Category: Good Men Project

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…

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…

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…

As we re-examine our cultural artifacts, another Christmas icon is coming under fire: The TV movie “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” The brunt of the criticism is over the way in which Rudolph is consistently and cruelly bullied. As a child that was bullied for being different myself, I identified with Rudolph and Hermey, the elf…

It’s the Christmas season again, which means it’s time for the annual debate. Well, actually, it’s time for several annual debates: Is “Happy Holidays” a valid greeting, or is it the sign of a Liberal War on Christmas? Is Wham’s “Last Christmas” the GOAT of Christmas songs, or is it a cheesy artifact that should…

I feel awkward expressing gratitude on Thanksgiving. I haven’t been a fan for Thanksgiving for a long time. As a teacher, I appreciate the long weekend, but my family doesn’t tend to make a big deal of it. This year, for dinner, we had a modest meal. Something we might have had any other night….

I bet you know what I’m about to say. Not all of it, of course, not every detail. But by now, if you’ve read the headline, if you know what site this essay is on, and especially if you’ve looked at my bio or read any of my past articles, you have a pretty good…

I am a white man. This essay is about my gender, but first I’ll talk about my race. ◊♦◊ With my skin I inherit generations of abuse against people who are not white. This includes people whose skin looks like mine, but who were stripped of their whiteness because of their specific background: Irish. Polish….

My progressive and liberal friends are arguing again. The midterm elections are approaching. We’re reeling from several acts of violence including shootings that killed eleven at a temple and two at a grocery store, as well as over a dozen bombs mailed to prominent Democrats. Thousands of Hondurans are marching towards the US border despite…

Following the politically charged confirmation battle of Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump has a message: It’s a scary time for young men. In his universe, boys will now need to watch their actions around girls, apparently lest a moment of innocent privacy or a peck on the cheek gets remembered as a sexual assault decades from…