Helping Healing

Month: July 2020

Hate on Zoom

July 7 Zoom chat for Justified Anger Alumni with Dr. Gee, which was hacked by people who spewed hate-filled images, music, and text. Last winter I took part in an African American History course put on by Nehemiah and Justified Anger. Every week we would learn from different UW professors about aspects of American history that I was never taught in school. After the course ended (cut a little short by COVID), Dr. Gee, who leads up Nehemiah, has been engaging course alumni in regular zoom calls. There's also a very active email group that's working to provide strong allyship through the protests and efforts to change policing. During today's…
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4th of July – Frederick Douglas’ speech

https://youtu.be/NBe5qbnkqoM I found this video to be particularly moving as I struggle to know how to approach our Independence Day. How do I reconcile the feelings of sorrow and loss about the history of slavery and of the treatment of Native Americans with the general feelings of levity about Fourth of July festivities. Fireworks! BBQs! A day off work! As these different issues bump around in my mind, Frederick Douglas' words fill out the sail of concerns in my mind. He wrote his speech What to the Slave is the 4th of July in 1852, before the end of slavery. But as we have seen, slavery was replaced with other…
Read More

Hate on Zoom

July 7 Zoom chat for Justified Anger Alumni with Dr. Gee, which was hacked by people who spewed hate-filled images, music, and text. Last winter I took part in an African American History course put on by Nehemiah and Justified Anger. Every week we would learn from different UW professors about aspects of American history that I was never taught in school. After the course ended (cut a little short by COVID), Dr. Gee, who leads up Nehemiah, has been engaging course alumni in regular zoom calls. There's also a very active email group that's working to provide strong allyship through the protests and efforts to change policing. During today's…
Read More

4th of July – Frederick Douglas’ speech

https://youtu.be/NBe5qbnkqoM I found this video to be particularly moving as I struggle to know how to approach our Independence Day. How do I reconcile the feelings of sorrow and loss about the history of slavery and of the treatment of Native Americans with the general feelings of levity about Fourth of July festivities. Fireworks! BBQs! A day off work! As these different issues bump around in my mind, Frederick Douglas' words fill out the sail of concerns in my mind. He wrote his speech What to the Slave is the 4th of July in 1852, before the end of slavery. But as we have seen, slavery was replaced with other…
Read More