Juneteenth: The Last Slave States

How mass incarceration continues the legacy of slavery and steals political power.

Learning to Feel

For too much of my life I've mistaken knowledge for understanding. I studied systems of racism like I could research my way into wokeness. Like so many white allies I've made the mistake of thinking I understood my own white privilege, and will almost certainly make the mistake again.

A Spoiled Batch

Waves of police violence seen and filmed in response to protests are the rule, not the exception.

The Invisibility of Black Death

This has been a tragic and difficult week. From the morbid milestone of over 100,000 deaths in America due to Covid-19, to the footage of another brutal police murder of a black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis, we are being called to mourn in all-too familiar and unprecedented ways. Between the murder of George Floyd,…

Corona and Cannabis

As the Coronavirus and subsequent shut-down wreak havoc on every industry throughout the world, there is one particularly young and precarious industry that may have gone under the radar. Legal adult use cannabis is still a very new but growing part of the economy. It has had its ups and downs as states and businesses…

Tale of Two Pandemics

The fallout of the Covid-19 crisis in America has led to record unemployment, massive economic downturn, businesses closing left and right and a collapsing healthcare system. All of these layers of intersecting crises have emphasized the massive gap that already existed in all of these systems. Rates of income inequality, mortality rates between low-income minority…

As States Reopen, Workers will Suffer

Today my home state of Texas is officially open for business. Governor Greg Abbott has lifted the stay-at-home order, and is allowing some businesses like movie theaters and hair salons to open back up and service residents. Several states like Iowa and Georgia have done the same, in an attempt to lift the economic slump…

The Personal Vastness of Three-Body Problem

The Three Body Problem is the first part of Liu Cixin's Remembrance of Earth's Trilogy which has become the most recent addition to literary science fiction canon. Translated from Chinese it immerses even the foreign reader into the cultural heritage of historical China and a frighteningly realistic modern world. On it's own this first novel…

Can American Small Businesses Survive Coronavirus

With the worldwide economic downturn caused by the Coronavirus outbreak and subsequent national shut-down, much of the economic anxiety is surrounding the future of small businesses. Rightfully so, and may I add, about time. After going virtually ignored in the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis, lawmakers and large industries are finally acknowledging that small…

Where have all the Ventilators Gone?

Since the widespread outbreak of Covid-19 in the US, there has been a back-and-forth struggle between the federal and state governments over equipment necessary to fight the outbreak. Everything from personal protective equipment (PPE) like masks and gowns, life-saving ventilators, testing kits and testing equipment like swabs, are in short supply across the country. Governors…