Perhaps I should post this on the “about” page, but it seems to me that the first substantive post should say something about the project and the person starting it.

I grew up in the South in the Sixties and Seventies. I have heard people say the word “nigger” like it was the most normal thing in the world. The disconnect between my father’s outspoken racism and my own experience helped me see that much of what people hold as true depends on what and how they learn.

Mom taught her kids to love books, and we read a lot. I entertained myself searching history and the world in encyclopedias. I devoured newspapers as I grew older, and in Army boot camp at Fort Knox I read the Louisville newspaper in my bunk every evening by the light of the sun after “lights out.” This amused my drill sergeant, who mostly let me be once I mastered the concept of the “push up.” Read the rest of this entry »