Slope of Hope Blog Posts

Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.

The Beast

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I grew up in the deep south of the United States, and the neighborhoods were de facto segregated. I was never taught racism, however, so in elementary school when I invited a black kid over to my house, he asked: “Will your parents mind?” I seriously didn’t know what he was talking about. “Why would they mind?” He replied: “Because I’m black.”

Well, I brought him over anyway, and we had a good time. Here in California, when people learn I’m from Louisiana, they assume I’m a bigoted redneck. The irony is that I’ve found the wealthy suburbs of the Bay Area to be far more racist than I ever knew in Louisiana. The zillionaires in Atherton are perfectly supportive of the coloreds, as long as they stay in East Palo Alto, as God intended.

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