Race
A Look Back at the Deadly ‘68 Riots
Fifty years ago this April, Kansas City experienced deadly riots that put the national spotlight on our city. They left six people dead, hundreds arrested and multiple blocks of the city in flames. Frustrated with the slow pace of civil rights reforms and outraged at the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., protesters in Kansas…
An Exchange of a Lifetime
By Debbie Coleman-Topi Amid the riots unleashed following the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., a spark of hope quietly ignited in the center of the country. That flicker was right here, in Kansas City, where Catholic leaders launched an experiment that confronted race head-on by bringing black and white students literally face to…
Wide Racial Gap Exists Between Teachers and Students in Jackson County Schools
By Lauren Langdon, Humera Lodhi and Tess Vrbil Janely Griffith Gonzalez realized the disconnect when she chaperoned field trips at Meadow Lane Elementary School in Lee’s Summit. Her 8-year-old daughter was in a class of mostly minority students, but the school had very few minority teachers. On one trip, a student started yelling on the…
This Halloween: What Does It Mean To Call Something ‘Spooky’?
Scared, fine. Frightened, sure. But spooked? This week, we dive into the racial history behind one of Halloween’s most fraught descriptors.
If Your Teacher Looks Likes You, You May Do Better In School
Think back to grade school for a moment and envision that one teacher who could captivate you more than any other. Did that teacher look a bit like you? One recent study says: probably. There’s mounting evidence that when black students have black teachers, those students are more likely to graduate high school. That new…
The Fatigue of Discomfort
Unless you often enter a space where you need to do an instinctive assessment of your environment based on race, you may not get why I’m so tired. This past weekend, between errands in another part of town, I spent a couple of hours knitting in a coffee shop. It was a hopping place. But…
Common Grounds | Flip the Script: A Police Take on the Issues
One of the story lines of this election year has been alarm over law and order in cities and police shootings of unarmed black Americans. This week in our Common Grounds coffee conversation series, we head to Kansas City, Kansas, where we get a police take on that polarizing issue. We bring together five KCK…
Commentary | The Prejudices of Patriotism
We have a funny relationship with patriotism in our country. Patriotism is about loyalty to and pride in our country. And, in many respects, nowhere does that get highlighted more than with the Olympics, where we salute gladiator-like battles every four years against other countries. Unfortunately, our competitors are allowed but one identity — American…
In the Crossfire
Just this week, the New York Times detailed a study finding that police are more likely to rough up blacks than whites, meaning tactics like cuffs, pepper spray, and forcing the suspect against a wall. However, it also found no racial bias in lethal force, the deadly shootings we’ve come to rally around. The graphic below doesn’t…
What If I Told You That Kansas City Is Not A Racist Community?
What if I told you that Kansas City is not a racist community? Instead, I tell you that Kansas City is a great city, with a lot of great people. It is also inhabited by a miniscule number of racially divisive people that come from all ethnic backgrounds. Terrelle Pryor, Sr., wide receiver for the…