Author: Reggie Jackson

“Because that’s total disrespect of our heritage. That’s total disrespect of everything we stand for.” – Donald Trump, 45th U.S. President After these words were spoken by the current U.S. president, the crowd at a Republican campaign rally in Huntsville, Alabama burst into cheers and began to chant USA! USA! USA! He was speaking about NFL players refusal to stand for the national anthem, following the example set by the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kapernick last season. He continued by saying, “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to...

“Things were getting out of hand in the skirmishes between the alt-right and what I would describe as the outside agitators who wanted to encourage violence.” – David J. Toscano, Virginia House of Delegates Democratic Leader Let’s stop calling it white privilege and call it what it really is, white entitlement. I’ve grown tired of people going on and on about so-called white privilege. The dictionary definition of privilege states that it is “a right, immunity, or benefit enjoyed only by a person beyond the advantages of most.” What many call white privilege is not some kind of right...

Two hundred and forty-one years ago, a select group of leaders in the British North American colonies decided to break ranks and form their own independent nation. It was bold, unexpected and not well received in England. On July 4th the nation will celebrate this monumental occasion as the birthday of the United States of America. One hundred fifty-two years ago on a hot summer day, word of the Emancipation Proclamation made it to Galveston, Texas. June 19th of 1865 was two and a half years after Lincoln’s broad proclamation freeing the enslaved population in America. The city of...

Christopher M. Perceptions When I was a young boy, I was fascinated by the military. I knew the location of every U.S. Marine base in the country by fourth grade. I had hundreds of little green Army men, tanks, trucks, artillery, and such. I spent hours setting up battles in the house as well as outside in the back yard. I carried the soldiers with me when I travelled to Chicago to visit relatives. Until very recently I had not thought much about where these feelings of love for war machines and soldiers came from. This past Memorial Day...

Why the issue of race matters and a long path across is contours in America, from the Jim Crow South to Milwaukee. My great-grandfather Edward Diltz was born in Tillatoba, Mississippi in 1890, twenty-five years after legalized slavery ended in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Papa, as we called him was a tall, thin man who could have easily passed for white due to the light complexion he inherited from a white grandfather on a small cotton plantation in the northern edges of the Mississippi Delta. He moved his family to Charleston, the...