Author: Reggie Jackson

The much anticipated trial is finally over. People around the country are breathing a sigh of relief. Derek Chauvin was found guilty on all charges. Some will say the system finally worked. Some will proclaim this a victory in the effort to hold police accountable. Some will make the claim that we as a Balck community should rejoice. I’m not one of them. The verdict does not bring George Floyd back. This verdict does not bring Daunte Wright back. This verdict is not an indictment of the system of policing. It is simply a case of an officer who...

“My heart is literally broken into a thousand pieces and I don’t know what to do or what to say. But I just need everybody to know that he is much more than this.” – Daunte Wright’s mother, Katie Wright During the most anticipated trial of police arguably since the Rodney King case in 1992, 20-year-old Daunte Wright was shot and killed by an experienced police officer in the Minneapolis area. As a result, the trial of Derek Chauvin lost its front page status, as protests continued in Brooklyn City, Minnesota – just north of Minneapolis, where the death...

“Weathering is a physiological process that accelerates aging and increases health vulnerability. It is spurred by chronic toxic stress exposures over the life course and the tenacious high-effort coping [that] families and communities engage in to survive them, if not prevail.” – Dr. Arline Geronimus When someone asked me if I’d been watching the trial of Derek Chauvin, who killed George Floyd last year, they were surprised by my answer. I have followed the trial in the news, but I have not watched a moment of it. I still have not watched the video of Floyd’s death last May....

“Do you know I’ve never voted in my life, never been able to exercise my right as a citizen because of the poll tax? … I can’t pay a poll tax, can’t have a voice in my own government.” – Mr. Trout, a Georgia native (1936) “More than 250 bills to curb or complicate access to polls had been introduced in 43 state legislatures as of February 19, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, which is tracking the bills — and bills have since been introduced in at least two more states, North Carolina and Wisconsin.” – CNN...

“The United States must vastly improve the educational outcomes for this new and diverse majority of American students, whose success is inextricably linked to the well-being of the nation.” – Education Week Magazine The 2014-15 school year marked the first time that non-white student enrollment in public schools surpassed that of White students. Babies of color (1-years-old and younger) now outnumber their White peers in the U.S. America is a nation of 330 million individuals that we lump into several groups we call races or ethnicities. The categories have changed a lot over time as each decennial census has...