Episode Details

Wink Twyman's substack: https://twyman.substack.com/p/the-souls-of-black-folks And the book, Letters in Black and White: A New Correspondence on Race in America (co-authored with Jennifer Richmond). Letters in Black and White is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble: https://www.amazon.com/Letters-Black-White-Correspondence-America/dp/1634312368 https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/letters-in-black-and-white-jennifer-richmond/1140922930?ean=9781634312363 About Winkfield Twyman, Jr., in his own words: My story is an American story. My name is Wink and I am a native Virginian living in San Diego, California. I have been married for over thirty years. My wife and I are parents to three adult children doing marvelous things. Like you, Leslie, I have always had a somewhat unconventional perspective, questioning what I'm told and thinking outside the box. I earned a BA with High Honors in the History Special Scholars program at the University of Virginia in 1983. I went straight to law school in 1983, and unlike you, persisted through to graduation at Harvard Law School in 1986. I admire your courage of your convictions to decide a legal career was not for you. After law school, I worked at a major law firm in New York City because it was the thing to do as as recent graduate. I did not like the practice of law in a firm, so I sought out more rewarding opportunities on Capitol Hill where I worked for Congressman Barney Frank as a legislative assistant and as a professional staff member for the U.S. House of Representatives' Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs Committee's Subcommittee on Housing and Community Development. The scholar and writer in me led me to academia. First, I worked as a legal research and writing adjunct professor at George Mason Law School (Arlington, Virginia) before a law professor position at California Western School of Law in San Diego. Today, I remain a lawyer but I find fulfillment in research and writing about race and my life. All in all, I am troubled by dogma in the public square. The shibboleth Blackness is Oppression. Nothing else matters disturbs me as I grew up in a southern, suburban small-town in the 1970s in Chesterfield County, Virginia. Blackness meant Enterprise, Triumph over Adversity. Blackness never meant oppression. I never see myself in diversity, equity and inclusion slogan words like Oppression, White Privilege, and Marginalization, As an introverted intuitive, a highly sensitive and emotionally intense person, I choose to not engage most social media. I do not engage bullies as a life principle. Those who are inclined to reach me can find me on Facebook under my name, Wink Twyman, and at my lonely Substack, Winkfield Twyman. I am up to about 175 essays on all sorts of race matters. I promise readers I will never subscribe to dogma or use slogan words to understand the world. My recent book is Letters in Black and White: A New Correspondence on Race in America (co-authored with Jennifer Richmond). Letters in Black and White is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.