The Supreme Court is poised to overturn race-based affirmative action. But preferences based on socioeconomic disadvantageโwhich are both politically popular and legally soundโcould produce similarly high levels of diversity.
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This was originally published atย The Rumpusย on June 6, 2019.
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The Wind Did What the Wind Came to Do
Youโve seen the tired ceremony of felled trees.
Youโve seen the sparrows toss their dignity aside
for the hollow howl at eveningโs edge,
and the humble earth saying, Here, have the night,
do with it what you please, the perfect moment
of love where an offering requires nothing in return.
Though it wasnโt love. There was the bowed trees.
There was the black clouds galloping across the sky.
There was the wind that moved as if the definition
of hunger, going and going, but going only out of habit,
nesting into that habit as we do when reaching
a familiar field, the natural gust of the body responding
to what it finds filling; patterned; rested in the chore
of passion. What if this were love, if the wind bargained
for beauty, let go of its kingdom? It must have a thirst
for tendernessโstillness in the heart. Oh surely
the distance is closing ever so slightly.
Stay inside me until the storm dies down.
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Such Things Require Tenderness
Into the rain, he walksโ
the rain falling like light
falls before a stormโ
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย and he never looks back.
About storms, truly, what did I know?
I knew beauty. The clouds gathering
gray as infidelity
or the taste of it in my mouth.
No, thatโs not beauty.
Before the storm, birds.
Before the birds, a discarded shirt,
a black hat with a dead rose.
This is the last time, he said.
I did what storms do: held
against the long night, made longer
by my howls and crashing,
which, by now, as he dissolves
into the cadence of rain, is only a memory.
One day, when Iโm alone
and the birds make use of their boredom,
Iโll return to this place
to watch him walk again
and again into the rain
knowing I must forget such turmoil
if, by the laws of nature,
I want to grow.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย โThe rain is clearing.
I hold out my hand.
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The Dead Are Beautiful Tonight
Even the trees are moaning.
Black bark, black faces,
and winterโs stern hand at the neck.
They say itโs the worse one yet,
but theyโve all been the same.
The dead die every year
and I think Iโm too good
for such repetition. The truth is,
Iโve gained so little this season
that the things Iโve lost paint the day
a rough stillness. I donโt tell him this,
but I want my life to end.
He wants another hallelujah
in bed with me
and I donโt blame him.
Our lives are so ridiculed with desire
sometimes. I used to want the romance
of trees, the subtle blue conversation
between the sky and crows. I canโt help
but study the things that bare
my resemblance and that makes me selfish.
But the crow, headless in the bush,
has been there all week
and if I canโt bring it back to life,
what else am I supposed to do?
So much is my want
for everything black around me to live.
Where does want get me?
I have my limits, my childish dreams
barreling into the mindโs fog.
I want, but I must be careful.
A shower here or a shower there,
the trees will still be
a spiderโs web of what was.
Itโs true what they say about the day
disrobing into a sudden stroke
of sorrowโthe poor moon,
I hear, is dying. As are the stars,
although many of them are dead already.
I unthread the evening
and he arranges on the bed
how he see fits, ready to love me
the blackest way he knows howโ
salt in my mouth
light in the corners of my eyes.
It's Martin Luther King, Jr. day in the United States. And Marc Lamont Hill took to his twitter to make sure we keep it real. He tweeted: "Today, let us remember Martin Luther King as he was: A Black radical anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, revolutionary Christian internationalist who was deemed an enemy of the State and assassinated for his radical work. โ Read the rest
Dr. King said, "We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. It comes through the time and persistent work of dedicated individuals." Grateful to everyone carrying on the legacy of Dr. King and making a difference in their communities. pic.twitter.com/TKA0fniWVv
โ Tim Cook (@tim_cook) January 16, 2023