Tag: jessicajohnson

As Women’s History Month celebrations continue, my column this week focuses on Dr. Dorothy Height, who former President Barack Obama called the “godmother” of the civil rights movement.

The contentious fallout from “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams’ alarming YouTube tirade encouraging whites to “get the hell away” from Black people had me yearning for a simpler time, a time long before “cancel culture” infiltrated the news.

The East Lansing community is still reeling from the Michigan State University mass shooting last month that resulted in five students being critically wounded and three losing their lives.

Like many educators, I am learning more about ChatGPT and its potential impact on student writing for the future.

As sportswriters’ reflections on Super Bowl LVII are now being archived until football ramps up again during the upcoming fall 2023 NFL season, I’ve continued to think about the message in Anthony Mackie’s pre-game “Ragged Old Flag” promotional spot that aired to get viewers into a stirring, patriotic mood.

For the past several years, the women’s ministry at my church put on what we call our annual “Love Fest” during the weekend before Valentine’s Day. At this gathering, we receive encouraging words from our pastor on how to take comfort in loving ourselves through Christ’s unfailing compassion for us and how to uplift others with our giving, whether through finances or sacrificing our time.

I finally brought myself to watch a shortened clip of the brutal beating of Tyre Nichols by Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith, the five former Memphis police officers who have now been charged with second-degree murder.

This year’s National Day of Racial Healing town hall, sponsored by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, examined the ongoing danger that white supremacist ideology poses to our nation, as well as the challenges many schools have in teaching the truth about our country’s oppressive history against racial and ethnic groups.

In my television diversity course that I teach at Ohio State University’s Lima campus, one of the first subjects that my students are asked to examine is the cultural ideology of the American Dream.

“You may lose a limb, but you never thought you would lose a life.” — Michael Irvin