The 4th of July - a wonderful time to pause to honor the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. As the daughter of a career Naval officer, and as Girl Scout, I learned from an early age how to post and retire the flag, and do so on every day of remembrance. This year as I fly the colors it seems especially fitting to also pause and reflect on the genocide and racism that are part of our national history. This dissonance is ingrained in the ent

Law enforcement is a difficult job. Among my family members is a police officer, a deputy sheriff, and a California Highway Patrol officer. Each pledged to lay down their life to protect and serve if needed. And in the line of duty, each of them has faced traumatic accidents and situations continuing to haunt them to this day. They are personally committed to honor, respect, and accountability. With that, I’d like to start with what “Defund the Police” does not mean. Is doe

My Guest Column in The Los Angeles Free Press July, 2020 August, 1970. I was a white high schooler in my even-whiter southern California suburb. Thus far it had been a momentous year. With the launch of the Vietnam draft lottery, boys began disappearing in January, and Edwin Starr recorded “War, what is it good for?” The Kent State student shootings happened in May, and Neil Young sang ”…four dead in O-hi-o.” In June, on the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall riots, tens o

Here’s a phrase I hear from many of my white friends. “I’m not a racist.” Of course you’re not a racist – you’re not burning crosses on people’s front yards or using the n-word. I too once felt I was not a racist. I saw myself as one of the “good” white people, because I cared. But here’s what all white people have to understand: it’s our obligation to educate ourselves about what it has meant in the past, and what it means today, to be white. Many people today are making the

Through the process of finalizing Chapter 5: Womanism of An Unintentional Accomplice I had the opportunity for frank conversations with my publisher Gabrielle David, a black woman, about the divide between white women and black women. Although I had written about ways in which the feminist movement had expected and demanded women of color to be a silent, obedient ally to white women's agenda, I was unaware of the historical and psychological components of this dynamic. Our c