Category: Writing About Race, Class, Gender, & Ability

“Labor Pains” and the #StrikeForBlackLives

Posted on by treasureshieldsredmond
When Africans were enslaved, one popular narrative used to justify their enslavement, was that they were “lazy.” “If we don’t enslave them they won’t work” was one of the fears expressed pre-emancipation. In fact, black men found without a job could be remanded to forced labor post-slaver...

Why Don’t We Crave to See the Families of the Murdered Policemen in Dallas Forgive Micah Johnson?

Posted on by treasureshieldsredmond
As the country continues to grapple with the racialized gun violence of the past weeks, several issues of comparison can be explored and discussed.   This is a thought experiment. I have taken an article titled, “Families of Charleston Shooting Victims: “We Forgive You” written by Inae Oh ...

#StrikeForBlackLives: A Nationwide Job Walk-Off By Black Labor

Posted on by treasureshieldsredmond
  “Hamilton” isn’t the first play written by a writer of color that casts black and brown Americans in the roles of white Americans. 50 years earlier, Douglas Turner Ward wrote “A Day of Absence.” The play, with a role made famous by Ossie Davis, features a black cast playing white people in whit...

From the South Bronx to Southeast Europe

Posted on by treasureshieldsredmond
Today was the final day of the international debate education association (IDEA) program in Macedonia. The two tracks– visual art (graffiti)/comics and hip-hop/poetry – were responsible for presenting their final projects. Prior to DJ Goce’s arrival, I had taken the students through a series of...

Your Blues is Like Mine

Posted on by treasureshieldsredmond
I have been collaborating with a Macedonian hiphop Dj and producer named Goce (pronounced GO SEE AH). He began to talk about why hip hop was resonant with him and Macedonian people. He sees hip hop as a dissident art, as he came into consciousness of it in 1989 when socially conscious groups like...

The Global Reach of Blackness

Posted on by treasureshieldsredmond
Today I presented about Fannie Lou Hamer. This is a presentation I’ve done many times now, but because of the audience it was quite different. Because the audience was European and specifically people from the Balkan Peninsula, I stopped much more frequently to explain terms. I spent time on “sha...

“Friend is Worth More than a Dollar”

Posted on by treasureshieldsredmond
Today I rose super thankful for not having to sleep in the airport, and then slog through an eight hour flight, a two hour flight, and then a two and half hour drive . . . unwashed.   My grandmother used to say, “A friend is worth more than a dollar.”  Her reasoning being, if […]...

The Number One Reason the Orlando Shooter was not a “Deranged Loner, and Why We’re More Like Him Than Not

Posted on by treasureshieldsredmond
        Almost as soon as the Orlando shooter was identified, he began to be described as a “loner.” This description is often used to describe the personality of mass shooters. If we look back at the headlines surrounding many of the men who perpetrate mass shootings, the descriptor, “lone...

Is there Such a Thing as a Poor White Progressive?

Posted on by treasureshieldsredmond
“We po’.” Almost everyday, my grandmother would say this simple sentence. The missing verb served to make it more immediate, like a simple equation. “We po’.” We equaled poor. Sometimes she said it in response to the evening news when groups of white men argued in Washington, DC about...

Representation Matters

Posted on by treasureshieldsredmond
I threw the bodiless blonde in the trunk of the car, hoping I’d disposed of it in such a way as to not draw attention to her abrupt disappearance. This was late night espionage. I drove around for days like this. I imagined her painted smile, and her pastel blue eyes with their fixed stare. […]...