Category | Outlook
East Side West Side

East Side West Side

“Well, they began it.”
 the Jets
“Well, they began it.”
the Sharks
“And we’re the ones to stop it once and for all…tonight.”
the Jets and the Sharks

I was just thirteen when I encountered the troubling reality that two people could share a singular experience and come away with opposite perspectives. The movie, West Side Story, was the vehicle of that lesson, and a childhood friend was my unwitting teacher. Meridith, wherever you are, I thank you. read more…

The Eye of the Beholder

The Eye of the Beholder

Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty.
David Hume

In the summer of 2000, I was on the island of St. Kitts teaching in an international doctoral program as part of the university’s residency requirement for its graduates. I was preparing the students for their dissertation projects read more…

The Gift of a Hat

The Gift of a Hat

I write this on the day before the October 2, 2021 Women’s March for Reproductive Rights, remembering my participation in the first Women’s March of January 2017.

I have the best hat in the world. It is black and sags a bit to the side giving it the air of a living thing that moves this way and that as I turn my head. read more…

Star Power

Star Power

It’s Only a Game

I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness,
not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group.

Peggy MacIntosh, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, 1988

I entered class that day with a bounce in my gait. My exit was less buoyant. I was about to be rudely awakened to the concept of privilege.

In the summer of 1973, I was a graduate student at Rutgers University read more…

Hamilton, History, and the Bechdel Test

Hamilton, History, and the Bechdel Test

The unconventional treatment of our revolutionary beginnings with its brilliant lyrics and vibrant production made the show Hamilton a Broadway smash. It is the iconic embodiment of the hope of American multi-culturism with its use of hip-hop lyrics read more…