And whether any actual thieves wore a mask similar to Zorro. Zorro has worn several different styles of masks in his 101-year history. The character was created in 1919 by pulp fiction writer, Johnston McCulley (1883–1958). Zorro, which of course is the Spanish word for “fox,” appeared first in a…

10 Ways Policing in America Got it Wrong with Maurice Gordon. And Extra Credit. Dude this is all kinds of messed up. I watched the whole video. Here are my thoughts and how this reveals institutional racism in policing and how this tragedy is part of Anti-Blackness in America. -1…

Baton Rouge Activist Myra Richardson’s Quest to Create a Movement. [Author’s Note: Black and Brown readers — please feel free to skip this first part. …

Sometimes Books Talk Back. The writer is sad. He’s refreshed his email twenty-five times in the last five minutes. He sits at a small wood desk. He doesn’t know it, but the desk has been there, in what is now his cramped university office, since 1976. There’s a Venn Diagram…

Revealing the Latinx Origins to America’s Original Caped Crusader Was there ever a guy who galavanted around Old California wearing a mask and black cape, who went by the moniker “Zorro”? Short answer: No. Zorro is fiction. Don Diego de la Vega, the true identity of Zorro, was a product…

Antiracism Begins with Telling the Truth about American Slavery. My house is located in what used to be a forced labor camp. I live in the deep south. Baton Rouge, Louisiana. There’s no escape, it seems, from the landscapes of slavery. Consider my daily commute to work. I drive 1.9…

As Zorro turns 100, a look at the Portland, Oregon years of Johnston McCulley, Alias Convicted Rapist. There are many legends behind the mask of Zorro. There are also real flesh-and-blood men and women. It was my intention in writing a book about Zorro to discover the Latinx origins to…

In the Series Finale, the Time Team Meets the Gold Rush Bandit The NBC show Timeless follows a group of time travelers who are desperately trying to stop a shadowy organization named Rittenhouse from changing history for the worse. …