Category Archives: Race

Racial Equity for Black Washingtonians

Posted on January 18, 2021 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Al MacR.

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March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom: Archival Footage

Posted on January 18, 2021 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Al MacR! In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, here’s a lovely two-minute immersion in amazing archival footage from the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. No doubt Dr. King would want us to remember … Continue reading →

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Memories from Georgia

Posted on January 7, 2021 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Mary Jane F. RE: Georgia Senate Election: Warnock delivering remarks virtually: “The other day, because this is America, the 82 year old hands that used to pick somebody else’s cotton went to the polls and picked her youngest … Continue reading →

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Running while black in Seattle – new hope

Posted on November 24, 2020 by Jim deMaine

by Kurt Streeter in the NYT. Thanks to Mike C. for sending this in. SEATTLE — The bloom of the Black Lives Matter signs. That is what my son and I saw as we jogged through our mostly white neighborhood. … Continue reading →

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Five Great Things Biden Has Already Done

Posted on October 30, 2020 by Jim deMaine

by David Brooks in the NYT Many of our best presidents have been underestimated. Truman was seen as the tool of a corrupt political machine. Eisenhower was supposedly a bumbling middlebrow. Grant was thought a taciturn simpleton. Even F.D.R. was … Continue reading →

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These states are ditching Columbus Day to observe Indigenous Peoples’ Day instead

Posted on October 12, 2020 by Jim deMaine

A statue of Christopher Columbus at a downtown Los Angeles park is surrounded by a chain-link fence on October 9, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. The city council voted in August to replace Columbus Day, today, with Indigenous People’s Day, … Continue reading →

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Trump Sent a Warning. Let’s Take It Seriously.

Posted on September 30, 2020 by Jim deMaine

By Thomas L. Friedman in the New York Times President Trump has made it unmistakably clear in recent weeks — and even more crystal clear at the Tuesday debate —that there are only two choices before voters on Nov. 3 — … Continue reading →

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Posted on August 14, 2020 by Jim deMaine

Confessions of a white baby boomer on race relations By Alex Alben Special to The Seattle Times (thanks to Sue P. for sending this) Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were my heroes growing up in New York … Continue reading →

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Abolish the Police? Those Who Survived the Chaos in Seattle Aren’t So Sure

Posted on August 9, 2020 by Jim deMaine

What is it like when a city abandons a neighborhood and the police vanish? Business owners describe a harrowing experience of calling for help and being left all alone. By Nellie Bowles in the New York Times SEATTLE — Faizel Khan … Continue reading →

Posted in Crime, Politics, Race | 1 Comment

The meaning of the monument to Teddy Roosevelt

Posted on August 6, 2020 by Jim deMaine
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HONORING A LIFE’S MISSION

Posted on August 5, 2020 by Jim deMaine

By Debra Adams Simmons, HISTORY Executive Editor – National Geographic Thanks to Gordon G. for sending this in. President Lyndon B. Johnson summoned John Lewis to a private meeting in the Oval Office on the morning of August 6, 1965. … Continue reading →

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Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Jim deMaine

By John Lewis Mr. Lewis, the civil rights leader who died on July 17, wrote this essay shortly before his death, to be published upon the day of his funeral. While my time here has now come to an end, I want … Continue reading →

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Seattle is no progressive paradise

Posted on June 26, 2020 by Jim deMaine

From the NYT by By Margaret O’Mara SEATTLE — Seattle’s police-free “autonomous zone” is coming to an end. After two largely peaceful weeks, shootings over the last several days near the Capitol Hill Organized Protest area, CHOP for short, left a 19-year-old … Continue reading →

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Racial inventory –

Posted on June 25, 2020 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Mary Jane F. – this is based on one developed by the Wellesley College Women’s Center some years ago. A Preface to this Inventory…. Since the subject of race has been brought again to front and center in … Continue reading →

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The movement to defund the police is wrong, and here’s why

Posted on June 10, 2020 by Jim deMaine

By Jacqueline B. Helfgott Special to The Seattle Times Jacqueline B. Helfgott is professor and director of the Seattle University Department of Criminal Justice Crime and Justice Research Center. She serves on the Seattle Police Department’s Crisis Intervention Committee. In the days … Continue reading →

Posted in Race, Safety, Social justice | 1 Comment

Reach out, listen, be patient. Good arguments can stop extremism

Posted on November 24, 2019 by Jim deMaine

From Aeon: Many of my best friends think that some of my deeply held beliefs about important issues are obviously false or even nonsense. Sometimes, they tell me so to my face. How can we still be friends? Part of … Continue reading →

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Juneteenth 2019 and the Black National Anthem

Posted on June 19, 2019 by Jim deMaine

From Wikepedia: Juneteenth, also known as Juneteenth Independence Day or Freedom Day, is an American holiday that commemorates the June 19, 1865, announcement of the abolition of slavery in the U.S. state of Texas, and more generally the emancipation of enslaved African Americansthroughout the former Confederate States of America. Texas was the … Continue reading →

Posted in Advocacy, Music, Race, Social justice | 1 Comment

The Racial Reckoning Comes – by David Brooks

Posted on June 7, 2019 by Jim deMaine

From the NYT: When I was a boy I was taught a certain story about America. This was the land of opportunity. Immigrants came to this land and found an open field and a fair chance to pursue their dreams. … Continue reading →

Posted in Essays, Politics, Race | 1 Comment

Our Disgrace at the Border by David Brooks

Posted on April 12, 2019 by Jim deMaine

Suppose one night there is a knock on your door. You open it to find 100 bedraggled families shivering in your yard — exhausted, filthy, terrified. The first cry of your heart would be to take them in, but you’d … Continue reading →

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Dissecting the Dreams of Brexit Britain

Posted on March 16, 2019 by Jim deMaine

Ed Note: Could anyone please enlighten us as to what’s really going on in the existential crises called Brexit. Are they really dreaming of a lost empire? Is it white nationalism? Is it mainly reflecting the long simmering differences between … Continue reading →

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A black man’s dialogue with the KKK

Posted on March 15, 2019 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Gordon G. An amazing dialogue brings about understanding and change.

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Operation InfeKtion: How Russia Perfected the Art of War

Posted on December 18, 2018 by Jim deMaine

Ed Note: This is a superb piece of investigative journalism by the NYT: “Russia’s meddling in the United States’ elections is not a hoax. It’s the culmination of Moscow’s decades-long campaign to tear the West apart. “Operation InfeKtion” reveals the ways … Continue reading →

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The Roots of Seattle’s Filipino Community

Posted on December 12, 2018 by Jim deMaine

Ed note: My sister-in-law always calls me Kuya Jim. And have you noted the suffix “po” used by Filipinos as a term of respect? This video talks about the generational shift in the international district and the contribution of the … Continue reading →

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E Pluribus Unum – a warning about the rise of fascism

Posted on November 6, 2018 by Jim deMaine

             A warning. Where is America heading? I met Dr. Wolfgang Mack briefly in the Skyline dining room last evening and was given a copy of his most recent book. He had the traumatic experience … Continue reading →

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Ta-Nehisi Coates – My President was black

Posted on October 1, 2018 by Jim deMaine

Ta-Nehisi Coates is an essayist and and book author. In this piece titled My President was Black from the Atlantic he discusses race as viewed during the Obama era. In the interview with Obama below, it tells the story of Obama’s experience with race … Continue reading →

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