Author: Clio

Current and future sons of America, we have failed you. Two weeks ago, a white man entered a college classroom and started shooting. Another man, Riley Howell, charged at him. Howell died in the process of stopping the shooting. Last week, two white men entered high school classrooms and started shooting. Another man, Kendrick Castillo,…

I used to think the solution to toxic masculinity was to rebuild the traditional gender binary in a healthy way. Now I’m not so sure. On the one hand, I don’t know that there’s anything intrinsically wrong with archetypes of “protector” and “nurturer,” with whatever characteristics we wish to assign to those categories. And I…

Should incarcerated felons be allowed to vote? Vermont Senator and Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders set off a firestorm recently by stating an unequivocal, unconditional “yes.” Even the Boston Marathon bomber. Even rapists and murderers. Even “terrible people,” Sanders insisted, deserve to vote. I know what my argument would have been when I was more idealistic. And…

I’ve changed how I think about the police. When I was younger, I used to think that the police were there to protect us from crimes, and to keep the peace. Now, my thoughts are more complicated than that. I still think the police are there to protect me from crimes. But that’s because I’m…

In Octavia Butler’s “Kindred,” the protagonist Dana is fretting about how the other slaves see her as being “white” because of her relationship with the masters. Carrie, a mute slave, rubs Dana’s face to show that the blackness doesn’t rub off. Dana is black no matter what. I have always identified as a white person….

Former Vice President Joe Biden has been accused of inappropriately touching women throughout his career. What makes these touches different than those of other scandals, such as Al Franken’s lascivious “breast-grabbing” photo or the multiple allegations of sexual assault against Bill Clinton, is that Biden’s alleged touches are not apparently overtly sexual in nature. This…

I was raised to talk first, think second. I was raised to speak from a place of authority, whether or not I know what I’m talking about. My father was a minister. He was the voice of his community, a booming presence, a font of knowledge. He was my primary model for manhood, and he…

So, anyway, about that Gillette PSA. At the end of December, I decided to take a break from writing for The Good Men Project. I had been producing an article nearly every week for over two years, as well as doing a bit of editing. I was dealing with several major personal issues, including the…

Michael Cohen recently testified in front of Congress that Donald Trump is, in his view, a racist. Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) argued that Trump can’t be racist because he has black associates, a transparent variation of the tired “I have black friends” defense. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) called Meadows out, leading to a five minute…

For the last few months, I’ve regularly seen Terry Crews being featured on short lists of models of non-toxic masculinity, alongside Mister Rogers, Bob Ross, and only a few others. Crews had a #MeToo moment that was followed by other examples of him speaking out against the negative way that many men grow up in….