History and civics as presented in our schools may have exposed us to some reliable material regarding the indigenous peoples living on the continent without offering a a great deal of detail or context. For the most part, it seems… Read More ›
native americans
ICYMI…………………January 3, 1521
Five hundred one years ago today, Pope Leo X excommunicated Martin Luther, a German professor of theology and priest, from the Catholic Church, initiating a breach that altered not only the Church’s universality but the reach of its influence and… Read More ›
The Replacements
1 To some, the term “replacements” will evoke a smile recollecting the 2000 motion picture comedy starring Keanu Reeves and Gene Hackman about a group of misfits recruited to play professional football. However, there are advocates of a sociopolitical replacement… Read More ›
ICYMI………….December 27, 1845
1 One hundred seventy-six years ago today, John Louis O’Sullivan, a journalist, coined the term “manifest destiny” to justify annexation of the Texas and Oregon territories by the United States. O’Sullivan was a native New Yorker, educated at Columbia University… Read More ›
ICYMI……………..December 6, 1862
One hundred fifty-nine years ago today, President Abraham Lincoln issued his decision that 39 members of the Santee Sioux Nation were to be hanged for murders committed during a war with the United States in Minnesota. Initially, a military tribunal… Read More ›
Medals for Massacre?
Editors’ Note: Crossposted from The New York Times, November 3, 2021. We are reminded of yet more regrettable American history. By Mark Walker More than a dozen members of Congress have called on President Biden to use his executive… Read More ›
Send in the Clowns
The clown figure in culture is far too often dismissed or ignored, but most often misunderstood. In the United States, there is a tendency to pigeonhole the clown largely to circuses or children’s shows or birthday parties. At another extreme,… Read More ›
Supremes Allow Voting Disparity Impact
Editors’ Note: Reposted from Mother Jones, July 1, 2021. The majority’s opinion that the existence of “some disparity in impact” upon racial minorities is acceptable and not sufficient to make such laws illegal. This guidepost means that any future challenges… Read More ›
An Exception to Exceptionalism
The history and timeline of slavery in the United States tends to be almost exclusively related to the diaspora of African people to the Americas beginning in 1619. The subsequent racist heritage spawned by the advent of Black slaves, in… Read More ›