Substack

"Searching for truth in an uncertain world"

Stories & Data Reflections on Race, Riots and Police

The brutal death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers has sparked protests and riots around the United States. We have witnessed humanity at its finest and at its ugliest. Citizens of faraway nations have expressed solidarity with black Americans; police officers have marched alongside protesters; protesters have defended businesses against looting and destruction. At the same time, rioters have burned down buildings and looted businesses; protesters have been pepper-sprayed and beaten; cops have been shot and run over with cars.

Blackface and the Fine Art of Retroactive Repudiation

The past few months have seen a wave of scandals involving blackface. First there was Megyn Kelly, the news anchor who observed that in her youth it was considered okay to paint your face black so long as it was for a costume. The comment prompted NBC to cancel her show. Then there was the rediscovery of a two-year-old video showing a pair of preteen girls at a sleepover imitating monkeys while wearing dark face makeup. Their schoolmates responded to the video with a mass “sit-in” to protest racism.

Opinion | The Gay, Black, Civil Rights Hero Opposed to Affirmative Action

How would Bayard Rustin be judged today? How would Bayard Rustin be judged today?CreditBayard Rustin was a chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington and thought reparations, and even separate African-American studies departments, were a bad idea. Many of his beliefs would be antithetical to today’s social justice advocates.

Stedman Graham's unconventional advice for young professionals

“Taking a sociology course? Drop it. Read a book,” Stedman Graham joked to Ladders. The New York Times bestselling author was quick to pepper, measured responses with short bursts of dry humor, though never at clarity’s expense. The pleasure of our correspondence regarded his new book, Identity Leadership: To Lead Others, You Must First Lead Yourself – a meditation on self-actualization and productivity, on route to becoming Graham’s 12th publication.

Should America pay reparations for slavery? Ta-Nehisi Coates v Coleman Hughes

Ta-Nehisi Coates: ‘The matter of reparations is one of making amends’Yesterday, when asked about reparations, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell offered a familiar reply: America should not be held liable for something that happened 150 years ago, since none of us currently alive are responsible. This rebuttal proffers a strange theory of governance — that American accounts are somehow bound by the lifetime of its generations.

Black Writer Booed for Opposing Slavery Reparations

When a black writer for Quillette told a House subcommittee yesterday that blacks did not deserve reparations for slavery, his audience booed him. But such is what one would expect given how far the radical Left has pushed not only Democrat party faithful but also Democrat presidential candidates toward uncharted radical territory. The party of homosexuality, abortion, and “trans” ideology, is now also the party of slavery reparations.