By: Graham English on March 20, 2025
I have been in two minor earthquakes that left me safe but scared. Both were strong enough to shake the house, rattle pictures off walls, and break dinnerware. Once they were over, while they did cause momentary anxiety, life continued as normal. Neither was even close to being as life-altering as the big earthquakes that…
By: Joel Zantingh on March 20, 2025
In reading, Stephen Hicks, Explaining Postmodernism: Scepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault, one gets a clear sense of the amount of time it takes to root ideas into the very fabric of a society. What started in the 1950s and 1960s among French philosophers [1], became the University texts in the 1990s and early…
By: Glyn Barrett on March 20, 2025
Stephen Hicks’ book, Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault [1] takes the reader on a deep dive into the origins of postmodernism, tracking its philosophical development and highlighting its connections to Marxist ideology. As someone who values Judeo-Christian principles and upholds the Bible as the Word of God, I find his analysis…
By: Adam Cheney on March 19, 2025
The village I lived in along the southern coast of Kenya had a socialist nature to it. Within that village, commodities were communal and meant to be shared. If I bought a ladder, it naturally was for the collective use of the entire village and can be returned to me upon request. There was a…
By: Jennifer Eckert on March 19, 2025
For nearly a decade in the fifties, American television showcased the comedy sitcom I Love Lucy, which remains an icon and one of the most beloved shows ever. In the starring role, Lucille Ball plays Lucy Ricardo, a silly and lovable housewife who gets herself into ridiculous and humorous situations. The line, “Lucy, you have…
By: Jeff Styer on March 17, 2025
I have had two formal philosophy courses in my life. The first one, Critical and Creative Thinking, focused on logic. The second, Introduction to Philosophy was taught by a former Nazi soldier with a thick German accent that was difficult to understand. Based on these two courses, I failed to develop a love of philosophy. …
By: Joel Zantingh on March 14, 2025
In The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America, Coleman Hughes calls for an end to racial identity as a primary marker for people, because it has not produced a more flourishing and equal society. His argument is “that colorblindness is the wisest principle by which to govern our fragile experiment in multiethnic…
By: Julie O'Hara on March 14, 2025
An acquaintance recently shared that she left a mutual group because it was too white. Her perspective was that it was a “sea of white faces.” I experienced the same group as wonderfully diverse. I thought the group looked less like me than the typical Oregon demographic. At over 30% non-white, it was easily twice…
By: Daren Jaime on March 14, 2025
Race has been a factor in my life since my childhood. I remember interacting in multiple cross-racial settings and feeling like everything was peachy. I believed race was just a differentiation of skin color, but as time progressed, I found it to be the source of controversy and conflict. Growing up as a child in…
By: Noel Liemam on March 14, 2025
Introduction What is ‘race’ to me personally? Well, I am a Micronesian from the Pacific Islands which has a certain geographical location on this planet. Race to me refers a group of people with a certain likeness, way of living, same or at least similar language and history or backgrounds. This is not based on…
By: Elysse Burns on March 13, 2025
I grew up in Los Angeles, California, in a pastor’s home where the vision for a multicultural church, united by faith in Jesus, was central to our community. It wasn’t until I was in junior high, attending a school where I was one of the few white students, that I began to understand what it…
By: Diane Tuttle on March 13, 2025
What I believe about race and why. When I was in elementary school the first time I saw children whose skin was much darker than mine I questioned my mother about it. She responded by telling me that skin color was God’s gift to help people whose generations of ancestors spent thousands of years living…
By: Ryan Thorson on March 13, 2025
“I have a dream that one day my children will be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”-Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The topic of race has always been something that I’ve been aware of for as long as I can remember. Even though I have…
By: Debbie Owen on March 13, 2025
What I knew about racism prior to this week’s assignment can be illustrated by this story: I was attending a Renovare week-long residency a few years ago. One of our leaders for the week was an Anglican priest with a DMin. He is a deeply thoughtful man with a great sense of humor; he’s a…
By: Graham English on March 13, 2025
What I Believe About Racism and Why Residing in a small town in north-central Alberta, a bedroom community of Edmonton, I am part of a population of approximately 22,000 people, among whom 820 are identified as visible minorities. Despite my upbringing in South Africa, where I was classified as a “coloured” person, I am not…
By: Kari on March 13, 2025
Before reading The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America, I understood “race” as categorizing specific features held by a group of people. These features can be physical signs such as skin color, body shape, or specific cultural behaviors. Growing up, I was taught that races came about at the Tower of Babel…
By: Adam Cheney on March 12, 2025
I grew up in a middle-class white home with the understanding that we are all to be colorblind. I understood that we shouldn’t see race, color, or ethnicity but that we should treat all people the same. Since my childhood, I have adopted three black, African children. They are African, not African American, or Black…
By: Shela Sullivan on March 11, 2025
Previous knowledge In Malaysia, the concept of reverse racism is often discussed in the context of the country’s affirmative action policies, particularly the New Economic Policy (NEP) introduced in 1971. The NEP aimed to address economic disparities among ethnic groups by providing affirmative action for the majority Malay population, who were historically economically disadvantaged compared…
By: Jennifer Eckert on March 11, 2025
I am a diamond. At least, that is what my high school history teacher, Mrs. Clara Luper, called me and all her students. We were HER diamonds, and our gender, race, or ethnicity was of no importance. I am Mrs. Luper’s diamond, and just like a natural gemstone, I was formed under intense pressure for…
By: Jeff Styer on March 10, 2025
Previous Knowledge Race is a topic that I am passionate about, but the reality is that race along with ethnicity are terms that I do not like. Today most people understand that race is a concept developed to differentiate people based on skin color and other physical features. For years due to concepts such as…
