prison – Sandhya Rani Jha

Can we talk about “the talk?” – teaching children how to protect themselves from “Protect and Serve”

I remember an incredibly uncomfortable Thanksgiving during Occupy Oakland. Not the cliche uncomfortable of Republicans and Democrats getting into immigration policy over the mashed potatoes and gravy. A friend of mine who had been arrested during Occupy for carrying an umbrella (the citation indicated it was a temporary dwelling, which had been banned from theContinue reading “Can we talk about “the talk?” – teaching children how to protect themselves from “Protect and Serve””

Michael Brown, Worship this Sunday, and Confusing Unity with Comfort

I am tired of my church breaking my family’s heart. I wasn’t going to write about Michael Brown. Many others have already done so, reflectively and powerfully, including writing about the role of the White church in the midst of this moment of pain. I wasn’t going to write about it because I’ve written on itContinue reading “Michael Brown, Worship this Sunday, and Confusing Unity with Comfort”

Life and death in California prisons

Two stories hit me back-to-back this week. One was about a congregant’s son who died. The other was a complete stranger who chose life…a life sentence, instead of release from prison. Both stories pointed to the failure of a system by whatever standards we use to judge it.

“But there are lots of people of color who support this policy, so it isn’t racist”

In a recent article about Michelle Alexander’s phenomenal The New Jim Crow, a book on the impact of the war on drugs on Black men and women, James Forman, Jr. of Yale Law School raised a criticism or two, including that he feels the book “ignores the violent crime wave of the 1970s and minimizesContinue reading ““But there are lots of people of color who support this policy, so it isn’t racist””

Finding home (or, A million different Occupies)

I attended my very first Occupy the Hood meeting tonight. It’s not like I was unaware of the movement–my co-pastor and I expressed enthusiasm and concern about Occupy Oakland almost simultaneously almost from the beginning, and when we read this article http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/10/occupy_the_hood.php in October, we were pretty sure this was where we belonged. But thenContinue reading “Finding home (or, A million different Occupies)”