I accidentally saw George Floyd’s killing today. It auto-played on my Facebook feed, exposing me to the image of a white police officer kneeling on a Black man’s neck until he stopped moving. I’ll never unsee it. I’ve seen images like this before. And, I am tired. We are tired.
For years, I yearned for a world where I had options that reflected the range of Black life. But the more I look around, I see that beautiful Blackness, with all of its nuance and uniqueness, being watered down and steered towards what is universal.
In these two months, my children have shown me the most beautiful world. They have drawn pictures, told stories, made jokes, danced in bubbles as if tomorrow does not exist. I have witnessed their joy and poise in a moment where the world feels as though it is on fire. Their lives breathe cool air into mine.
They call it “music’s biggest night”, but the 2019 Grammy Awards proved the institution has become tone-deaf, and even worse, irrelevant.
“To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.” – James Baldwin At some point, we will...
“What does freedom look like? We have never seen it. We have never touched it or tasted it. So, what is it?” I asked these questions in a recent Black...
“This shit is so hard, babe. People think it’s easy but it isn’t. It is so so hard,” I told my partner through tears this morning. I was standing in...
by Daren W. Jackson · Published February 19, 2018 · Last modified February 24, 2018
When I was a kid, we always wore African print clothing during Black History Month at church. It was meant to be a bold expression of Blackness, of pride, of...
by Daren W. Jackson · Published February 7, 2018 · Last modified February 26, 2018
Year after year and award show after award show, Black folk stay shocked when their faves don’t win. I used to do the same thing. But after years of monitoring...
“You may as well leave my class now because you’re wasting my time and your’s,” Mr. Harris interrupted our Calculus class. “You’re never going to be anything anyway. Why are...
Culture / Entertainment / Race
by Daren W. Jackson · Published January 18, 2018 · Last modified January 31, 2018
You’d think Black superheroes would seem out of place in a country (and by proxy a world) living under a Trump regime. But instead, Black superheroes are experiencing a renaissance...
It was a few days before Christmas. The kids were off of school. I was wishing I had a nanny. “I’m supposed to take care of J,” my daughter declared....
I have written about NBC’s Emmy-winning hit show This is Us before. Once to critique the show for its (mis)handling of fatness and at another time to praise it for...
by Jenn M. Jackson · Published September 16, 2017 · Last modified September 27, 2017
Trans and cis Black women remain the least recognized, most undermined truth tellers and strugglers for Black liberation across Black communities. As exemplars of this fact, ESPN’s Jemele Hill and...
Culture / Entertainment / Literature / Race
by Daren W. Jackson · Published September 14, 2017 · Last modified September 17, 2017
As announcements about a new HBO series based on Nigerian American fantasy and sci-fi writer Nnedi Okorafor’s novel Who Fears Death have come out, I’ve noticed that the main thing...
It seems whenever I’m on social media talking with other Black people about issues facing our community, there is always a gaggle of white people surveilling those interactions. I rarely...
