Working Towards Ending Racism

AT THE DARK END OF THE STREET : Black Women, Rape and Resistance - a New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power by Danielle L McGuire, is an incredible book. There are several important themes that are explained with many details in this book.   White men seizing Black women and girls often using guns, knives or other weapons on the street was common.   Also common was the "trick".   "I need a babysitter - often a teenager being assaulted and dumped in the country after she got in the car of her supposed employer.   It didn't matter what the Black people did.  The results were similar. . The men were "having consensual sex" or "it never happened".   Often the police or other authorities were part of the assault.  There nearly always was no prosecution of the rapists.   In the few cases that there were arrests, usually the assailants were released without being charged.   When ca

Yesterday I listened to a fellow white man - who cares - talking about his plans as he ages.    I've found him "stuck" in endless philosophizing about change,  going on and on and on with what he says.  He sort of makes sense, but he seems lost in the world of a getting older man, who "cares".  He seems living a life apart from the realities of "relationship" with causes (and quite possibly with another human). "Relationship" seems important to me.   It doesn't mean being in a relationship.  It means a connection to a world beyond oneself.   Talking sometimes with people in their 50's and 60's, I see a big difference between the parents and non-parents.   The non-parents seem different.   They are not used to serious compromise in their lives.   They feel entitled to a basic "happiness", that doesn't rely upon considering others in significant ways. The man talked about how he will have an inheritance he will fu