By Z A few years ago my son who is non-white was sitting in his car on a side street not far from our home making a phone call on his cell phone. This was in the early days of cell phones and coverage was sketchy so finding the perfect …
by Judy Helfand My friend offered to do some genealogy research for me. I already had a fairly extensive genealogy and history of my father’s side, the Jewish side. My paternal grandmother and grandfather emigrated to Canada and the US in the late 1800s and early 1900s. I suspected some …
Review by Judy Helfand The Earth, the City and the Hidden Narrative of Race, by Carl Anthony, is a mix of personal, historical, and political. Anthony shares stories of his family and growing up, his youth at universities and in the civil rights movement, and his developing career as he found …
An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, Benjamin Madley Review by Judy Helfand I recently joined a group inspired by a Ceremony of Apology and Forgiveness convened by Basil Brave Heart, a Lakota elder, which provided, among other things, an opportunity for settlers in the United …
by Judy Helfand I’m sitting in the audience for a post-production discussion of Kill Move Paradise, a play in which four black men try to make sense of their recent killing. A white woman in the first row is speaking and I’m thinking Stop! Don’t you, a white woman, tell …
by Judy Helfand In the months after the wildfires that burned through our little farm, taking the house and all the outbuildings, I observed the changing state of my brain as illustrated through my choice of readings. At first I wasn’t reading at all and then gradually I started drifting …
by Chad Bolla I was once asked by the parent of a 4th grade student I was working with, “how do you intend to define justice for the young people in circle?” I answered without hesitation, firm in my belief that justice is equity. I used the pizza example that …
by Judy Helfand Seeing a recommendation for The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein, on the Racial Justice Allies Facebook page, I reserved it at the library, wanting to keep up with recent writing on institutionalized racism in the U.S. When I picked up the book I saw the subtitle—A …
A Gift Poem for an Elder I Just Met by Christopher Bowers I come from a people whose burden was a big story that abhorred storytelling and thus secrets ruled with invisibility. I come from a people who thought the center of the universe was in the perpetual west and …
by Judy Helfand A friend offered us an evening of respite from dealing with the aftermaths of the fire—come over and do our laundry, take a good, long hot shower, eat turkey soup, and watch Netflix. Taking her up on it we arrived with our dirty clothes, shampoo, appetite and …