Unpacking Detroit

The Sins of the Father ► A Pastoral Letter

Dear Pastor Kenny: It was great seeing you last month, as unexpected as it was. Almost immediately after the Not Now Silly Newsroom officially announced there would be no Sunrise to Canton Road Trip for Research this year …. What’s that old Jewish expression? “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.” Since God and I are not on speaking terms, I have absolutely no idea how He might have learned of my plans to stay home this year. ...

A Civil Rights Champion Born ► Throwback Thursday

Happy Birthday to Rosa Louise McCauley Parks, born on this day in 1913. On December 1, 1955, at the age of 42, Parks refused to give up her seat to ...

Is Ted Nugent Racist? ► Throwback Thursday

For this week’s Throwback Thursday I am — once again — reaching into my vast writing archives. In 2012 I was freelancing for Stones Detroit, a website out of…err…Detroit. This ...

Pastor Kenny Responds

Pastor Kenny. Pics stolen from his facebookery. A Response to Your Pastoral Letter (Or How One Pastoral Letter Begets Another, Begets Another, Begets Another) I’m a FB neophyte, so it took me ...

Finding An Old Friend ► Unpacking My Detroit

EMAIL TO: Pastor Kenny SUBJECT: Long Time No See Dear Pastor Kenny: Lately my life is in turmoil. I am in need of something pastoral. Tag. You’re it. I think back to the last ...

While Detroit Crumbled, Gilchrist Street Hung On

The little house I used to live in. Pops bought it for around $3,000 in 1957. I left Detroit in 1971, but my parents stayed in the little house I used ...

The 2nd Annual Sunrise to Canton Road Trip For Research

NOW UPDATED!!! BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND! SECOND YEAR RUNNING!! MORE THAN 3,000 MILES OF HARD ROAD!!! WORSE FOOD!!!! SIGN UP EARLY!!!!!! DON’T MISS OUT!!!!! MORE EXCLAMATION POINTS THAN LAST YEAR!!!!!!! Last ...

Where Did July Go? ► Unpacking The Writer

As July almost comes to a close, it’s time to look back on what has been an especially exciting month for me. A website I read and respect has seen ...

Another Dispatch From Detroit, ‘Merka’s First Throwaway City

Once upon a time Detroit was called “The Arsenal of Democracy.” However, the consequences of 60 years of White Flight — systemic racism, to be blunt — finally came home ...

50 Years Ago ► St. Augustine Beaches Integrated ► History Is Complicated

Florida Memory reminds us that it took blood and guts to integrate Florida beaches. On this day — June 25, 1964 — White segregationists attacked the participants of a “Wade-In” ...

The Sunrise to Canton Road Trip For Research

Dear Readers: I am taking a road trip north for some very deep research into one of my ongoing writing projects in a few weeks. I’ll be leaving Florida on June ...

Homeowners’ Associations Invented To Discriminate ► History Is Complicated

KEEP OUT! THIS MEANS YOU BLACK &JEW! Dateline May 3, 1948 – The Supreme Court ruled that restrictive covenants in real estate deeds — which specifically barred sales to Blacks, Jews, ...

Montgomery Bus Boycott ► Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used To Be

Dateline December 5, 1955 – Rosa Parks and E.D. Nixon began the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It lasted for just over one year. This is something that happened within my lifetime. It’s ...