You can sense it in some quarters of the burgeoning racial justice community — a feeling of dread that the movement has stalled a little over a year since the murder of George Floyd.

For most who express this concern, the evidence they point to is the fall-off of public protest since last summer.

“Why aren’t we in the streets every week?” many demand to know.

Naturally, they have their own answer. Most people they insist “weren’t serious” about change and were only performative activists — unlike them.

They, of course, are ready for the revolution.

Because sure they are.

…

Nearly sixty years ago, James Baldwin explained the dilemma of educating young minds in a culture that thrives on their ignorance, when he noted:

“The purpose of education…is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions…But no society is really anxious to have that kind of person around. What societies really, ideally, want is a citizenry which will simply obey the rules of society.”

Although it’s doubtful even one of them is familiar with Baldwin’s words here, lawmakers across the country appear determined, as of late, to confirm them…

Even in 1992, The Republican Party could see its future — not one of supply-side economics and free trade, but one of white racial fear and resentment. This is a story from the delivery room where today’s GOP was born.

The image wasn’t of the same quality as the one above. But even in the low-def world of 1992, the meaning behind the frozen frame on the Jumbotron was crystal clear — as was the reason it had been chosen to greet delegates to that year’s Republican National Convention at the Houston Astrodome.

This was the convention at which the…

The national debate over systemic racism — whether it exists, and if so, how much blame it deserves for ongoing racial inequity — is one made more contentious by the way we’ve been taught to understand racism as a subject.

In addition to typically thinking of racism solely as a matter of personal prejudice, as opposed to an institutional force, most of our discussions of racism have been confined to particular historical time capsules. So, for instance, there was enslavement, but then it ended; and then there was segregation, which also ended.

By teaching history linearly (as opposed to thematically)…

Imagine you were to write something about the problem of child sexual abuse or world hunger. Or imagine you made your living working on these issues — perhaps as a therapist in the first instance, or, in the second, in a non-profit organization dedicated to addressing the subject. Imagine you put your heart into your work and were committed to advocating for a world in which these problems would be substantially mitigated.

Now, imagine that in response to your efforts, someone suggested you didn’t really care about those things but were merely virtue-signaling to make yourself seem like a better…

Amid the backlash to anti-racist teaching and activism — symbolized by the assault on Critical Race Theory — one claim stands out as the principal lamentation of aggrieved conservatives. Namely, the idea that anti-racist educators and activists believe white people are inherently racist and oppressive.

You’ll hear it time and again. Those challenging anti-racist curricula insist their children are suffering psychological harm because the materials teach white kids to hate themselves. …

I know some folks don’t want to hear this, but it needs to be said. People in the QAnon conspiracy movement are, by and large, mentally ill. I say this not to mock or ridicule them. I say it because it’s almost incontestably true. And our unwillingness to say so is a danger to this society and its future.

And yet, some insist we should never call anyone mentally or emotionally unwell, especially if we are not — as I am not — a mental health professional. To do so, they argue, stigmatizes mental illness and contributes to fear and…

“I didn’t mean anything by it.”

It’s the predictable defense for most after being accused of saying or doing something racist or, in some other way, prejudicial. As in, “It was just a joke!” Or, if not a joke, just an innocuous comment or action lacking deliberately biased motivation.

In response, many who write or speak about racism or do activist work tend to reply with an equally predictable refrain: Intent doesn’t matter, we insist. Impact is what matters. I’ve even written something to this effect myself, here:

And while I stand by the arguments in that piece, I’d like…