I love Islam and cream soda

Ten Years Later: From Forced Silence to Precedent — The Beard They Tried to Take, and the Voice They Couldn’t Ten years ago, I stood inside a Colorado prison intake facility and was told to do something that violated my faith, my dignity, and my humanity: shave my beard. It wasn’t about safety. It wasn’t about policy applied equally. It was about power — and the assumption that a man in custody has no voice, no rights, and no future. This month, after a decade-long legal fight, that assumption was proven wrong. I reached a settlement with the State of Colorado for $245,000 — not just compensation for what was done to me, but recognition that what happened was unlawful. More importantly, it sets a precedent for others who may face similar violations of religious freedom and human dignity. But this victory didn’t begin in a courtroom. It began with a long chain of injustice — and a refusal to be erased. The Road Back to Prison — and Back to Truth My original incarceration ste...

I’ve always believed you don’t owe explanations to anyone. The people who walk with you don’t need them. And the people who don’t were never going to believe you anyway. That belief has guided me for most of my life—especially in moments when silence would’ve been more convenient, but truth was more necessary. Survival Is Not a Secret In 2020, I was shot multiple times with .40 caliber bullets by my ex-wife’s boyfriend, at her direction. I’ve never hidden that fact. Not because I enjoy reliving it, and not because I’m trying to shock anyone—but because survival is part of my story, and witnesses don’t erase chapters to make other people comfortable. I didn’t treat that moment as the end of my life. I treated it as another chapter in a long story of resilience, refusal, and survival. That honesty made some people uncomfortable. I didn’t—and don’t—care. Silence has never been my role. Witnessing is. When Chaos Escalates After the shooting, the harassment continued the way it ...

It was May 29, 2020. A Friday—Jumu'ah, the sacred day of the week in Islam. For me, it was a day of celebration, reflection, and, ultimately, survival, because by the end of it I would be fighting for my life.  Earlier in the week, I had built a crib for my son. Vernon hadn’t arrived yet, but I was getting ready. His mother was nesting—physically and emotionally—and I was doing my part to make sure she had everything she needed. That Saturday, the plan was to help her move furniture and put stuff into storage, helping clear space in her place and in our lives for this new beginning. I was exhausted, sure—but excited. I wasn’t just preparing for a baby. I was preparing to be a father, fully and with intention. During the day, I was working as a care manager for Second Chance Center in Aurora. Our office had gone virtual because of COVID, but the work didn’t stop. We kept the services alive through rotating the office cell phone among care managers, being on-call ...

In American culture, the concept of what it means to be "American" has often been framed through a lens of whiteness, creating a complicated dynamic in racial relations, particularly between Black and white communities. This essay explores how the understanding of identity, privilege, and power dynamics has evolved, particularly in light of historical and contemporary issues surrounding race, gender, and cultural perceptions. From the arrival of African slaves, the notion of Americanness was interwoven with the idea of whiteness. Enslaved Africans were among the first to recognize the societal construct that privileged white identity. This realization ignited a yearning for acceptance, leading to a complex dialogue around skin color, cultural identity, and the futile attempts of some to imitate or assimilate into white society. The desire to be perceived as "white" has historically manifested in various cultural debates, including present-day discussions about inter...

This is Nicholas Dreystadt, and in 1934, the Cadillac car company was on the brink of collapse, especially due to the Great Depression. Nick, a production manager for GM, crashed a corporate meeting called by the president, and made a radical proposal that changing the company's racist / restrictive sales policies to start selling Cadillac to Black people would save the brand.  He wasn't sure why, but Dreystadt noticed that southern Blacks were easily and willing to spend cash for cars. Desperate, the board gave him months to prove his theory. In three years, the company went from being broke to becoming profitable. What Nicholas had not taken specific note of was that the reason Black people had money was because they didn't lose it during the depression like white people did - who lost most of their money when banks went under.  Racist policies restricted Black people from having accounts, so they generally saved their money and oftentimes hid it (often times literally in...

**"I originally wrote this in 2004... If you paid attention in civics class you remember that Trump is not really new and in regards to presidential elections, he has set us up for deja vu. 1912 we elected a president very similar to him. Woodrow Wilson is historically known for his support of white supremacy and for his efforts to remove many of the advances and freedoms of black people, especially in government and in the military. his post- World War bungling of bringing soldiers back home actually caused the race riots of 1919 where disgruntled and disenfranchised white former soldiers rediscovered their inherent racism and began attacking and killing black workers out of jealousy and economic desperation. His foreign policy missteps post World War 1 created the climates that allowed for the control of  international territories by allied victors such as Japan, who colonized parts of China,  Asia, and even the Middle East, which later led to Brazilian jujitsu a...