Being racist in America

I’m sure you saw the news a few weeks ago of a bus full of University of Oklahoma fraternity students who were caught on video chanting the following about their fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon:

There will never be a n*** SAE!

You can hang ‘em from a tree, but they’ll never sign with me!

There will never be a n*** SAE!

The uproar was swift and the consequences thorough: the fraternity shut down, all members required to move out within 24 hours, and the two young men shown leading the chant promptly expelled from the university. One thing was clear from this episode: we no longer tolerate blatantly racist words in our country.  Much has changed since the 1960s and the preceding decades (centuries).

What is less clear to me is whether we, white Americans in particular, really understand all that racism actually is.

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Book Review & Give-Away: The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got That Way

I will read anything that’s well written.  I like words, and I adore well-crafted sentences.  Good thinking and fresh insight delight me.

This book, The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got That Way, combines all of these things. Amanda Ripley is a talented journalist;  her research is thorough and her insights profound.

The Power of a Good Habit

I like to live by my whims.  I enjoy surprises and “playing it by ear.”  Unlike my husband some people who thrive on routines and predictability, I prefer to just wing it.  All the time.

I have discovered, though, the power of intentionally forming habits around specific goals.  I only set one goal for myself at a time.  Once I have determined an area I want to grow in – exercise, eating, my spiritual life, writing, you name it – I construct a weekly habit around it.  I think hard about how I can position a new activity in my weekly routine in such a way that it will succeed for the long term.  My strongest routines are weekly ones.  You may prefer daily or monthly routines.

Let’s look at exercise.