A health and public policy blog
Last month we celebrated an American hero, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As the holiday drew near I began to wonder at his legacy. I wondered what he will make of America today. My 8-year old was rRead More…
Racism in the US is as old as the nation. In looking for solutions one approach almost always stands out. We need to address the entrenched racialized narrative we have internalized and keep telling Read More…
Current data suggests that many African countries appear on the list of the most religious countries in the world. A closer look at our religious identities suggests that most Africans belong to two Read More…
The debate over paying reparations for US Blacks is a centuries old question. It starts way back in the early days of “40 acres and a mule”. Today most of us know what became of that very good intentRead More…
So what drove the ascent of Donald J. Trump? I have teased out six main reasons why some 63 million Americans voted for him in 2016. Approximately 70 million did this time around. Despite every failiRead More…
All human societies develop and advance through different experiences and upheavals. Over four centuries American society has evolved from chattel slavery to systemic racism. The underlying reason fRead More…
One of my favorite Presidents once said “A president’s hardest task is not to do what is right, but to know what is right” Lyndon Baines Johnson. Born in Ghana in the 1970s one may wonder how I know Read More…
In 1619 a Dutch sheep landed in the Virginia colonies with 20 Africans captured from Angola. This was the first recorded shipment of slaves to any of the lands constituting present day USA. This howeRead More…
Growing up on the coast meant that I always wondered about the sea. Driving by the beach and seeing the waves beating on the shores was always a joy to behold. Up to today watching and listening to tRead More…
“…….. He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” And again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. And when they heard it they began to go out one by oneRead More…
In 1960 in response to police brutality, the Black Panther Party embarked on a program called “Copwatching” in which they patrolled the streets of Oakland lawfully carrying loaded firearms to patRead More…
As I watched the biopic of one of the Greatest American Generals ever, U. S Grant and his role in winning The Civil War and keeping the Union together, I could not help but wonder at the number of NoRead More…
In the last 2 decades most new jail and prison developments in the US a country with one of the highest prison populations in the world are in rural and suburban districts. Data reported by the LondonRead More…
In a previous post I wrote about my evolving experience with the LGBTQ community. Whilst being a black man from Africa did help me understand what it may feel like to be gay or queer, it was also a grRead More…
In 2002 a University of Colorado psychology Professor Joshua Correll undertook a study using a first person shooter video game. This was to study police officer decision making with regards to the usRead More…
Right after the elections of Barack Obama, the first Black president of the United States, I heard lots of people including some TV analysts declare that America has entered a “post-racial” era whRead More…
In today’s America where white nationalist match in the streets with tiki torches and scream “Jews will not replace us”, immigrant Americans like myself who happen to be non-white can sometimes wondeRead More…
Over the past decade the availability of commercial gene sequencing technics that provide information on the approximate geographic sources of our genes have increased significantly. These products aRead More…
In Election year 2016, forty-two percent of Americans did not vote, a significant proportion of them like myself were recent immigrants from “shithole” countries! I guess most of them believed their vRead More…
I have been very lucky when it come to religious education. I grew up in the Anglican Church; actually my elementary education was in a school affiliated with the Church. In those days we would all maRead More…
It has become abundantly clear to me that black people in America belong to a different subspecies of Homo sapiens! I have grouped them into a subspecies Homo sapiens blackus, and in my case Sub SubspRead More…
In the past few years there have been many protests and struggles across this country surrounding the fate of several monuments depicting confederate leaders. One such protest which occurred in the Read More…
Living in the great multi-cultural society, which is today’s America is an opportunity that I have grown to love and cherish. I love the fact that when I step out on the streets I could be interactiRead More…
I rarely have dreams! And on the rare occasions that I have dreamt, I barely remember the contents of my dream! I guess I am not prone to hypnopompic and hypnagogic hallucinations! If I were the MartiRead More…
Before I came to America I was made to believe that America was this “melting pot” of people from all over the world. A huge successful experiment where people from all walks of life and continentRead More…