This weekend, I spent time in Syracuse University, my alma mater and the site of Coming Back Together X, a special reunion where the African-American and Latino alumni of Syracuse U can meet with students and faculty on campus every three years in the spirit of camarade...

I struggle with calling myself an educator. Despite the fact that I work daily with the children of Muslim Indian immigrants, ranging from age 4 to 13, on grammar, the quadratic equation, and reconstruction of the United States after the Civil war, being called Ms. Maeg...

For many of us in the United States, independence means a ton. Even for the most marginalized of groups, we scream and kick for it because of the hypocritical nature of this hollow pursuit of happiness. For most of us in this country, we enjoy freedoms that we often tak...

In the 1950′s, as civil rights groups of interest (i.e. dissident and radical groups) began to truly penetrate the mainstream thought of America, the FBI developed a program with a series of protocols for disruption and misinformation called COINTELPRO (an acronym...

Denise Oliver-Velez, who commented in my last blog about the Young Lords anniversary and reunion gathering, said something poignant that educators like myself should take heed to in their quest to educate underprivileged and underserved children in this country (of any ...

My favorite speech from the late Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King has been called “I’ve Been To The Mountaintop” and it ends something like this: And then I got into Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. Wh...

AIDS is not a disease in isolation. My first consciousness of AIDS didn’t come from Magic Johnson’s infamous press conference, per se. Around my way, the acquired immunodeficiency virus was a deadly version of the kooties. Kids would run around tagging each ...

In a revelatory moment in the film The Express, an older Will Davis Jr. and Ernie Davis attend a local NAACP meeting, discussing plans to rally in the South. Just then, Ernie Davis discusses his fears about his political involvement, citing how Will has no understanding...

This morning, on my doorknob, I got a flyer from some group detailing the negative aspects of Daniel Squadron, a young man who’s running for New York State Senate, representing Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. The whole Lower East Side has been abuzz with community a...

I’d like to tell my children, whoever they may be, that I was an activist someday. And by children, I mean the ones I borrow for 10 months a year, but I mean the ones I hope to have in the future, too. I don’t mean that I’ll be rebel-rousing in my scho...