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Black Pain: A Book Review |
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Written by Kam Williams
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Friday, 11 May 2018 00:00 |
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"How much does suffering from and living with addiction, incarceration, dirty neighborhoods, HIV, hypertension, violence, racism, and class discrimination make us vulnerable to depression in the Black community? How many of us are suffering from it and not able or willing to acknowledge it? Who is talking about it? What is our response? The silence is deafening.
Depression is a fact of Black life, but it doesn't have to be a curse. And we don't have to be ashamed to admit it. This book will speak openly about my own depression and share the experiences of other people, from celebrities to regular working folk, so that we can think in different ways about this condition and about our options as Black people for dealing with it. More than anything, I want to open a dialogue. I want to give a voice to our pain and name it so we can make a space for our healing."
--Excerpted from the Introduction (pages xxvi-xxvii)
African-American females are generally undervalued by this society, despite all the selfless sacrifices they routinely make at home, at work and in the community. Besides being overworked, they're expected to behave like ever-available, accommodating sex machines or else risk being dismissed as undesirable and unfeminine.
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Invisible Ink: A Book Review |
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Written by Kam Williams
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Monday, 22 January 2018 00:00 |
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“It has always been a struggle for the relatively few African-Americans in corporate America who do exist, and it is made all the more difficult because we tend to operate in isolation. We are nearly always alone, with no one to fall back on... as we deal daily with an unending stream of slights real and imagined.
Even those who do care don't really understand. This is all played out in an environment where we are subjected to a debilitating undercurrent of bias that too many, on both sides of the divide, pretend does not exist...
The point of this book is not that the world is an awful place where things never go right but that institutional racism is a virus that is alive and well and needs to be eradicated if fundamental fairness is to be achieved. Black lives matter, and we must take issue and demand change, whether these lives are literally snuffed out in the blink of an eye or figuratively snuffed out in the polite confines of corporate America.”
-- Excerpted from the Prologue (page xiii) and Epilogue (page 199)
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From Tax Cuts to Governance through Cyberspace |
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Written by Dr. Brooks Robinson PhD
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Friday, 29 December 2017 21:42 |
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The 185-page Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that was passed by the US Congress and made law by President Trump on December 22, 2017 is one among several perfect examples of why it is time for a governance change in the US.
But let us address the Act first. As expected, the Act is wide-ranging, covering individual and corporate tax issues—domestically and internationally. It is tricky. On the one hand, it lowers tax rates, increases the standard deduction, and expands certain tax credits (namely the Child and Earned Income Tax Credits). On the other hand, it eliminates personal exemptions, disallows interest deductions on home equity lines of credit, and eliminates or reduces the limits on certain important itemized deductions. In part, the right hand taketh away what the left hand giveth.
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If You Had Controlling Parents |
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Written by Dr. Dan Neuharth Ph.D
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Thursday, 02 November 2017 00:00 |
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Smothering Parenting: Life Under a Microscope
Slight, porcelain-skinned Margaret, a 33-year-old attorney specializing in family law, grew up with a lawyer father who loved heated discussions, always insisting Margaret argue with him and defend her positions. Unfortunately, he never allowed her to win, badgering her until she capitulated.
At age nine, Margaret began reading a book about a veterinarian, which her father covertly confiscated since he wanted her to be a doctor, not a vet. When Margaret asked where the book went, her father responded, “What book?” When she was 12, Margaret developed a taste for bland foods — vanilla ice cream, white bread and potatoes — so her father endlessly shoved the spicy foods he preferred under her nose. As 16-year-old Margaret was writing her college-application essays, her father grabbed them, read them disapprovingly, sat down at the kitchen table and rewrote them. When 17-year-old Margaret was packing for college, her father began yanking clothes out of her suitcase, telling her exactly what and how to pack.
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