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…
Author: Clio
So, Anyway, About That Gillette PSA…
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…
The Fatigue Strategy
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…
Terry Crews: The Baby and the Bathwater
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….
Dr. Seuss and Cultural Sensitivity
Saturday, March 2, is the NEA’s Read Across America Day, also known as Dr. Seuss Day. I’ve been thinking a lot this year about Dr. Seuss, and not generally in a good way. ◊♦◊ For the last year or two, when reflecting on my writing voice and on my perceptions of what I’m entitled to,…
Peter Tork and the Box We Can’t Escape
Peter Tork, one of my childhood icons, died last week. He was 77. The Monkees’s movie “Head” was released in 1968, the year I was born, but I didn’t see it until I was an adult. This is despite the fact that I was an avid watcher of reruns of “The Monkees” as a child….
do you think that my father
do you think that my father ever wanted to wear a frilly summer dress and pirouette through the fields with the birds and the butterflies? he was a big man towering at six and a third feet and greeted as the buddha incarnate by children in china but maybe inside of him was a fragile…
Why “Bird Box” Is Part of a Racial Commentary
I’m a white man who has neither read the novel “Bird Box” nor seen the movie. Which makes me the perfect person to respond to Michael Harriot’s satirical review of it on The Root. Harriot’s title says that the movie is really about how white people don’t want to see racism. He makes his case…
An Ugly Truth About Ugly Christmas Sweaters
It’s ugly Christmas sweater season. I usually don’t think much about ugly Christmas sweaters. They seem harmless enough. But as a public school teacher, I have learned that there are few things that are truly harmless. Before I talk specifically about sweaters, I’ll recap teacher rights and limitations with regards to religious expressions. ◊♦◊ On…
How I Lost My Voice
Once upon a time, I used to write a lot of fiction. I was going to be a famous novelist one day. I was pretty good at it, too; I won a few awards in high school, then somehow became jaded with the process and lost my drive, my focus, my mojo. During the time…