Reckoning, the Combahee River Collective, and Black Women’s History Month
“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...
Category: Politics
On being Black, being disposed of, and seeking status.
“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...
White “allies” and speaking the words of racial violence in the United States
If white folx can’t be “allies” to their Black co-congregants in church, then I’m not sure there’s any place white allyship can actualy exist. Let me explain. On a recent...
Four Signs That You Might Subscribe to the Politics of Respectability
One of the most irritating byproducts of this new era of being “woke” is the increased numbers of people who read one Martin Luther King, Jr speech or saw one...
Socially Constructed Furniture: Race, Gender, and the GapKids Ad
What if being identified as “White” necessarily meant that one was seen as a criminal? What if being a “male” guaranteed that one would be deemed intellectually inferior? These metaphors probably...
The Fight for Black Lives Must Be Transnational
Recently, the Movement for Black Lives convened in Cleveland, Ohio. Activists, organizers, writers, community leaders and concerned citizens alike gathered for three days to engage one another on the important issues facing...
What if We Loved Black Women Like We Love Black Male Rapists?
When I was seventeen, I was groomed and preyed upon by a high school basketball coach. He told me to stop wearing panties if I wanted to get a ‘real...
The Supreme Court Has Been Killing the Game on Equality
After what seems like eons of terrible decisions from the Supreme Court of the United States, the past few weeks have offered a glimmer of hope amidst an otherwise abysmal narrative...
#WhoIsBurningBlackChurches, Black Twitter Demands Answers
Since the murderous acts of terror (which left nine Black people dead) at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina two weeks ago, six Black churches in the South have...
Bree Newsome, A Black Woman, Climbs a 30-foot Flag Pole, Still Can’t Be Seen
This morning, Bree Newsome climbed a 30-foot flagpole in Columbia, South Carolina. I repeat. Bree Newsome climbed a 30-foot flagpole. I repeat. Bree Newsome. Again. Bree. Newsome. Some of y’all...
Video: President Obama’s “Amazing Grace” Eulogy for the Emanuel Nine
It’s not every day that a sitting president sings to congregants of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. But, in honor of the nine people killed last week in the Emanuel AME...
Racist Flags, President Obama’s N-Word, and White Race Confusion
During my first quarter of grad school, I read some powerful words about the interaction between antiracism and antiracialism. These words resonated with me mainly because I frequently saw many...
I Have No Words for Tamir Rice.
“Can I have that toy shooter Mommy?” “No.” “Why?” “Because you’re Black.” While many little boys run through streets, backyards, and playgrounds with toy guns, my sons don’t. Seeing White boys...
Scared From Within and Scared From Without
When I was 15 years old, I had what any level-headed person would call a stalker. Let’s just call him “Mike”. He was at least ten years older than me...
On Black Humanity and the ‘White Gaze’
“Is it because I’m black?” This is the question we often ask ourselves when the taxi won’t stop or the other pedestrian on the sidewalk won’t smile back or when...
White Fear: The Single Greatest Killer of Black People in the US
While writing a piece yesterday about John Crawford – the 22-year-old killed in Walmart for playing with a toy gun – I became aware of another story of ‘homicide by...
