Tag: racism

American Racism

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on August 24, 2023. Posted in Featured, General, Racism to Reconciliation. 8 Comments on American Racism

If you think racism in America is a Southern problem, you are not paying attention. American racism has never been a Southern problem. Our federal government has always enforced racist norms. When Nat Turner rebelled, the federal government sent in the United States Navy to stop the uprising. Both the American Navy and Army were used to crush perhaps...

If We Don’t Know about Racism, Maybe it’s Our Own Fault

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on January 24, 2021. Posted in General, Racism to Reconciliation. 4 Comments on If We Don’t Know about Racism, Maybe it’s Our Own Fault

The Public Defender broke the news: the DA was dismissing the charges against my friend. We were seated in his office, a small, square space with a desk and chair and not much else. I was there in my year-long wade through racism and incompetence in support of my friend. A white woman had claimed—three months after the fact—he had stolen her purse....

I Would Have Been A Confederate Soldier

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on August 17, 2017. Posted in Featured, General, Racism to Reconciliation. 16 Comments on I Would Have Been A Confederate Soldier

If I had lived during the 1860s, I probably would’ve done exactly what my mother’s grandfather did. Cursing, I would’ve picked up a gun and left my Mississippi family to protect my homeland. I would’ve fully understood I was fighting for a cause I did not support—preserving the right to own people. But the irresistible...

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 for...

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 in...

What Can I Do?

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on July 2, 2015. Posted in GOD, HOMELESSNESS, LOVE, Racism to Reconciliation. 5 Comments on What Can I Do?

I’m starting a new series here. I’m announcing this new series so you can skip over my followup posts if you want, ’cause I’m a polite Southern woman, and I sure don’t want to impose. But some of you want these posts. I know you do because I’ve been reading your comments and the question you’ve been asking...

First, There is Racism

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on June 19, 2015. Posted in Featured, Racism to Reconciliation. 12 Comments on First, There is Racism

When my husband and I built our house at Pickwick Lake, we built it into the high bluffs that circle the lake. In order for this to work, the architect had to take steel beams and drive them through the shifting mud until he hit bedrock. The house was thus anchored and then built around these beams. I keep thinking of this image as I ponder the...

It’s Different

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on March 30, 2013. Posted in General. 4 Comments on It’s Different

“Begin with yourself,” said several of the panelists at today’s Memphis United People’s Conference on Race and Equality. They were talking about racism. “Begin with yourself and ripple out from there: to your household, your family, your neighborhood, your community.” This ls a paraphrase, but the concept was repeated many times. This is where...