Giving Tuesday is a worldwide opportunity for people to come together - through generosity in all its forms - by sharing acts of kindness and giving their voice, time, money, goods, and advocacy to support communities and causes. Giving Tuesday 2021 is a simple and direct way to participate in amends, reparations, and justice by supporting Caused-Based Coalitions. This Giving Tuesday, financially support advocacy groups working on social and environmental justice issues. Here

I am from Boston colonists who traded in Black bodies. I am from the dishonesty that is America's founding promise. I am from the contradiction of my Kentucky slaveholders and my Quaker slave runners. I am from a military father who sailed the oceans in big ships that smelled of oil, exercizing our dominion in the air, land, and sea. I am from the 1950s repression that smashed into the 1960s revolution yet still manages to cling to my core. I am from a widowed mother who deal

One hundred years ago, 10,000 state-sponsored White supremacists destroyed a prosperous Black neighborhood in Tulsa, OK. The history of the Tulsa Race Massacre .- when a white mob attacked the thriving Greenwood district, burned it to the ground, killing an estimated 300 of its black residents - was not part of my public school curriculum. In fact I was not taught about any major Black historical events of any kind. To include the full history of Black oppression would hav

​ Growing up white, and in segregated communities, I didn’t think I even had a race. There was nothing to be questioned, learned about, or studied. I was oblivious, bathed in the safety and comfort I thought everyone was enjoying. I never had to wonder whether or not I “belonged” in the U.S. This experience reifies the reality of whiteness as the dominant culture. To know who I am as a racial being today I firsts had understand my racial past. This is the concept of Sankofa,

I am the proud daughter of a 33-year career Navy veteran, Lt. Cmdr. Earl Ross Baker. The photo shows the cherished display case with his military medals. In my first book, An Unintentional Accomplice: A Personal Perspective on White Responsibility, I wrote about the pageantry of daily flag ceremonies for the children of the neighborhood led by my father. When I think back on those post-WWII days, I’m reminded of who I am and where I come from. I feel pride when I see the flag

In this national election week, when patience is a virtue, we are witnessing both a societal transformation and a deeply divided country. The question on my heart and mind is, "How do I handle this?" Whatever one's political party may be, we all are finding ourselves at the same juncture this week. What is the road to repair and restoration? For me, it is a commitment to holding myself, my leaders, my lawmakers, and my president accountable. There is no way forward without de

There was a time when Americans, specifically white Americans such as myself, eagerly supported government entitlement programs and had relatively no issue having a social safety net in place. Many of us from the suburbs like to think we got to where we are today by virtue of our merit, hard work, intelligence, pluck, and maybe a little luck. But it was America’s investment after World War II that created FHA home programs and later the Veterans Administration (VA), which bac

My Guest Column in the Los Angeles Free Press July 2020: An open mind is said by some to be a virtue that corrects errors in judgment. Others find an open mind a signal of indecisiveness, being wishy-washy, or an inability to think for oneself.  Either way, it’s likely very few, if any, of us would want to admit to having a closed mind. In truth, it is likely we all are, at any given time, somewhere on the continuum between having an open and a closed mind and it varies by da

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