Contests, Featured, General Announcements
Embalmed in prejudice
Dec
Literati
Our current project, which I have often characterized as a conversation disguised as a contest, is an attempt at consciousness. We all breathe the same air; we have all been raised in a racist culture, some of us as victims (or survivors), some as perpetrators, some as passive-complicits. To state that the Drinking Fountain is a teaching moment is pompous as hell. It is a learning moment. I am learning the breadth of our illness as a nation as I accumulate and publish your stories.
But what is it precisely that perpetuates our shared disease? In a word: misinformation.
I found this remarkable article in the Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2017/12/29/a374a268-ea6d-11e7-8a6a-80acf0774e64_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-d%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.a9629bb10f47
I do hope you will take a few moments to read it, and of course, I hope you will participate in the conversation by submitting your response to the monument to racism that serves as the prompt for this “contest.” (It really is a contest, by the way, with a $500 prize for the entry that offers us the most inspiration.)
And of course, I wish everyone a spectacular New Year.
thorn
I am chuffed about the ongoing conversation presented in story form upon your site to date; however am a bit miffed by the lack of quality conversation filler from your reading audience. Your own intros, fillers & videos have reminded & brought up questions as to the soundness of memories fed me via my predecessors. The Washington Post article is such a Bob’s your uncle. The implanted jiggery-pockery of news agencies both present & past to rewrite history into slanted fiction astounds me. I am, however, gobsmacked to grasp your usage of embalming fluid bottles, good sir, unless the bias news leads one to wish to be up the pole.
I have asked myself in the last day about what “embalming fluid” means to me. The answer is the silence of good people of good intentions who remain so. Personal liberties, the rights of minorities, changes towards inclusion & justice have arrived by daring of words & voice & art & protests, by the upheaval of well-being & priviledge, by exposure, by becoming an ally to decency & co-existence. Cower no more, rage not praise. Never be apathetic for we must overcome or parish. Join this conversation of stories about oppressions, these editor’s postings upon the worldwide web pleading with us to roar not squeak about a better world.