at night
when i close my eyes
surrender to sleep
all conscious control
i lose hold
of myself
fall faintly into
reverie
never completely certain
that i will return
from the depths to
breathe air the
next morning

but when i do
eyes open
on a brand new reality
informed by the past
unencumbered by the
imaginings of dreams
i wonder
how i can relinquish
control so easily
while entombed in slumber
yet fail so spectacularly
upon each successive awakening
to be capable of similar
surrender
when i embrace
the world’s vagaries
during the daylight

the quotidian death of freedom
slain…

Black History Month is over and I have an announcement to make: I have officially become sick of hearing “I’m on the right side of the issue because I’m not a racist!” or one of its many variations.

There is no imperative, or motivation, or urgency, to rouse oneself to participate in combatting racism.

What this (and the person uttering it) is actually saying to me is that they are very tied to the idea of being “not-racist.” When a person is not-racist, it means that they think they don’t participate directly in actions or decisions that lead to discriminatory…

don’t wanna cause no trouble but baby i wanna get a nibble
steamin’ hot, you know i gotta sample sugah vittles
gimme a little, and it’ll melt me down to the middle
make the chocolate flow ’til we wipin’ up the dribble
and I don’t fiddle unless I got the proper instrument
you bring the ingredients and I’ll buy all the implements
playing with your flour helps me grow into significance
bowl and wooden spoon got two willing participants
guide my hands because you kneadin’ a massage
blending together essences beneath the camouflage
you’re heating up my bakery and that ain’t no mirage
for real you’re topping everything — when facin’…

in an age of information ostensibly masquerading and parading
the shamelessly craven’s debauched instigations
as substitutions for amplification of true knowledge
and all that it’s precipitated like Icarus in freefall is
endless victimhood revealed as exhibitionist self-flagellation
that defies any sensible explanation
across the nations digitized electrical impulses undulate
unmodulated and under-debated by unsated haters
fated to massacre all adherents
to a form of civilization destined for dissipation
i drip this into your melons for your edification
on the stratifications debasing our innovations
the nascent reimagination of motivations
deceptively and kleptomaniacally for the taking
remains unguarded from thieves in the temple of light
so grab your weapons — i reckon it’s time for a fight…

On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama was inaugurated as the first U.S. President of African American ancestry. Twelve years later to the day, Kamala Harris was the first woman, first African American and first Asian American inaugurated as U.S. Vice-President.

Meanwhile, north of the border …

Though Canada has had one woman serve as its Prime Minister (Conservative Kim Campbell in 1993, who took up the role in June after Brian Mulroney resigned, then was promptly annihilated by the Jean Chrétien Liberals in the subsequent federal election in October), we have never had a person of colour serve as the leader of the government. …

all i can hear is the astonishment
see the despair and read the admonishment
of the most obvious and dishonest monument
to the cooperative collaborative acknowledgment
of truth that shall ring loudly enough through history
to deafen the most committed of propagandists
who will try (and fail) to convince people of intelligence
that the “American dream” retains symbolic relevance

once the broken glass in the Capitol is swept away
and this president’s presence in Pennsylvania (Avenue) is swept away
along with this nation’s pride of place
shattered along with their legislature defaced
by the reality in the prescience of Junior Murvin’s sung words
that Scratch…

Let’s be honest: Your company has probably been accused at some point of doing a poor job managing diversity in the workplace.

Many organizations are not very good at it. Most hadn’t been thinking much about it before this year. And all of them are trying to avoid being dragged by online critics for their reluctance/inability/abject refusal to take the matter seriously. It’s one of the great themes from the Year Of The Coronavirus that we can all agree is taking place (even if we don’t agree with the argument’s basic assumptions).

An approach that focuses on equity in conjunction…