Stephen J. Matlock's Blog, page 24
February 12, 2019
In the Fields of the Lord
I guess I’m on a kick of listening to acoustic, and finding intriguing (for me) albums that have that just-right touch of delicacy and strength. The album Work Songs by The Porter’s Gate is giving me much rest right now … Continue reading →
February 11, 2019
#WakingUpWhite Chapter 7: The GI Bill
“I couldn’t shake the duped feeling—duped and infuriated to have inherited a legacy that contaminated me with injustice.” This chapter just slays. It nails the center of gravity in American white racism—Economics. Money. Power. Fear. Greed. Exclusion. Hatred. Willful ignorance … Continue reading →
February 10, 2019
Little Things with Great Love
I’m snowed in today (and have been since Thursday), and though we may get some relief this afternoon what with the sunny weather, it’s still quite cold and icy. Although it’s Sunday, the traditional day for church, most churches in … Continue reading →
February 9, 2019
Review: When They Call You a Terrorist
Yet another reminder of James Baldwin’s words* “If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see.” When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir, by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele, … Continue reading →
February 8, 2019
#WakingUpWhite Chapter 6: From Confusion to Shock
“Racism wasn’t about this person or that, this upset or that, this community or that; racism is, and always has been, the way America has sorted and ranked its people in a bitterly divisive, humanity-robbing system.” I suppose everyone needs … Continue reading →
February 7, 2019
Expectianity
Not gonna lie, I’m disturbed at religious followers who think that the fulfillment of their belief is that they sit in a chair for 90 minutes of a Sunday, listen to a spoken essay, sing along with some songs, and … Continue reading →
February 6, 2019
It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way
You know, as we get older our sleep cycles shift. Used to be that I could sleep straight through, night after night, for six hours. In bed by 11pm, up at 5am, without an alarm clock. Fairly predictable. Things have … Continue reading →
February 5, 2019
Alienation, Alien Nation
I was thinking about the past and the present today. I’m spurred into this by the work I’m doing for “Waking Up White” (a book by Debbie Irving, discussed elsewhere on this blog). I was raised in a careful, safe, … Continue reading →
February 4, 2019
#WakingUpWhite Chapter 5: Within the Walls
“For me, part of the waking-up-white process is acknowledging that I’m a recovering lemming…I never considered that the space I was taking, or the resources I was using, might be being withheld from another to make it all possible.” I … Continue reading →
Waking Up White, Introduction
Debby Irving mentions her childhood in a priviledged New England family. An interesting article was posted Thursday by the New Bedford Historical Society, about Black Native American whaling captains. Notice the reference to Moby Dick. Interesting, nearly 1600 whaling trips … Continue reading →
