One of the reasons we travel to cities as a family is simply for the experiences our kids have walking through the streets of highly populated areas. They’ve grown up in the country–with the Shepaug river in closer proximity than the nearest stoplight. They don’t know the smell of the city. They don’t know the […]
Five Memoirs to Read Alongside White Picket Fences
Last night, Natasha Sistrunk Robinson, author of A Sojourner’s Truth: Choosing Freedom and Courage in a Divided World, and I read passages from our respective memoirs side by side at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Herndon, Virginia. We read and spoke about two very different life experiences–she as a black woman growing up in a hardworking […]
A Note on the Terms in White Picket Fences
White Picket Fences addresses the topic of privilege, giving particular attention to race, class, and disability. I chose to use the term “African American” most of the time within these pages because studies show that white people implicitly associate the word “black” with negative ideas, whereas the word “African American” connotes more positive and respectful […]
Hope for Healing: Engaging with the Problem of Privilege
When I started to really engage with the problem of privilege, I wanted to figure out how to fix it. I studied the issues by reading books and listening to podcasts and watching documentary films. I prayed and even fasted and read Bible verses about mercy and justice. I talked with other people who shared […]
Revisiting: Deep Calls Out To Deep, But I Long To Stay Shallow
Candy, mindless scrolling through my phone, checking email instead of working on something of substance, avoiding exercise and time outside, keeping conversation light instead of asking the deeper and more interesting questions… I so often live in this shallow place, but the reason I write is as an invitation to myself and to others to […]
On Political Correctness and Learning the Language of Love
Today was Halloween, and Halloween is now a holiday, like many others, that brings up the subject of political correctness. Some costumes obviously disrespect people of other races and cultures. Others unintentionally appropriate traditions that cheapen symbols and minimize attire of its cultural significance. Especially for people who have grown up in the majority culture […]
