The Black Man and the Chicken I am a very black man. In fact, I think that I am one of the blackest men at the Graduate Center. I am so black that sometimes, when the sun is shining just right, I appear navy blue. As a kid, I was often teased by other black kids because of my color...
Living as a Muslim American woman goes beyond media depictions of Muslim identities. The lives of American Muslim women are understudied, and the assimilation challenges we experience navigating American culture often go beyond the expectations of most Americans. With that said, I would...
In a crowded Roman discotheque, one of the locals approached me, Peroni in hand, and began to play the “What’s Your Nationality” guessing game. “Cinese?” “No” I replied. “Giapponese?” he asked. “No!” Having exhausted his...
When my dad visited me recently, from Eastern Europe, we often took the L train between Brooklyn and Manhattan. While we traveled I’d amuse and surprise him by picking a spot to stand where (I would tell him) a seat would open within a station or two. I was never wrong about which...
Although I am a professor of criminal justice at John Jay College of Criminal, I am also a prison educator. For the past 17 years, I have taught courses to incarcerated men and women in prisons, jails, drug treatment centers, and halfway houses in Minnesota, New York, and Canada. Since...
