I watched the Kennedy Center Honors a couple of weeks ago. It was a great show as usual, as it honored some wonderful people – Gloria Estefan, LL Cool J, Lionel Richie and Norman Lear. Dancer Carmen de Lavallade was also honored for her contributions to dance and breaking down barriers for other black women dancers.
Best of all, she helped introduce Alvin Ailey to the world and was married to Geoffrey Holder!
Last month I went to the Brooklyn Book Festival and attended a panel discussion on mass incarceration. The panel included many important voices on the topic, including Central Park Five’s Yusef Salaam, attorney James Forman, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Heather Thompson and Soros Justice Fellow Marlon Peterson.
Peterson spoke about his experience with incarceration in New York prisons and the lack of respect and rehabilitation incarcerated men and women receive by correctional officers and the larger criminal justice system.
“In prison, you don’t deserve dignity,” he said. “They [correctional officers] do things to embarrass you.”
It is always important to include the voices of ex-offenders in this highly contested subject. Much of the time, the discussion is dominated by lawyers, judges, academics, and correctional officials with very limited input from those who suffer the most from an unequal criminal justice system.
I want to bring your attention to Peterson’s awesome and insightful podcast called Decarcerated, where he gives real talk about the struggles of being an ex-offender in America.
Last week I went to a workshop on race and identity in the workplace, and the topic of microaggressions came up. Bias inside and outside the workplace is a very real thing today. However, most of these acts will not be direct and in your face, like someone saying a racial slur. Microaggressions are unintentional but continuously indirect remarks and acts against people of color.
For example, many white people always want to touch my hair or ask where I am really from. No, you can touch my fair and, yes, I was born and raised in the United States.
Instead of me explaining what this is, this video does a better job of doing it.
I watched the Kennedy Center Honors a couple of weeks ago. It was a great show as usual, as it honored some wonderful people – Gloria Estefan, LL Cool J, Lionel Richie and Norman Lear. Dancer Carmen de Lavallade was also honored for her contributions to dance and breaking down barriers for other black women dancers.
