Month: February 2025

Current Events, Life in general, and perhaps the Pursuit of Happiness, Politics, Viewing the world through Juke-colored glasses

Hoodies and Potential: From Trayvon to Josh

Sixty-Two and the Cycles of Time (Or, How I’m Still Figuring Things Out) This week marks my 62nd birthday, a milestone that feels both surreal and somehow inevitable. It’s hard to reconcile the number with how I feel—mostly, my knees remind me of the passage of time! But I also recognize that I’ve lived long …

African-American History, History

The Double-Edged Sword of Legacy: My Father’s Work and Its Unintended Impact

A Wake-Up Call Recently, I have been confronted with some troubling developments that have compelled me to reflect deeply on my father’s legacy and how his work has been interpreted—and at times, misinterpreted. My father, William Henry Mackey, Jr., was a scholar and teacher of Black history—though to him, it was simply history. He believed …