On Wednesday, Oct. 24th, George Alan Bush, a 51-year old white man, entered a Kroger grocery store in Louisville, Kentucky and fatally shot two Black people. He reportedly told a white bystander afterwards, “Whites don’t shoot whites.”
This essay contains discussions of death in childbirth and reproductive violences “Who she pregnant for?” This is how I remember my aunts inquiring about the potential father of any given person’s unborn child while I was growing up. Not “Who are they pregnant by?” or “Who are they pregnant with?” The question was always, Who […]
By Brittani McNeill It is common knowledge that Black children are on the low end of an ever widening racial achievement gap in this country. It’s even becoming more widely acknowledged that systemic problems and institutional neglect, as opposed to simply personal or even parental shortcomings, lead to this problem. An examination of this achievement […]
by Josh Rivers Content Warning: This essay includes discussion and description of sexual violence, with details that could be triggering. “You do not have to be me in order for us to fight alongside each other. I do not have to be you to recognise that our wars are the same. What we must do […]
By Salaam Green Dear Black Girl, While tutoring an eight year old girl, she looked down at me and stated, “We have the same bodies.” This young girl attends a predominately suburban white school, and as we were doing homework she observed the notable fact that we were shaped alike. The look on her face […]
This past Saturday, the U.S. Open final between Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka concluded with Osaka’s win, marking it the first grand slam win for 20-year-old Haitian-Japanese player. However, the U.S. Open final ended with the umpire, Carlos Ramos, penalizing Serena Williams for calling him a “thief.” The incident re-ignited conversations on the intersection of […]
I had every excuse not to do it. My heartbeat was a stampede. The thoughts in my head a tornado. Everyone else was having a great time, and I didn’t want to ruin it with the natural disaster whipping up inside of me. I could talk to my parents some other time. Or write them—again. […]
We must do the work to detach Black women’s sexuality from violence and we must start with our foremothers. by Haillee Mason This essay contains discussion of sexual violence. The myth of white supremacist history suggests that sexual pleasure and intimacy that enslaved Black women endured were unable to be detached from violence. While I […]
In a new nationwide study titled “We Want Black Students, Just Not You: How White Admissions Counselors Screen Black Prospective Students”, author Ted Thornhill examines the racial penalties in college admissions at predominantly white institutions for anti-racist activist Black students in the post-Civil Rights era.
by Maximillian Matthews After arriving on the campus of Elon University in the fall of 2005, I instantly sought out the Black community in an effort to not feel isolated and misunderstood. I knew I would need Black folks in order to thrive at predominantly white institution. My need for kinship led me to Alpha […]
by Indigo If I were to introduce myself to anyone today, I would introduce myself as Loni. I would introduce myself as a non-binary afro-boricua whose gender pronouns are exclusively they, them, and theirs. I would introduce myself as someone who is unafraid to correct anyone who refers to me by my given name, or […]
Earlier this month, local Minnesota police received a call about four Black children wielding knives and sticks at a park. Right after, police came to the scene and pulled their guns on the children as bystanders stood by. The police detained the children and later released them as there were no weapons. The Minneapolis Park […]
