The Musings of a Latte Queen: Narratives of Everyday Life

Does it have to be a game? All the time. Why does this feel like we are in some sick game where winner-takes-all and the rest are left destroyed in the competition for control? The local mayoral and city council elections, the state legislature and governorships, the national elections, everything feels like someone has decided this democracy is a contest with only a few walking away with the grand prize. Democrats and Republicans have had nauseating debates with the most base of behaviors coming from the boys' in red. The battle of age, gender, and class is racing through liberal, progressive circles that are grappling with the racism they refuse to acknowledge. Have to give it to the Republicans, though, they at least admit they are the party of the old white rich men with the rest as adoring fans hoping for a return on that white currency. Gamesmanship, over and over, like a bunch of middle school boys trying to flex muscles they don't possess. Left in the wake a...

by Tayé Foster Bradshaw, Kirkwood MO I saw a photo of little Zoe. She is four months old. Her little flower dress and  headband had all the marks of infant cuteness. And she was terrorized on Sunday night. She is a little black girl and her life matters. Her life has to be worth more than two suspected police officers pulling her family over and holding them at gunpoint. Five years from now, she will be in a classroom somewhere in this country. Her teacher will likely be a white female. She may suspend Zoe for having an "attitude" because she didn't respond with the queenly deference the teacher things she deserves. Ethan is Zoe's big brother. He will be in a classroom and might encounter that teacher who wants to put him on the pipeline. Zoe will worry and grieve for him. And a social worker will condemn their mother and assume their homelife is deplorable, in need of white women to come and fix it. Their lives have to matter. Black girls in my s...