The Musings of a Latte Queen: Narratives of Everyday Life

A few months before President Obama was elected, I told a group of white friends that things in this country are going to get bad, really bad, especially if Barack Obama was elected.  I admonished my Bridges Group to be watchful and to speak out, given that part of our monthly discussions were in attempts to see each other as human beings and understand our journey in this country, how the isms have affected our worldview. The events that took place in Egypt reignited something in parts of our country, the silent people who didn't want to speak against the Tea Party and what they were up to with everything from assaulting President Obama's birth to condemning First Lady Michelle Obama for trying to combat childhood obesity, finally decided to speak out when it hit home. Wisconsin is the birthplace of unions and while black men were excluded from this fraternity of manufacturing working class several decades, the very presence of unions meant a chance for fair wages, collectiv...

Today, the people of Egypt found that their perseverance, peaceful protest, and the voice of power reached to the airwaves and enacted a change the will be felt for generations.  The Pharoah, Mubarik has stepped down as President, and the "arc of History" has bent to the people of this country, this ancient land, this place of history, and I am happy. The other day, I was in the audience at the St. Louis Public Library, Schlafly Branch, and heard Isabel Wilkerson give a talk on her recent book, " The Warmth of Other Suns" and spoke to the immigrant heart that resided in my dad, in many relatives of black people who south a better life, much like the Egyptians today. Earlier this week, my son brought tears to my eyes and rendered me speechless when he did a breathtaking performance as Walter Lee Younger in the KH Players performance of "A Raisin In The Sun".  He brought a rawness to the role from deep down and I felt a power resonate inside him.  There...

I'm not sure what it is about an epic winter storm, a storm of historic proportions, a snowmaggedon, or whatever descriptor has been used to describe what descended on the middle of the US in the last day and a half, and still coming in some parts, that gives us pause to think about what is really important. Honestly, I didn't know a storm was coming, had I not been in Target doing my usual household shopping (not food even) on Saturday night and heard a casual reference to mid-week weather, had I not been in the ER with my daughter early Sunday morning and heard the nurse talking about bringing an overnight bag for Wednesday or heard someone casually mention the storm on Sunday afternoon or received an email from the other mom coordinating tech week food on Sunday morning, I never would have known.  My kids would have been up a creek without a paddle full of cereal, snacks, fruit, and chips to keep a seven, nine, and sixteen year old happy for two days. I spent Monday doin...

Kudos to my fellow brown bloggers over at Jack and Jill Politics. Today is the beginning of Black History Month and while some may feel we are so far removed from the incidents of events in this country and are so multi-racial, why single out one month? Some may say they are tired of hearing about the Civil Rights Movement and feel that affirmative action left out other people, why single out one month for all things black? Simple, because if hundreds of thousands of millions of native Africans had not been forcibly removed from their native land, their names, religions, family, tribe, language, customs, and dignity destroyed, the ones who do not want to hear about it, would never have what they enjoy today. Like my Jewish brethren, we remember so we will not repeat. Tuesday Open Thread