Category: Blog

Since direct volunteer opportunities are limited for me (no one seems to want a 75-yr.-old high-risk guy hanging around!), I’ve been considering other ways to support all the people who are so impacted by COVID-19. That thinking brought me back to an important distinction.  As clearly as I’ve seen this put: Charity Justice Charity =… Continue reading Beyond the Pandemic: Charity vs. Justice (Part I)

This post is a departure from the norm.  I encourage you to read the article at the link below.  While I don’t ascribe to every claim in it, I do believe the author draws some very credible parallels and inferences. He unpacks the troubling, even criminal possibility that has been on my mind for the… Continue reading Underlying Dynamic: Indifference About Who is Dying

I continue to read about the experience of this pandemic for many African-Americans.  As predicted, the disparities in so many systems are exacerbating the impact of COVID-19. Many Black workers hold down jobs in the “essential” fields, mostly on the intensive labor end of the spectrum:  health care, maintenance, grocery store clerks, bus drivers, refuse… Continue reading Black Exposure and Black Resilience

Here is a concrete opportunity to step up and speak out.  First some background: Rochester is at or near the top of numerous national statistical lists defining racial inequity.  Perhaps no local institution embodies these tragic failures more than the Rochester City School District. New York State stepped in two years ago, appointing a Distinguished… Continue reading Home-Bound White Action

To my white friends:  In the past ten days or so, as my family and I see COVID-19 looming and disrupting our lives, I had set aside my "work" on race/racism.  That is a privilege I have as a white person.  No doubt you too are coping with this crisis.  Still, I invite you to… Continue reading The Virus + Black = Double Jeopardy