Author: Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig

  • “We are living through a very dangerous time.” James Baldwin began A Talk to Teachers with those words in October 1963, addressing a group of New York City educators just weeks after some of the most searing events of the civil rights era. That year, Medgar Evers was gunned down in his driveway by a white supremacist…

    Violence and Baldwin’s Prophecy: Why Our Time Is So Perilous
  • Jeffrey Wright’s character delivers a searing truth in the new Apple+ film Highest or Lowest alongside Denzel Washington: you either build or you destroy, beloved. The line is simple but devastating in its clarity. It refuses neutrality. It tells us that in life, in politics, and in community, there are only two directions. You are either contributing…

    Highest or Lowest Film ★★★☆☆:  Build or Destroy, The Stark Choice We Face
  • Historians have long asked a haunting question about the rise of authoritarian regimes: How did the “good Germans” let it happen? How did ordinary people who loved their families, went to work each day, and saw themselves as decent and moral allow their country to descend into cruelty and authoritarinism? It is a question that…

    Silence, Fear, and Charlie Kirk: The Good Germans Question for America
  • When the Trump-appointed chair of the FCC publicly threatened ABC with regulatory retaliation unless it punished Jimmy Kimmel for a monologue about Charlie Kirk, the move shocked the entertainment industry and nation. Within hours, ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live off the air “indefinitely.” What should have been dismissed as satire became treated as sedition. Free speech groups…

    Jimmy Kimmel Suspended: 10 Signs American Democracy Is Failing
  • Every September, Hispanic Heritage Month invites us to honor the cultural contributions and enduring wisdom of the Spanish-speaking world. Among the most lasting gifts is the literature of Miguel de Cervantes, whose Don Quixote, published more than four centuries ago, remains one of the most influential novels ever written. Cervantes gave us unforgettable images of imagination,…

    Hispanic Heritage Month: Don Trump is Tilting at Windmills (Really)

Cloaking Inequity is an online platform for justice and liberty-minded readers. I publish reflections, analysis, and commentary on education, democracy, culture, and politics.

Subscribe to stay informed whenever I publish new content. I never send spam, and you can unsubscribe anytime—no strings attached.

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨

Email me at jvh@alumni.stanford.edu