Racism to Reconciliation Archives - Page 11 of 12

It’s Not Anyone’s Fault Our Jails are Racist

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on February 20, 2017. Posted in General, Racism to Reconciliation. 4 Comments on It’s Not Anyone’s Fault Our Jails are Racist

The exploitation of Black Americans in my lifetime shows itself as mass incarceration. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not calling those working in the judicial system racist. I don’t blame the white woman who confused my Black friend for a purse snatcher months after the actual mugging took place. I don’t blame the police officer who arrested...

Don’t Fall for the Ewing Effect

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on February 5, 2017. Posted in General, Racism to Reconciliation. 4 Comments on Don’t Fall for the Ewing Effect

Cast your mind back to 1982. The time is the NCAA Basketball Championship. The game pits the Georgetown Hoyas, coached by the brilliant John Thompson, against Dean Smith’s Carolina Tar Heels. The Hoyas’ star is the new phenom center Patrick Ewing. As the game opens, Carolina puts up a shot. The seven-foot Ewing soars to the rim and knocks it...

Small Things I Do FWIW

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on January 30, 2017. Posted in General, Racism to Reconciliation. 10 Comments on Small Things I Do FWIW

I shop at the Family Dollar or Dollar Tree or the downtown Walgreens rather than the ritzy Walgreens because one does not have to exercise class privilege just because one has it. I choose to place myself in situations where I’m the only white person around—such as my Ob-gyn’s office—because I need to be constantly reminded of what it’s like...

How to be a Winner in the New Normal

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on November 12, 2016. Posted in General, Racism to Reconciliation. 11 Comments on How to be a Winner in the New Normal

I’ve never been with a winner. Well, except that streak when the North Carolina Tar Heels won the NCAA Basketball tournament and the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series and Peyton Manning and the Colts won the Super Bowl. That was an outlier. The problem is, I don’t tend to pick my “teams” based on winner...

We Can Fix Police Shootings

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on September 24, 2016. Posted in Racism to Reconciliation. 12 Comments on We Can Fix Police Shootings

Those cities in the US experiencing dramatic declines in police shootings, how did they do it? Did they round up the citizenry and instruct them on the proper way to react during a police encounter (“Nope, nope, nope—hands on the wheel”)? Or did they go into African-American neighborhoods and distribute fliers (“When...

How to Fail at the Race Talk

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on August 2, 2016. Posted in Featured, General, GOD, HOMELESSNESS, LOVE, Racism to Reconciliation. 4 Comments on How to Fail at the Race Talk

I failed at the conference for racial justice this weekend. I gave racially tinged advice to a perfectly innocent question that had no race element to it. I mistook one African-American woman with glasses and short hair for a different African-American woman with glasses and short hair, because all African-Americans look alike to us white...

A 4th Moment in Mississippi

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on July 3, 2016. Posted in GOD, Racism to Reconciliation. 10 Comments on A 4th Moment in Mississippi

In the assemble hall at Power Elementary School once a week we’d gather for sing-alongs. Our wooden chairs had squeaky black-hinged seats that flipped up when not in use. Sit too far back and, if you were a skinny, skinny child like me, the seats flipped up when in use as well. In this cavernous space with its regimented rows, I’d belt out...

An Outside Plant

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on April 27, 2016. Posted in Racism to Reconciliation. 2 Comments on An Outside Plant

He had one plant, small. I had three hanging baskets and two big ferns, fat. He’d been there when I arrived, he and his wife wandering among the plants. It was mid-day Wednesday, no one else at the nursery. A young, spring day. The swarms of eager Memphians hadn’t yet descended on the unsuspecting begonias and geraniums. No one...

Targeting LGBT Discrimination in the South

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on April 8, 2016. Posted in GRIEF, Racism to Reconciliation. 2 Comments on Targeting LGBT Discrimination in the South

I went to junior high and high school in Charlotte, North Carolina. Charlotte was the home I returned to in college and law school. When my daddy died, I sang over his grave: “I’m a Tar Heel born, I’m a Tar Heel bred, and when I die, I’m a Tar Heel dead.” The North Carolina legislature recently passed a new...

Black Lives Matter More Than Fear

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on October 28, 2015. Posted in Racism to Reconciliation. 6 Comments on Black Lives Matter More Than Fear

I’m thinking about #Black Lives Matter and my surprise at the backlash against it. #Black Lives Matter began in 2013 after George Zimmerman was acquitted in Florida for murdering Trayvon Martin. Coined by Alicia Garza, the phrase has grown to encompass all deaths of Black folks following encounters with police. Pure chance led me to...