On the expendability of brown people

This will probably seem very stream-of-consciousness.

I've started and deleted about seven posts about both Israel's completely disproportionate, fucked-up moral calculus invasion of Gaza and (especially) the murder of handcuffed, face-down, goddamn-white-cop's-knee-on-his-fucking-neck, shot-in-the-back Oscar Grant, and I can't complete them, because I get too angry and I forget about the good stuff in the world, and I'd rather be playing with Abbie.

Last summer my stepbrother told me about several incidents in which the LA cops openly harassed him while riding his bike home from work. I'll give you three guesses what my stepbrother looks like.

There's a reason young black people are so angry.



There's a reason young black people are so angry.


I AM SEAN BELL, black boys speak from Stacey Muhammad on Vimeo.

"How many times are they going to reload next time?"



I'll be in DC all next week for the Obama inauguration. Remember that happy, hope-change feeling?



I have to say, my heart is heavy and confused.

I don't even want to talk about Gaza even a little bit. I want to go back to my happy place, where an adorably urchiny and precocious two-year-old made out of a little bit of my self and a little bit of the man I love sings along to German electronica from the 70s, then snuggles into my arm to take a nap.



I wish Oscar Grant's 4-year old daughter, and all those boys who are also Sean Bell, and all the children of Gaza, and those Israeli children who have also suffered could join her.