Bluegrass-Aspendale Housing

Some friends of mine who also live in the East End neighborhood in Lexington are involved in a historical preservation project, which seeks to document the remarkable people, places, and buildings that have passed through the area over the years.
One of these places is the Bluegrass-Aspendale housing development.  Built in stages between 1936 and 1951, [...]

Read Full Post »

The Spirit of Sacrifice

Tomorrow is a day to celebrate the life and message of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Each year when this day approaches, I think about an article I read a couple years ago, “Missing Martin,” which classifies King as one of our antisceptic heroes.  Too often in our society, King’s message has been emasculated, even [...]

Read Full Post »

Historical Tours in the South

Over past two holiday breaks, we have visited historic cities in the South:  Savannah, GA, Beaufort, SC, Charleston, SC, Augusta, GA, and several others.  Each of these cities uses its past to develop a tourist economy.  They offer walking tours, ghost tours, bus tours, gift shops, quaint bed and breakfasts, and even wistful conversations that [...]

Read Full Post »

More Trouble at My Old Kentucky Home

The University of Kentucky community is reeling once more after another shameful incident on campus, which calls attention (yet again) to our institution’s horrid record of racial equality.  Early this morning UK police discovered an effigy of Barack Obama hanging on a tree near Rose Street and the William T. Young Library.  Within hours, the national media [...]

Read Full Post »

The Problem With “Stuff White People Like”

One of the fastest-growing and most popular blogs online right now is Christian Lander’s Stuff White People Like. For those unfamiliar, Stuff White People Like consists of expostulations and riffs on cherished white practices: buying expensive water bottles, raving about the film Juno, supporting Obama, driving hybrid cars, and backing environmentalist causes. Lander crafts a [...]

Read Full Post »

“Missing Martin,” the Antiseptic Hero

I hope everyone has had the opportunity to truly celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. today. I encourage everyone to read this reflection on King, the antiseptic hero of today’s stratified society.  Let’s not forget that King demanded a radical restructuring of society’s architecture, something we all can work toward achieving.

Read Full Post »

Visual Rhetoric and the Challenge of Critique

I wanted to pause from my busy day and meditate on some recent race-related furor in the golf world. In case you missed it, a few weeks ago during its coverage of the ever-exciting Mercedes Benz Championship, The Golf Channel commentators Nick Faldo and Kelly Tilghman were killing time, casually lamenting the dominance Tiger Woods [...]

Read Full Post »

Undoing Racism in Lexington

There’s no denying the fact that racial injustice is deeply entrenched in Lexington’s culture.  Many of the blog posts I’ve written here deal with the problem in some way. What’s the solution?
Probably nothing of significance will happen until meaningful and purposeful dialogue takes place. That’s why I’m excited to learn that the Cabinet for Health [...]

Read Full Post »

Central Christian Church in the Wake of Brad Fletcher

This post has been deleted… See the above post for an explanation of why.

Read Full Post »

Racist Cartoons: The Difficulty of Making a Social Critique

I arrived on campus to teach this morning only to find that students are immersed in yet another controversial sequence of events that demonstrates just how far Lexington (and the University of Kentucky) has to go in terms of racial reconciliation.
Last Friday’s issue of The Kentucky Kernel, UK’s campus newspaper, ran a cartoon that crudely [...]

Read Full Post »