandra Johnson, the […]
Black Lives at the Mall of America: the long shadow of history
In the dock are eleven Black Lives Matter activists fingered by police as the “ringleaders” of a peaceful rally at the Mall of America last December. An additional 25 have been charged […]
History Moves in a Spiral
It is not enough to revere those who came before. We must engage them in conversation.
Whites fighting racism: what it’s about
Note: I was asked by SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice – a group which organizes white folks against racism) to write a few paragraphs offering a perspective on white solidarity. It […]
Ferguson and the long wave
At the local Ferguson protest the other night two students from Minneapolis’ South High School talked about the sit-in and walk-out they’d organized, coordinated with other high schools. I realized that forty […]
Community Soil and Exchange Capacity
When I think about the East Side Freedom Library I think about dirt. More specifically, about dirt and community and the similar ways they are structured and how those structures determine the […]
Monsanto in the Mirror
One of the great inventions of the past hundred and fifty years is the rear-view mirror. It permits us to move forward while remaining aware of where we have come from. As […]
Unity and Division in the Ninth Ward
I wasn’t going to say anything aloud about the ninth ward, Minneapolis city council race. I don’t ignore electoral contests exactly but they don’t dominate my attention, either. You see city councils, […]
Ricardo Levins Morales
Ricardo Levins Morales Art Studio 