With all of the blessings many of us enjoyed in 2010, there was a great deal of sorrow. A few of my dearest friends lost their fathers in the waning months and days of 2010 and are facing the new year without them. Some were blessed with very close and loving bonds. Others had relationships that were more complicated. All of those relationships will now take on a more poignant cast in 2011. But 2010 also brought an abundance of gifts. A year ago, I had no idea this gold mine of my father’s columns existed in the universe! And speaking of his writings, he may have had his own complicated relationship with his dad. At least so far, Ebenezer has not mentioned his father in his writings, though he gives props to his mom on a regular basis. Our fathers, living and dead, present or absent, helicopter dads and rolling stones, are alive in us and have a profound impact on who we are. Here’s hoping that their legacy makes us stronger and wiser.
Featured Posts
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Election days, then and now
Looking for something fresh to write about on Election Day, I searched my father’s columns for wisdom from the past. A footnote in a column published in the New York Age on November 3, 1934, implored readers to elect “Mrs. Eunice Carter” to the New York State Assembly. The name had a familiar ring. Five […]
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‘Was silence not an option?’
My barber called Kamala Harris a “ho.” The shop I go to is not the stuff of Black culture lore. It’s not a boisterous place. It doesn’t reek with toxic masculinity. It’s a nice, quiet, family friendly kind of enterprise. The worst I have been subjected to in the nearly three years I’ve gone there […]
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Standing on the shoulders of Black Legends
On Saturday, Feb. 17, I will be among several individuals inducted into the 2024 Class of the Black Legends of Silicon Valley. This is quite an honor. Previous recipients in the News and Documentary category in which I am being honored include journalists with stellar credentials. Loretta Green, an award-winning reporter for several local papers […]
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‘The Donna Collection’
My short story, “The Donna Collection” is included in the new anthology 166 Palms 2020. Buy the anthology on Amazon.
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Elaine Ray wins 2016 Gival Press Short Story Award
Blown away and humbled. The first piece of fiction I’ve ever gotten published wins an award. The story is published here.
Recent Posts
- Elections: Facing Forward
- Election days, then and now
- ‘Was silence not an option?’
- Eerie Echos of ‘Democracy Losing’
- Shout-out to bus drivers
- Standing on the shoulders of Black Legends
- Nearly 200 will gather for the Brown, Kell, Tildon, Williams Family Reunion
- “Good Trouble” nominated for a GLAAD Media Award
- Harriet Tubman at the Crossing
- Inside Essence: “Zuri Adele Is Teaching, Learning, And Storytelling Through Her Role On ‘Good Trouble'”


