Today is Juneteenth, or Emancipation Day!
Started in Galveston, Texas, Juneteenth is a celebration of the abolition of slavery. 41 states recognize Juneteenth. How will you commemorate?
The most sobering moment in Paul Beatty’s satirical novel, The White Boy Shuffle (1996) occurs just before the L.A. Riots are about to begin. The book’s protagonist, Gunnar Kaufman and his best friend Nicholas Scoby are on their way home from a strangely long basketball practice. During their walk, Gunnar immediately senses something different happening in his […]
The New York Times recently spoke with Tyquan Brehon, a young, African American resident of Brooklyn who has been stopped over 60 times under the NYPD’s oppressive “Stop and Frisk” program.
The Black Youth Project has released a brand new memo; “President Obama and the Politics of Change.” The new analysis shows that Black youth believe that significant changes have occurred during the Obama administration, but continue to believe that big change is needed in America, from the ground up!
Off the West Coast a new movement assembles an army of sick-and-tired oppressed peoples. This group of artists, called Black Hippy, tours all over the world cultivating a militant program of HiiiPower. The philosophy of HiiiPower seems tailor-made for a generation of activists that are uniquely artistic and have easy access to brain drugs. Our only question […]
Commencement yesterday was filled with encouraging speeches reminding my senior class that “commencement” is the beginning, not the end, and graduating is simply a marker that we have received and collected the tools we will need to move forward. The rhetoric of speakers, and of casual conversations on any graduation day is generally one of […]
All of a sudden cannibals are back and I’m worried what this means for Black people–folks that have historically been associated with ancient African cannibalism. A wave of cannibalism stories have surfaced in the last couple of weeks—two of them feature perpetrators of African descent. Although mainstream coverage has not spoken about these cases with […]
(I Learned By Watching You) I. Last week, I submitted a news story to the BYP concerning yet another case of bullying. Joel Morales, a 12-year-old from East Harlem, hanged himself because he had grown tired of relentless harassment from other students. I forwarded the story just a few weeks after having sent an update regarding the FAMU […]
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzPhnVaw874 It is always amazing to me when organizations find interventions that can radically change the way young people view their place in the world. As you can see in the video, this is an example of how Chicago Freedom School uses music and chants to build the self-efficacy of young people. There is something […]
The internet is ridiculous. The antics that people get up to for the sake of attention are ridiculous. Social media and the instant consumption of news has done wonders for this generation. It is also horrible in the sick, twisted way that it can turn any bit of news, good, bad and ugly into a […]
When Queen Latifah signed on to perform at Long Beach, California’s gay pride parade, many figured she would finally seize the opportunity to come out. And she did…sort of. Does it matter if Queen Latifah explicitly comes out or not?
Jefferson Parish School Disrict’s school psychologist Mark Traina launched into a virulently racist tirade through his twitter, declaring that ‘young black thugs’ need to be ‘put down.’ Are these the kinds of people to whom we entrust the education of our youth?
