Melvin Bray is author of the book BETTER: Waking Up to Who We Could Be and lead facilitator for the consultancy firm Collabyrinth, which helps communities of goodwill design better systems and structures, policies and practices, that transform persistently inequitable outcomes into equitable ones.
Posts By This Author
Should We Treat White Supremacy Like an Addiction?
In the wake of the Charlottesville, Va., white nationalist race riot, several writers have reached for the metaphor of addiction to help characterize the gravity of what America is facing and the grip it has on us. It's easy enough to understand why one would choose this particular comparison, especially when you take time to explore how compulsive behaviors affect the individuals engaged in them, their families and friends, and even their brains. The outcomes over time are devastating.
Is Lamb to the Slaughter the Best We've Got?
Many children, many wearing hoodies in solidarity for Trayvon Martin march together. Photo by Roberto Gonzalez/Getty Images
I don't want to say too much. I don't want to over-explain. I know that leaves lots of room for misinterpretation. I just want to ask you to wrestle with a few questions.
I was asked last week what my greatest fear as a father of a black boy is in light of the Trayvon Martin murder. My greatest fear for my children is the cautious regret I see on the many faces that can’t help but leave open the possibility there may be some justification for this tragedy. Rest assured George Zimmerman and his supporters will exploit this deep-seated immutable suspicion, just like Susan Smith did so many years ago.
Why People of Color Should Attend the Wild Goose Festival
The Implications of Calling Cordoba House a "Mosque"
The Immoral Impediments to Immigration Reform
Interview with Brian McLaren About 'A New Kind of Christianity' (Part 2)
Interview with Brian McLaren About 'A New Kind of Christianity'
Author Brian McLaren's A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That
A Prayer of Confession, Repentance, and Action for Haiti
'Irreconcilable Islam' and Irascible Christianity, Part 2
Gingrich Labels 'Irreconcilable Wing of Islam' but Ignores Irascible Christianity
Health-Care Reform: Leading with Respect
Professor Gates, Sgt. Crowley, and the Balance of Power
New York Post Monkey Cartoon: Beyond the Pale
Seeking Reconciliation Before and After the Election
Another Look at The New Yorker's Obama Cartoon
To presume is human, to reconsider sublime. At least that's what I'm beginning to believe as a father of three. Fatherhood asks one to do a great deal with often incomplete, misleading, and sometimes outright false information -- from arbitrating disputes to meting out appropriate consequences to picking cereal. I am loathe to admit the number of times I've rushed to judgment or totally misunderstood something as a dad. Sometimes the only thing that spares me from acting on dubious [...]
Brain Surgery with a Switch-blade
The Fourth of July is always a weird holiday for me. It's not that I don't enjoy the nostalgia, picnics, barbeque, fireworks, and romanticizing of history--I do--yet as a student of history I can't help but be reminded of the July 5, 1852, speech of Frederick Douglass, given at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, NY. If you haven't, you should read it: "This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn." This was a [...]
Medical Competition: A Satirical Op-Ed from the Future
I have the pleasure of starting us off. Allow me to jump into the future about 24 years. A freelance language artist, Langstyn Huse (one of several figments of my imagination), has a recently syndicated column, the Absurdity of Modernity. In brief, it's political satire related to the issues of the 2032 election. [...]
Introducing 'theGuild' and 'Eyes to See': New Creative Images of the Gospel
I believe that most of our faith metaphors have either been domesticated, adulterated, appropriated, become insular, or are utterly sedate. They either serve little, serve the wrong, serve ourselves, or serve nothing. All of which is a serious problem, for images move the hearts of humanity. They motivate and [...]
Don Imus and VA Tech - A Year Later
It was only a short year ago that "shock jock" Don Imus chose to refer to the accomplished women playing in the NCAA Basketball Finals as "nappy-headed hoes," later billing the match-up for his listeners as the "jiggaboos" versus the "wannabes." Imus' disrespect came as little surprise. He had a long history of slur and slander against Blacks, Africans, Asians, Latinos, Jews, Arabs, women, homosexuals, the poor, and just about anyone he considered unlike himself. And he had been paid [...]
Exorcising Racial Demons: Part II
So what do we do, my friends, in the face of our undeniably incongruent histories-which give us reason to forever suspect one another, a reason dramatically subverted by the call to embrace one another in the way of Jesus?
I believe Diana Butler Bass, again, shows us a way forward. She made the following comment while participating in a panel discussion at the last American Academy of Religion conference. The original context of her thought was the pursuit of [...]