Last March, I was invited by Christine Pearl ’11 to facilitate a book club session on my second favorite Toni Morrison novel, “Beloved.” The session was an extension of the efforts of the nonprofit organization Red Wine & Blue, whose mission is to empower and...
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It’s Black History Month and NC Republicans Introduced a Bill to Limit Teaching of Black History
Renee Sekel, a Cary mom who works for the NC chapter of Red Wine & Blue, a group that seeks to mobilize suburban moms to get involved in politics, also opposes the bill. “I think most parents—and most kids—want our schools to teach accurate and complete history. ...
Stateside Podcast: The parents on the other side of the phone
On the night of the shooting at Michigan State University, students faced four hours of a shelter-in-place order. During that time many students were in communication with their parents; texting and calling them. On the other end of the phone, parents had to manage...
Reproductive rights advocates tell legislators to reject more abortion restrictions
Janice Robinson recalled a scary time when she was a pregnant 15-year-old in South Carolina, almost 50 years ago. Her mother took her to have an abortion. Her mother took her not to a medical doctor, but someone unlicensed and working in secret. Robinson said she...
After Oxford, gun violence advocates felt helpless. But there’s hope for change in Michigan now.
Kelly Dillaha, the mother of twins who attend MSU and were barricaded in their room just off campus during the mass shooting, said the school could not have done anything differently to prevent Monday’s violence. What would make a difference, she said, is gun reform....
‘We all ran for our lives’: MSU students describe mass shooting as a never-ending nightmare
Michigan State University students are angry. Yes, they are traumatized; yes, they are overwhelmed with grief and sadness. They know they will need mental health support in the coming days, weeks, months, and years. But, right now, in the wake of three students being...
MSU mom, anti-gun violence advocate calls for solutions after campus shooting
A Michigan State University mother and anti-gun violence advocate says Monday’s deadly shooting on campus reinforces her efforts to achieve sensible gun control. Kelly Dillaha’s phone was flooded Monday night with messages from concerned friends asking about her twin...
Michigan State Mom, Activist Hopes Shooting Will Lead To Gun Reform
Kelly Dillaha and her husband, Scott, were watching television in their Birmingham home Monday evening when their phones started blowing up with texts asking if their twin sons, Aidan and Brandon Johnson-Hill, students at Michigan State University, were OK. They...
Interview: ‘We Were Having None of It’
Katie Paris founded Red Wine & Blue in 2019 to help suburban women engage in politics. By the end of the 2020 election, it had grown into ‘a pretty passionate fight against rightwing extremism.’
White women have long been unreliable voters for Democrats. Could that change in 2024?
Jennifer Pippin had been a registered Democrat since she was 18-years-old. But a decade later, in 2014, she switched to the Republican Party. "I felt like more of the Republican values were my values," said Pippin, a 37-year-old surgical and operating room nurse from...
Recent Posts
Okay, But Why is Gerrymandering Legal?
Lawmakers in Texas made headlines for leaving their state to protest the unfair re-drawing of district maps, known as gerrymandering. Almost all Americans, regardless of political party, are against gerrymandering. But over the past few decades, it’s gotten worse and worse.
So… what exactly is gerrymandering? Why is it legal? And how do we get back to a fair system where all of our votes matter equally?
Okay, But Why Were The Suburbs Shaped By Racism?
We know that the suburbs have been diversifying over the past few decades, and today “suburban woman” is no longer code for “white woman” – no matter how much the media tries to simplify us. But there’s no denying that the suburbs have excluded families who aren’t white for most of their history, and if we’re not careful, they will again in the future. So why – and how – did the suburbs end up so white for so long? What happened to make them more diverse, and why are some people worried that we’re reversing that progress?
Do This: Start Talking About Racism
Anti-racism is not just a state of mind, it’s an active way of living our day-to-day lives. It’s the intentional practice of taking ongoing steps to confront racism in an effort to end it. Sometimes that might mean calling out overt examples of racism when we see...
Watch This: What Can We Do About Racism?
As we take on the work of anti-racism, we’ll probably run into friends and family who have varying degrees of understanding about it. Some may have their own deeply personal experiences with racism. Their stories are important and can teach us valuable lessons. But...
Read This: Anti-Racism, It’s More Than Any Of Us Think
None of us want to think of ourselves as racist, and it’s true that we don’t intend to be. But saying (and believing) that we’re “not racist” is not enough to tackle the very real problem of racism in America. We need to be anti-racist. But what exactly does that...