Between 1910 and 1970, it is estimated that more than five million African Americans migrated from the rural American South to northern cities. Perhaps, not so surprisingly, I didn’t learn about The Great Migration, until I took Black American History 200 during my sophomore year in college in 1982. Ironically, it was this same year … Continue reading
Filed under Memoir …
Please Don’t Revoke My Black Card
For those who are not aware of the intricacies of African American culture, you might be confused when you hear Black Americans talking about “revoking someone’s black card.” The “black card” is not to be confused with the “race card,” but instead represents a set of behaviors that are (often stereotypically) that can cement a … Continue reading
A Different Kind of “Christmas Cheer
I love my job! Since 2011, when I left the corporate world to become a teacher of English as a Second Language, I have probably learned as much or perhaps more from my students as they have learned from me. In addition to learning the language, many immigrants to the United States are also anxious … Continue reading
Who Am I?
I had always hated group sharing in school – always. The other students were too dull, too immature, and just too slow, both literally and figuratively. Being perceived as “really smart”, especially as a little black girl, from a working-class family, in a working-class city was both a blessing and a curse. The was a … Continue reading
Why We Need Political Correctness Reminder #1
This is me. Robin Nathania Mathes Peacher Landry. However, at the time that this picture was taken, my name was simply, Robin Nathania (pronounced by my family as “nuh-than-ee-yuh”, which I hated and decided to change to “na-tahn-ya” when I realized that it was my name, and I could say it any way that made … Continue reading
Motherhood Madness
“Freedom’s just another word for, ‘nothin’ left to lose’.” Janis Joplin expressed this rather pessimistic characterization of “freedom” in the 1971 hit song, Me and Bobby McGee.” And although we, as Americans, seem to enjoy nothing more than boasting about the many freedoms that we enjoy, I suspect that more than a few of us … Continue reading
Just Stuff
The late George Carlin was one of my favorite comedians. His classic routine, A Place for Your Stuff, is genius. While I am far from being a hoarder or even a minor pack rat (I have no problem throwing things away) after fourteen years in the same house I do seem to have collected a … Continue reading
Colored People on TV
Long before the blockbuster movie, Black Panther blew up, earning more than $700 million at the box office in 2018 and sparking Black Panther parties (complete with regal costumes and the “Welcome to Wakanda” salutes offered in greeting) and decades before African-Americans held our heads a bit higher and walked a bit taller on the … Continue reading
Separate Sundays
“It is appalling that 11:00 A. M. on Sunday morning remains the most segregated hour in America.” When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. made this statement during the height of the American Civil Rights Movement, I believe that most Christians, black and white, understood it to be the activist’s way of saying that racial discrimination … Continue reading
Abracadabra
The late 1960s were a turbulent time in the United States and as “colored” people, (“Black” and “African-American” hadn’t yet made their way into the popular vernacular) our parents did their best to raise my sisters and me within the delicately balanced framework of the hopefulness of the future juxtaposed against the discrimination … Continue reading
quietlyradical 