Myths take on a life of their own, supplanting reality and facts within the psyche. Once a myth takes hold, it becomes difficult to eradicate it, and even once one eradicates the myth, the residue remains, spreading over the floor of our minds until we sweep out the final piece of dirt from our psyche. One of the most persistent myths that we tell … Read More The Myth of Poverty
In “Are We Still Buying a New World with Old Confederate Bills,” Lillian Smith writes, “The Devil knows that if you want to destroy a man, all you need do is fill him with false hopes and false fears. These will blind him to his new direction and he will inevitably turn away from the future and destroy himself and those close to him.” … Read More The Violence of Fear in Evangelical Christianity
Over the past week or so, I have seen multiple people on my social media feeds post this timeline. I don’t know who originated it, or who wrote it. However, I do know that almost every semester I construct my own timeline and break it down in class, usually going back to the end of the Civil War. When doing this, I break it … Read More We Are Not Removed from Our Past
Throughout Song in a Weary Throat, Pauli Murray highlights the intersections between Jim Crow segregation and Nazi Germany. Specifically, Murray uses the term “fascism” in these comparisons, drawing attention to the ways that the United States, while working to promote and save democracy abroad nevertheless allowed fascism to grow and spread in the United States, not just in the South. This, of course, is something … Read More The Smoldering of Fascism
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the initial publication of Lillian Smith’s Killers of the Dream, and as I reread it this past week, I kept thinking about its continued relevance today, especially during 2024, a year which, and I do not feel this is hyperbole, carries within it a huge deal of historical significance for the United States and our democratic experiment. Countless … Read More The Importance of Lillian Smith’s “Killers of the Dream” 75 Years Later in 2024
Interminable Rambling 