Oppressors on the Margins

  Turn your eyes upon Jesus… The white gaze. The male gaze. The Christian gaze. You know this one — it’s the averted gaze. The gaze supposedly defined by purity and nobility. The one where you look away from the sins of the world so that you might look full in his wonderful face. And […]

The Weight of Perfection

Why is it so hard for us to accept responsibility? To be honest about our shortcomings and failures? Why is there so much shame around not being perfect? I kept thinking about that when the headline popped up in my Facebook news section. “Abby Wambach arrested for DUI”. And then she releases a statement. “I […]

Power and Preferential Treatment

I am not the biggest sports fan. But any Michigander worth their weight should be a Detroit fan. (Well, ok. I’m mostly a fair-weather Lions fan, but come on. It’s agony otherwise.) But a few years ago, I surprisingly turned into a fairly serious football fan. It started when I joined a fantasy football league, […]

Icons of Dehumanization: Then and Now

Once there was this famous white French guy who wrote about power and empires. He is whom a lot of intellectual-type people like to quote. But it turns out his ideas? Largely influenced by the Black Panthers. Who he doesn’t credit. Which is weird when you’re talking about power, right? So this French guy, Foucault, […]

Beyonce and the Imago Dei

“Why are they all black? “Why are they all women?” She asks me this several times, because she keeps forgetting. And I tell her again, “Because this song is about black women being powerful and beautiful.” We’re talking about “Formation,” of course. And I wonder if I should tell my 8 year old daughter—all of […]

“Tragedy” in Flint

I grew up where water was cheap and easy. Living in a state surrounded by four Great Lakes is supposed to insure your water is always cheap and easy. And, you know, clean. And for the majority of my fellow Michiganders, this is the case. But obviously not everywhere. People are calling the situation in […]