tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-285830729310251062026-03-04T14:08:25.941-06:00Walk a mile in another's shoes. Move on in your own. Vérité Parlant http://www.blogger.com/profile/09033679321805951686noreply@blogger.comBlogger1866125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28583072931025106.post-11243929213856512092020-11-16T15:31:00.001-06:002020-11-16T15:31:59.206-06:00

Susan Del Percio of the Lincoln Project makes excellent points in her opinion piece at NBC News, "Trump tweets Biden won — but won't concede election or stop fundraising. Confused? Don't be." She argues that Trump is using his no-concession stance to raise money for what awaits him after his presidency, meaning lawsuits in New York. But while she politely phrases as a conditional statement

Vérité Parlant http://www.blogger.com/profile/09033679321805951686noreply@blogger.com0New Orleans, LA, USA29.951065799999991 -90.07153231.6408319638211459 -125.2277823 58.261299636178833 -54.9152823tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28583072931025106.post-82859876828351996732020-09-03T01:16:00.002-05:002020-09-03T01:55:36.074-05:00

This list is a supplement to a longer list a college student is curating on Facebook related to African-American Studies. The student already has many excellent suggestions. I took the request as an opportunity to search my brain, and I haven't posted in a while either, so there's that.The Miseducation of the Negro by Carter G. WoodsonOn Lynchings by Ida B. Wells (Also look for her Memphis Diary)

Vérité Parlant http://www.blogger.com/profile/09033679321805951686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28583072931025106.post-16772471083466761652020-07-31T21:48:00.006-05:002020-07-31T22:02:09.202-05:00

Absolutely precious. This adorable toddler in the video below is all over the parents and modeling their poses sometimes as they do yoga together in yard. The video made by day. MadeNmelanin on Twitter tagged this as Black, Family, Black Love. With all that's happened in 2020 in the black community, we need to see more images of us loving each other, lifting each other up in the storm and

Vérité Parlant http://www.blogger.com/profile/09033679321805951686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28583072931025106.post-63987641857100632212020-07-12T14:14:00.005-05:002020-07-12T14:17:57.576-05:00

"Say Thank You Say I'm Sorry" poem by Jericho Brown (Pulitzer Prize for poetry) recited by the indomitable and stellar Alfre Woodard.  #COVID-19 and #Coronavirus exposure #essentialworkers

Vérité Parlant http://www.blogger.com/profile/09033679321805951686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28583072931025106.post-80123223866012875352020-05-24T13:40:00.005-05:002020-09-15T13:30:49.767-05:00

Shopping by motorized cart is something I've never done, and I still have never done it. I'm only sitting in one at the moment, watching the bright blue sky and people go in and out the Whole Foods in Metairie, Louisiana. Cars cruise down Veterans Memorial Boulevard in the distance, and for the first time in my life, I'm pecking out a blog post on my cellphone.  Black, 60 years old,

Vérité Parlant http://www.blogger.com/profile/09033679321805951686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28583072931025106.post-31809389725582869322020-05-10T17:13:00.000-05:002020-05-10T17:13:07.604-05:00

In February 2017, a woman from Great Britain visiting  Kentucky may have predicted a dark future ahead for the United States of America, Shot of Bourbon reports. But does it really take a psychic to figure that out. Can't an ordinary academic philosopher or history professor give the same warnings?

Vérité Parlant http://www.blogger.com/profile/09033679321805951686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28583072931025106.post-38682121568242805952020-03-21T21:03:00.001-05:002020-03-21T21:06:09.623-05:00

The coronavirus can last on surfaces, including cardboard, for up to 72 hours, a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine says. So, you’re at the pharmacy where you may have touched items an infected person touched. When you get to your car, you whip out your little bottle of hand sanitizer. If whatever you touched was indeed contaminated, then the virus may now be on your hands

Vérité Parlant http://www.blogger.com/profile/09033679321805951686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28583072931025106.post-65070886505025627412020-03-19T11:00:00.000-05:002020-03-21T14:43:40.342-05:00

Yes, you can feel happier despite Covid19. Humans can hold dueling thoughts in their heads and survive. For instance, we have the ability to compartmentalization, and that’s not always a negative. As one psychologist says, "Compartmentalization is not about being in denial; it’s about putting things where they belong and not letting them get in the way of the rest of your life."

Vérité Parlant http://www.blogger.com/profile/09033679321805951686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28583072931025106.post-87839063328121588862020-03-14T15:39:00.000-05:002020-03-14T18:10:37.864-05:00

Credit Honey Yanibel Manaya Cruz at Unsplash.com The headline of this blog post comes directly from "The Confrontation" episode of Invisibilia, one of the many podcasts I subscribe to. You can listen to the show yourself. I've embedded the episode in this post. As I listened to the episode, I recalled my 15-year-old self and wondered whether I would have survived the intense

Vérité Parlant http://www.blogger.com/profile/09033679321805951686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28583072931025106.post-73693605463718534222020-03-13T21:28:00.003-05:002022-04-17T13:32:51.606-05:00

This evening, I saw a guy at Rouses Supermarket in the Metairie, Louisiana. He had three items in his cart: A 12 pack of toilet paper, a case of beer, and a large cake.  An older woman in the next line told him, "I see you have your priorities straight."  The scene reminded me of a Katrina news story in which the only treasure two guys were trying to save was their

Vérité Parlant http://www.blogger.com/profile/09033679321805951686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28583072931025106.post-14066204172339127502020-02-26T21:57:00.001-06:002020-02-26T21:59:17.474-06:00

I haven't posted at this blog in quite a while, but I had to make it public again. Hearing about 6-year-olds being arrested at school or dragged off to mental health wards without their parents' consent gives me pause. Some of the comments made about these Florida cases and the treatment of black children gives me pause even longer. So, all I'm going to do here is provide six links, a kind of

Vérité Parlant http://www.blogger.com/profile/09033679321805951686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28583072931025106.post-44723060471446006752018-04-19T22:07:00.002-05:002018-04-19T22:22:53.567-05:00

The Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, PA. Would you like a less academic way to learn about unconscious and conscious racial bias? Were you puzzled by the Philadelphia police commissioner's stance or why some black people appear to have little empathy for other black people's struggle with racism? I'm thinking now of Commissioner Richard Ross, who is black. He could have been more thoughtful with

Vérité Parlant http://www.blogger.com/profile/09033679321805951686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28583072931025106.post-82128415701920628202018-04-15T13:06:00.000-05:002018-04-15T13:06:18.782-05:00

I finally found time to watch this Comedy Central video that my friends have been sharing on Facebook, 3Peat Presents: The Blackening - Uncensored. Brilliantly hilarious.

Vérité Parlant http://www.blogger.com/profile/09033679321805951686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28583072931025106.post-37535344316987139012018-01-20T09:00:00.000-06:002018-01-20T09:00:52.326-06:00

Listening to Prince this morning, my face flushed with anger. This is nothing new, my finding myself in a purple place of brooding, finding again that I am still pissed at Prince for letting himself die early. I'll look at a video of him or picture, hear his music, and then I'm whispering at him, "How dare you!" Today, Prince the singer, musician, and arranger is on my mind. He was a huge

Vérité Parlant http://www.blogger.com/profile/09033679321805951686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28583072931025106.post-51619627367872319652017-11-27T22:17:00.001-06:002017-12-05T21:34:14.338-06:00

Meghan Markle with her mother Doria Ragland at Ragland's graduation from USC. Those of you who live to quantify blackness may debate just how black the royally engaged Meghan Markle is later. Just know that she has never tried to hide that she is biracial. Markle is the daughter of Tom Markle (an award-winning lighting designer who is white) and Doria Ragland (an African-American

Vérité Parlant http://www.blogger.com/profile/09033679321805951686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28583072931025106.post-28948180173406565372017-11-22T11:08:00.003-06:002017-11-22T11:36:52.927-06:00

Delivered to my email today from Poets.org, this love poem by Sarah Browning entitled "Praisesong." A contemporary poem about lovers in midlife -- how refreshing. Here are the first seven lines: "Praisesong"  by Sarah Browning  At the coffee shop you love, white mugs heavy on the table between us, young baristas— spiky haired and impatient— cannot imagine how two people so old to

Vérité Parlant http://www.blogger.com/profile/09033679321805951686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28583072931025106.post-80118324984722141162017-09-15T06:07:00.000-05:002017-09-15T06:07:22.343-05:00

Vérité Parlant http://www.blogger.com/profile/09033679321805951686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28583072931025106.post-86107512258766020852017-09-03T11:58:00.001-05:002017-09-03T12:15:53.844-05:00

Full concert is on ReverbNation, Jonny P. Live at the Cotton Mill. From his bio on ReverbNation: Jonny P is a soul artist and fashion designer who was born in New York City. This Nashville-based singer has a sound that's reminiscent of the greats of Motown. Jonny is poised to carve his modern soul mark in the landscape of R&B. His vocals are nothing but refreshing and his style is

Vérité Parlant http://www.blogger.com/profile/09033679321805951686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28583072931025106.post-14312380721066518562017-07-09T12:15:00.000-05:002017-07-09T12:29:39.314-05:00

(Initial post was at Jersey Goddess in 2004 or 2005.) First post of the month as I try to NaBloPoMo, the National Blog Posting Month project that pushes participating bloggers to post one blog per day for a month. I thought it fitting that my first post tie me to being an old webhead. I recall when I first saw Robin Sloan's EPIC probably more than four years ago. I had it posted to my old

Vérité Parlant http://www.blogger.com/profile/09033679321805951686noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28583072931025106.post-68745993881599730472017-06-04T13:26:00.000-05:002017-06-04T13:26:09.802-05:00

I do genealogical research. As a result, I sometimes search old newspapers, and from time to time, I am drawn to stories like the one in the screen shot that are written more like fiction than fact. The text is farther down in this post. The old-style journalism fascinates, amuses, and disturbs me. So many of the stories of the past were written with a purple flourish, thick subjectivity, and

Vérité Parlant http://www.blogger.com/profile/09033679321805951686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28583072931025106.post-25924452336684984842017-04-01T12:58:00.000-05:002017-04-01T12:58:21.502-05:00

Vérité Parlant http://www.blogger.com/profile/09033679321805951686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28583072931025106.post-45456653407967269992016-08-09T14:30:00.000-05:002016-08-10T12:18:33.060-05:00

I came across this treasure on YouTube, His Purple Highness performing songs from The Vault:  Old Friends for Sale and other jazz pieces in a Los Angeles concert, 2009. I bought a copy of the album a few years ago. The concert is so much more. BTW, Chaka Khan also appears during the show singing her song "Sweet Thing." The album Old Friends for Sale includes not only the same-titled

Vérité Parlant http://www.blogger.com/profile/09033679321805951686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28583072931025106.post-25452470049961942612016-08-05T09:38:00.001-05:002016-08-05T09:40:46.250-05:00

I was so deep in the academic hole for the first six months of the year that I completely missed news about the movie Southside with You, the story of Michelle and Barack Obama's romance. The film pays homage to the president and First Lady's initial courtship and opens in limited release August 26. I.must.see.this.movie. So, I'll be scouting websites, Twitter, creating a Google alert,

Vérité Parlant http://www.blogger.com/profile/09033679321805951686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28583072931025106.post-48779991623858925642016-08-04T12:44:00.002-05:002016-08-04T12:50:14.491-05:00

Almost a month has passed since Rattle Magazine published my poem "Digital Anthropologists Find Our Hashtags" for its Poets Respond series. The poem explores specifically the consecutive shooting deaths of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, by police officers in the first full week of July. Just hours after I submitted the poem, a

Vérité Parlant http://www.blogger.com/profile/09033679321805951686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28583072931025106.post-83426993242173646972016-07-29T10:46:00.000-05:002016-07-29T10:46:37.606-05:00

Rolling Stone has posted video of Matt Damon telling a great Prince story on the Jimmy Fallon show.  Of course, all Prince stories bring me joy except the one about his passing in April. Damon is out promoting his latest film in the Bourne Identity series, Jason Bourne. I've been disappointed by Damon's politics, but I'm still a Bourne fan, so if you see the new film in the New Orleans

Vérité Parlant http://www.blogger.com/profile/09033679321805951686noreply@blogger.com0