Tagged with Racism

Where Can I Buy a “Race Card?”

I love a good card game! My dad taught me to play Solitaire (with real cards, not on the computer, because…well…I’m on the elderly side of Generation X) when I was about 7 years old. In high school, we’d play Hearts and Uno in the school cafeteria at lunch time. When I got to college, … Continue reading

Who’s at the Bottom?

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

Things That Make You Go “Hmmm?”

As I write this essay in February 2025, I am shocked to discover that the year 1991 is now thirty-four years in the past! How is that even possible? Now, you might be wondering why it is that I’m thinking specifically about the year 1991. As a Gen-Xer, I was a young working mother in … Continue reading

Trapped in the Twilight Zone

When I was a kid, one of my favorite late Saturday night past times was to watch reruns of Rod Serling’s anthology series known as The Twilight Zone. I loved the show because the stories usually weren’t exceptionally scary (except for an episode called Living Doll, which featured actor Telly Savalas, who I knew more … Continue reading

Will I Ever Use This in Real Life?

Although many things in society have changed between the time when I was a middle school and high school student from 1975 to 1981 and today, I suspect there is one area in which older Gen Xers like me and today’s Gen Zs. For generations, students in required history courses have often questioned the need … Continue reading

Forgive Us Our Sins

Back in 1995, actors Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt starred together in the crime thriller, Se7en, about a serial killer whose crimes fashioned to represent the seven deadly sins: sloth, gluttony, lust, wrath, envy, greed, and pride. The order of the sins is important; they traditionally begin with sloth, which is considered as the least … Continue reading

Things That Make You Go “Hmmm”

As I write this essay in February 2025, I am shocked to discover that the year 1991 is now thirty-four years in the past! How is that even possible? Now, you might be wondering why it is that I’m thinking specifically about the year 1991. As a Gen-Xer, I was a young working mother in … Continue reading

I Feel Like a Plain-Bellied Sneetch

While there are many reasons throughout my life for my feeling like the proverbial “fish out of water” one of the more interesting is the fact that I was born on the cusp of two wildly disparate generational cohorts. While I am technically a Baby Boomer, I only qualify by mere months. As a result, … Continue reading

“Stop Eyeballing Me, Boy!”

The Quora Chronicles – Part 6 Actor Louis Gossett, Jr. made history as the first Black American to win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as Marine Corp Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley in the 1982 film, “An Officer and a Gentleman.” One of Foley’s most memorable lines comes when Richard Gere’s character first … 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