The Consequences of Our Underwhelming Criminal Justice Reform Debate

With criminal justice reform figuring prominently in the early stages of 2016 Presidential race, its national moment has undeniably arrived. And with it our country’s march—or rather grueling slog—toward a system of greater humanity is rightfully celebrated. After all, we stand at the brink of repairing an institution that violently mocks American rhetoric about justice and equality. Excitement naturally flows from the near reversal of a policy hellscape that’s claimed the lives of so many.

Black Bottom ArchivesAugust 30, 2015Criminal Justice, Reform, Public Policy, Civil Rights, Systemic Racism, Eli DayComment

The Supreme Court and the 'Arc of the Moral Universe'

by Eli Day

Change in America often occurs at an agonizingly sluggish pace. We’ve come to expect our republic to operate precisely in the ways anticipated and forewarned by its architects: refining itself gradually, in fits and starts, shot through with truculent deliberation and factional quarreling. Battle lines are no longer merely drawn—they’re etched irrevocably into the fabric of our political universe, thwarting any hope of rapid change.

Black Bottom ArchivesJuly 7, 2015Eli Day, The Supreme Court, Morality, Politics, Public Policy, Racial OppressionComment

The Moral Case for Thinking Impractically

by Eli Day

Our long praise of pragmatic thinkers is stained by our meager respect for the rebels who were never practical enough to accept what was coming for them. Visionaries who saw through “well that just isn’t practical” as the evidence of thoughtlessness working hard to disguise itself as wisdom. That people have an interest in the disguise is unsurprising. But as James Baldwin once quipped, “One wishes they would say so more often.”

Black Bottom ArchivesJune 25, 2015Eli Day, Slavery, Liberation, Frederick Douglass, PragmatismComment

Metro Detroit Unity & the Tradition of American Mythology

by Eli Day

Mythology means never having to do the hard work of thinking, all while living safely in fantasy. But for black Detroit, rebranding the metro area as a haven of inclusion is little more than cheap varnish. It’s nostalgia for an era that never was. I wish it were otherwise, but the conquered can least afford the price of myth. The point isn’t that unity can never exist alongside tension; it's that unity, by definition, can never take hold where historical rifts remain.

Op-edsBlack Bottom ArchivesMay 13, 2015Eli Day, Racism, Racial Oppression, Detroit History, SegregationComment

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