Saturday, February 8, 2025
Representation and Opportunity
Saturday, February 1, 2025
Blogging about Poetry in January 2025
Wednesday, January 29, 2025
Versions of Frederick Douglass's Narrative
For years, I’ve been collecting editions of Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845).
“Why so many different editions of the same books?,” people ask when they become aware that there are more than 400 editions of Douglass’s Narrative. One main reason, in addition to intrinsic value of the book, relates to the high demand for Douglass's autobiography.
Since the 1960s when the Narrative was first reprinted, high school teachers and college professors regularly assigned the book in their courses. There are no copyright restrictions on the book, so any publisher that is willing and interested can reprint the book. Also, the accumulated general and scholarly interest in Douglass and the Narrative over time have accumulated over time.
Monday, January 27, 2025
DEI and Black Employment
Black man student: Will this executive order cutting DEI make it more difficult for Black people like me to get jobs?
That's an important question to consider at this moment.
My initial, short answer is yes. Overall, Black people have had to confront major barriers to gain quality employment. So any additional challenges do in fact make things more difficult.
Often, folks concentrate on Diversity Initiatives and what comes out of those. Donald Trump and his supporters, for instance are critical of those initiatives because they think they give Black people, women, LGBTQ+ folks, and various people of color unfair advantages. What's often overlooked, though, is that those initiatives often emerged because of some really longstanding racist, sexist, heterosexist, and other troubling practices. Folks somehow forget to talk about gave rise to diversity efforts.
What this means for a young Black man like you is that you'll have to think about learning as much as possible and doing well in classes, yes and at the same time, and it also means making connections with an active supportive network that is assisting you in advancing and effectively navigating professional environments. Too often, folks will tell young Black people "just work hard and graduate." That's a well-meaning response, but it doesn't go far enough in identifying a variety of barriers that young Black men, to name one demographic, actually face.
Let's keep talking my dude.
Related: