Hope Dies Last: A Word on Kelly Gissendaner

On this day, September 21, 2011, I wrote an Open Letter to the State of Georgia about the state-authorized death of one of their sons, Troy Davis.

The blog went viral in a matter of 24 hours, finding its way on a host of news sites and it would be the first time that I would enter into public discourse about social justice and the death penalty.

Four years later, I’d find myself penning yet another article about a daughter of the State of Georgia, Kelly Gissendaner, a woman whose original execution was stayed because the drugs the State planned to use to kill her were cloudy and not fit for use. Recently, we learned that Kelly would be executed by the State of Georgia on the 29th of this month, after six long months of appeals and public outcry for her stay of execution. Continue reading

Independence Day and the ‘Immeasurable Distance’

For the first time in a long time, I’ve given deep thought about the Fourth of July and what it symbolizes for me. While the nation celebrates its independence and freedom from Great Britain, millions of Black and Brown people still do not get to reap the benefits of said independence and live in a perpetual state of fear and oppression.

A speech by abolitionist Frederick Douglass has been circulating around the Internets today and I wanted to share it with my readers to remind us of what the Fourth of July really is for Black and Brown folk.

It is not a day of independence, freedom, or liberty.

It wasn’t in 1776 and it still isn’t in 2015. Continue reading

And the Church says…

[I wrote this post in September and it’s been sitting in drafts ever since. *Blows off the dust*]

“Amen.” Of course that’s the automated, often involuntary response to the phrase “And the Church says…” We say it so easily, almost on autopilot, giving no thought to what we’re really saying. But the word “amen” is more than a cliché that fits easily in your church vocabulary list. Continue reading