Category: Good Men Project

Language is constantly changing to suit the needs of its speakers. When I was a child, a major shift was occurring in support of feminism. Formerly-gendered terms like “policeman” and “fireman” became “police officer” and “firefighter” in order to recognize the growing presence of women in those careers. “Spouse” and “partner” gained prominence alongside gendered…

Movies about prodigies generally focus on the extraordinary talents of the child, while the conflict revolves around protecting the child from someone who wants to exploit or destroy them. “Gifted” (currently in limited release, releasing nationally on April 21) starts with a different goal: protecting the prodigy from the social alienation that comes from their…

A recent meme asks: What color are the strawberries? Most people will see the strawberries as being red even though there is no “red” pixel in the image. Our minds fill in the red because of our experience with strawberries, and because we can tell the entire image has a blue filter. There is an…

I remember Bill Clinton’s impeachment, and the months leading up to it. I remember him saying emphatically, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.” Even when he admitted to having had sexual relations with a subordinate in a workplace provided by taxpayers, he claimed it was a “private” matter. And the…

February began with University of California Berkeley canceling a planned lecture by controversial alt-Right speaker Milo Yiannopoulos following violent protests opposed to his appearance. Conservatives referred to the decision as censorship by “leftist cowards” organizing a “liberal lynch mob.” Some accused UC-Berkeley itself of censorship, even though the decision was motived by public safety, not opposition to Yiannopoulos’s…

A recent cartoon by Conservative Glen McCoy shows newly-confirmed Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos being escorted by four faceless men in suits past a wall spray-painted with the graffito “Conservative.” DeVos was recently blocked from the front entrance of a school in Washington, D. C. The cartoon’s historical reference is to Norman Rockwell’s “The Problem…

A viral video recently circulated showing a black male teacher greeting each student in his elementary school class with a different handshake. It was praised as a teacher engaging with his students on their own terms. Shortly after, a second video emerged. I will discuss the second video, but my comments on it require some…

It’s said that a picture is worth a thousand words. I recently saw a photograph whose context spoke volumes. A little over a week ago, Donald Trump issued an Executive Order regarding the entry of non-citizens from seven countries. Even long-term residents holding green cards were at risk of being detained at the border. In one…

When Chuck Todd of “Meet the Press” accused Sean Spicer of spreading “falsehoods,” Presidential spokesperson KellyAnne Conway called them “alternative facts.” Social media erupted with mockery of the term, making up other wishful thinking “falsehoods.” This is the next step in the evolution on the ongoing attempt by certain portions of society to undermine the importance of…

This year began with a brutal, violent act: Four black adults apparently tortured a white man with special needs for several days in Chicago, livestreaming on Facebook portions of the assault. The next week, in a superficially unrelated story, a white man was sentenced to death for killing nine black people in an attack at the Emanuel…