Drick Boyd's Blog
Will the Elders Please Step Up
This past week as part of the Urban Studies residency I had the opportunity to spend an intense week with a group of talented, highly motivated graduate students preparing to work in urban communities across North America. However, my most impressive encounter was not...
The Don't Ask, Don't Tell Party
The Republicans announced that sometime soon they will come out with their legislative agenda for the coming legislative term. I, along with a lot of other people, have come to refer to the Republicans as the “Party of NO” because up to now their strategy has been to...
Taking Us Back to The Real Past
One of the benefits of being a university professor is that often I get to pose questions to my students that I am asking myself. Unbeknown to them my students become my counselors to my personal queries. This fall I am teaching Race and Ethnic Relations, a course in...
Not Learning from History: American Attitudes Toward Islam
For the past several weeks, the news has been filled with the debate over whether a proposed Islamic Cultural Center (inaccurately referred repeatedly to as a mosque) should be built near Ground Zero in New York. On top of that this week Pastor Terry Jones...
The Anti- War Alternative in Afghanistan
I was troubled and saddened to learn of the capture and murder of ten Christian medical aid workers on August 7 returning from providing eye care to rural Afghans; the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. When I heard of the attack my first reaction was: I...
Is the "Race to the Top" Rigged?
President Obama is to be commended for making the improvement of the nation’s public school system a national priority and for challenging states and school systems to completely re-think the way they deliver education through the program called Race to the Top....
Engaged Spirituality
Many years ago I began thinking that the classic forms of Christian spirituality that I had been taught in church and seminary just didn’t work for me. I came to faith in the evangelical tradition where a good Christian was supposed to have their daily “quiet time” of...
A Teachable Moment on the True Nature of Racism
The recent accusation of racism that led to the firing, apology and offer of a new job to Shirley Sherrod is instructive of many things on several levels. For those who may have missed it, conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart took a statement of Shirley Sherrod out...
Good to the Last Drop
This past week I attended the funeral of co-worker and good friend, Sheri Robinson. For the past three years Sheri had been battling cancer first of the breast and then the liver. Like any good “homegoing service” (a common term for funerals in the African-American...
What Happened at West Philadelphia High School?
I have shared some of my feelings about the terrible string of decisions and actions regarding West Philadelphia High School. However, I came across a blog (A Good Day of Teaching) that puts it well: Did Saliyah Criz Steal Arlene's Thunder?" (For those unaware of the...
Reflections from the U.S. Social Forum
This past week (June 22-26) I was in Detroit, Michigan for the Second Unites States Social Forum (USSF). The first US Social Forum was held three years ago in Atlanta, as an outgrowth of the World Social Forum that began in Brazil in 2001. While estimates varied...
What Else I Wish Obama Had Said
In Tuesday night’s speech President Obama sought to assure the nation that he was on top of the situation with the BP oil spill and that the company would be held accountable. As a result BP has been forced to set up an multibillion dollar emergency fund for victims...
Where Were All The Christians (& Other People of Faith)?
Last week (June 3-7) I attended the annual conference of Pedagogy and Theater of the Oppressed (PTO) at the University of Texas in Austin. This gathering brings together students, educators and practitioners working for healing and social justice in communities and...
When it comes to Educational Politics, Where are the Adults?
When it comes to educational politics, one wonders where the mature adults went to?The Neshaminy (PA) teachers have been in a long and protracted struggle with the local school board over their contracts. The teachers have worked without a contract for two years, and...
Jesus Camp
Recently, at the urging of my daughter I watched the movie Jesus Camp, a 2006 documentary film which follows the lives of several children in fundamentalist, Pentecostal families, and a charismatic children’s pastor named Becky Fisher. The film takes its name from a...