Racism is not merely a simplistic hatred. It is, more often, broad sympathy toward some and broader skepticism toward others.

The popular mocking of reparations as a harebrained scheme authored by wild-eyed lefties and intellectually unserious black nationalists is fear masquerading as laughter.

Some of us make it out. But the game is played with loaded dice. I wish I had known more, and I wished I had known it sooner.

She had wanted her son to stand for what he believed and to be respectful. And he had died for believing his friends had a right to play their music loud, to be American teenagers.