Everyone Black Ain’t Always Your Brother

When I was a kid, I wasn’t a tattle-tale. That was highly frowned upon in my neighborhood—and in my family. With my family, I think it was because my parents didn’t have time for refereeing disputes and policing misconduct. In my ‘hood, it was because the only people who had ultimate authority to do anything […]

The Jewish Rule of Exception

This battle for respect is nothing new. Washington’s professional football team said as much. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ruled that the Washington Redskins’ name is “disparaging of Native Americans” and should be stripped of trademark protection — a decision that puts powerful new financial and political pressure on the NFL team to rename […]

Why White Santa Is Important

Merry Christmas to all of those who are still clinging to the images of American tradition that so warmed our hearts as children of the Baby Boom era.  As toddlers, we were taught the mainstream method to celebrate Christmas, thus “how to be American.” Just last week, Fox News commentator Megyn Kelly thought it necessary […]

The Golden Arch of the Universe Bends Toward Injustice

The Other Side of the Tracks commentary from Socially Speaking  by Perry Redd I’ve spent time talking and educating extensively on my radio Socially Speaking, about Walmart and its low wages, it’s resistance to cover its employees with health benefits and a host of other dishonorable workplace practices, but here I want focus on another […]

The New Kent State

The Other Side of the Tracks: A Socially Speaking commentary November 22, 2011 By Perry Redd   You might find this extreme. You may strongly disagree with this statement, but you’ll eventually agree that suppression of free speech is a common theme in the police reactions to Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests nationwide and those […]

Immigration In Your Back Yard

The Other Side of the Tracks: A Socially Speaking commentary July 5, 2011 By Perry Redd What are you all going to do when you find that the thing you hate is in your back yard? What I’ve come to learn is that with conservative ideology, many of the social and economic positions taken, like […]

The Very Recent War On Us

The Other Side of the Tracks: A Socially Speaking commentary February 22, 2010 By Perry Redd I wrote a song a few years back that I never really warmed up to, until I recorded it.  It was written while I sat behind the walls of a federal prison.  It was fueled by the reality of, […]

Define “Winnable”

The Other Side of the Tracks: A Socially Speaking commentary December 7, 2010 By Perry Redd We are witnessing a Battle At Little Bighorn in Congress over what to cut out of the budget to make our country fiscally sound.  A battle of the bullshitters is really what it is.  Tax cuts for the rich […]

A Dream Deterred: The False Lure of Capitalism

The Other Side of the Tracks: A Socially Speaking commentary November 30, 2010 By Perry Redd The dream is still alive.  Not the American Dream…that died years ago with the attack on Affirmative Action movement.  Not Martin Luther King’s dream…that died with the re-invent of conservatism with the Republican Revolution of 1994.  I’m talking about […]

Training Your Replacement

Can you believe the stupidity of the people who call themselves “true Americans?” Year after year, they fight against the people whom they are—the working class—by supporting big corporations that take from them. 15 years ago, it was Levis, then Fruit of the Loom, then it was Enron and today, it’s Hilton Hotels.