Aging and changing.

These days, I'm going to as many funerals as weddings, anticipating a future in which the former will outpace the latter. The cliche that aging is inevitable seems tragically false. Whether we're able to live long enough to make it to old age, the conditions we face as we do and the relationship between the generations are subject to public policy and community action just like anything else. In this issue, we focus on the policies that affect the aging process, hearing directly from an often hidden part of communities of color, the elderly. Violet Law writes about Black women in Detroit raising grandkids against a backdrop of racist institutional cluelessness that severely limits the housing options for these families. Karen Carillo brings us the story of 84-year-old Herman Ferguson, a former political fugitive who has returned from exile to finish out his years in the place where he started. Regina Shavers tells us what life is like for our lesbian and gay elders of color.

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But the question of aging also brings up the question of generational change. As a movement ages, who is to take up the charge, and how are we doing at communicating the interests and analyses of one generation to another? Barbara Ceptus and Andrea Batista Schlesinger note the role of explanation where experience doesn't suffice. Barbara has to explain what it means to be Black among her Haitian elders, who see their struggles as being about immigration rather than race. Andrea argues that young people are a critical constituency in the social security fight, but only if we can generate their support for a positive government they have yet to experience fully. Jeff Chang, a co-founder of ColorLines, has written a remarkable history of the political implications of hip-hop, noting its role in backing up a new generation of racial justice activism. Finally, a note of pride for our very own Tram Nguyen, whose book We Are All Suspects Now is due out in September.

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