Category Archives: Education

Revisiting _The Miseducation of the Negro_ This Black History Month

Posted on February 3, 2026 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Carter G. Woodson’s seminal book, The Miseducation of the Negro, published in 1926, is a book Black folk should periodically revisit, perhaps every three years, ideally every year. If you are Black and you have not read the book, then … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Education, ezwwaters, Lest We Forget, Politics, race, raising black boys, Slavery | Tagged 1619 Project, african-american, Aristotelian Logic, Aunt Jemima, Black history, Black History Month, Brown v. Board of Education, Candace Owens, Carter G. Woodson, Clarence Thomas, Classical Rhetoric, Compulsory Education Act (1852), culture, General Grammar, history, Jim Crow, Nicholas Capaldi, Plessy v. Ferguson, Russell Sage College, The Art of Deception: An Introduction to Critical Thinking, The Miseducation of the Negro, Tribium, U.S. Senator Tim Scott, Uncle Tom, writing | Leave a comment

Participatory Research: A How‑To Blueprint

Posted on September 2, 2025 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

A practical guide to co‑designing, conducting, and deploying participatory research in criminal legal system advocacy—grounded in the 2025 white paper on incorporating lived expertise. Continue reading →

Posted in crime, Education, ezwwaters, Justice Chronicles, Life Sentences, Parole, parole board, Reentry | Tagged co-design, criminal justice advocacy, lived expertise, participatory research | Comments Off

Toni Morrison Slays Moby Dick

Posted on April 28, 2025 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Toni Morrison writes that Moby Dick is “[a] complex, heaving, disorderly, profound text.” In my attempt, in my teens and twenties, to read as many “classics” as possible, I set out, like Ahab, to conquer the great white whale of … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Education, ezwwaters, James Baldwin, Politics, race | Tagged Aunt Jemima, book-review, books, Candace Owens, Herman Melville, horror, James Baldwin, January 6th, Kamala Harris, Many Thousands Gone, Moby Dick, reading, Supreme Clarence Thomas, Toni Morrison, Uncle Tom, Unspeakable Things Unspoken: The African American Presence in American Literature, W.E.B. DuBois, writing | Leave a comment

The Black Arts Movement

Posted on February 8, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

The theme for this Black History Month is African Americans and the Arts. For purposes of this blog, I’ll highlight the “Black Arts Era” (1960-1975). The Black Arts Era began at the very beginning of what Samuel F. Yette, influential … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Education, ezwwaters, John F. Kennedy, Lest We Forget, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Murder, Nation of Islam, Politics, race | Tagged Black History Month, Decisive Decade, democracy, JFK, Larry Neal, Malcolm X, MLK, Muhammad Ali, RFK, Samuel Yette, The Black Arts Era | 2 Comments

Happy Birthday to Black History Month!

Posted on February 7, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Black History Month is nearly 100 years old! Granted, it began as Black History Week, on February 7, 1926, and didn’t become Black History Month until February 10, 1976. My father, a Native Southern Son, was born in the same … Continue reading →

Posted in Black patriotism, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Education, ezwwaters, Fatherhood, Fathers, Growing Up, Lest We Forget, Patriotism, Politics, race, raising black boys, Revolution | Tagged Black History Month, Civil War, Frederick Douglass, Gerald Ford, Lost Cause, Miseducation of the Negro, MLK, Negro History Week, segregated U.S. Army, WEB DuBois, What is the Fourth of July to the Negro?, World War II | 2 Comments

Correcting The Miseducation of the Negro

Posted on February 3, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Posted in Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Education, ezwwaters, Lest We Forget, Politics, race, raising black boys, Slavery | Tagged 1619 Project, Aristotelian Logic, Aunt Jemima, Black History Month, Brown v. Board of Education, Candace Owens, Carter G. Woodson, Clarence Thomas, Classical Rhetoric, Compulsory Education Act (1852), General Grammar, Jim Crow, Nicholas Capaldi, Plessy v. Ferguson, Russell Sage College, The Art of Deception: An Introduction to Critical Thinking, The Miseducation of the Negro, Tribium, U.S. Senator Tim Scott, Uncle Tom | 4 Comments

A Constantly Evolving Lifespan: A Review of “This Life” by Quntos KunQuest

Posted on February 8, 2023 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

A life sentence in prison is life, that is, there is living to do in prison, even under a life sentence. Quntos KunQuest, in his novel, This Life, demonstrates that life goes on inside of prison. Since 1996, KunQuest has … Continue reading →

Posted in crime, Education, Growing Up, Justice Chronicles, Life Sentences, race, raising black boys | Tagged Alexandre Dumas, American Studies Association, Angola State Penitentiary, Bell Gale Chevigny, Doing Time: 25 Years of Prison Writing, Edmond Dantes, In the Belly of the Beast, Jack Henry Abbott, Jailhouse Journalism: The Fourth Estate Behind Bars, Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Normal Mailer, PEN America, PEN International, Prison Writing Program (PWP), Quntos KunQuest, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Executioner's Song, This Life | 4 Comments

Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass: Remembrance of Things Past and Present

Posted on February 2, 2023 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

This Black History Month, read by award-winning book. It’s available on Amazon.

Posted in Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Education, ezwwaters, race | Tagged #BlackHistoryMonth, #BlackLivesMatter, Black history | 2 Comments

She Invited Me into the Red Tent

Posted on March 16, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Shawnee Benton Gibson has a special place in my Hall of Heroines, for two reasons. First, we share the same Born Day, different years. I can always expect a call or a text from her on our special day! How … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Family, Lest We Forget, Mother's Messages, raising black boys | Tagged S.O.W., Shawnee Benton Gibson, Womanpreneur | Leave a comment

Let There Be Light!

Posted on March 11, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Prison is a place where there is an absence of light. The little bit of light that exists is generated from and emanates from the people imprisoned there. There is a strange architecture around the design of prisons, beginning with … Continue reading →

Posted in crime, Education, ezwwaters, Growing Up, Justice Chronicles, Life Sentences, Osborne Association, Reentry | Tagged A Little Piece of Light, Donna Hylton, Jeremy Bentham, Panopticon, Reentry, utilitarianism | 2 Comments

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