The new school year has started at Clemson. While everybody is eagerly sharing stories of adventures undertaken over summer, I’m dreading every single conversation before it starts. I’m identifying imaginary idiomatic exit ramps, so I’m not trapped in the ever-familiar position of arguing that the...
It starts like this: in a conversation, in an email, in a private Facebook message or tagged in a Facebook thread, a white friend or acquaintance lays out a scenario for me, seeking a supposedly neutral party’s opinion. The person explains what they innocently said,...
In the wake of the resignation of University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe, much is being written about the power of collective action among student groups to affect positive change on their campuses. The Black Lives Matter movement has demonstrated the same. Young people are...
“Blacks must remain subordinate or be exterminated – Tillman,” read one of the pieces of graffiti spray-painted on Old Main Hall this week at Clemson University, where I’m a graduate student. It’s a quote from a former South Carolina governor, the white supremacist and terrorist...
As we stood in Charleston on Calhoun Street in front of Emanuel AME Church, my friend, Dr Chenjerai Kumanyika, and I met three men who asked us why we were there. I’m not sure if I effectively explained myself to them, because the truth was I...