227 Search results for "grandmother"

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJxjxrz-jVc&feature=related When the first video of Kat Stacks being slapped by Bow Wow’s male fans became viral on YouTube back in June, I was immediately angered by the physical act of violence and then equally angered by the misogynistic rhetorical of male honor and female “sexual” dishonor that legitimized the beating of Kat Stacks. However, […]

Fox News Detroit | June 1, 2010 OUTHFIELD, Mich. (AP) – Attorney Geoffrey Fieger says an independent autopsy shows 7-year-old Aiyana Jones was shot through the top of her head during a police raid on her home Fieger says Macomb County Medical Examiner Daniel Spitz has determined that the single gunshot exited through Aiyana Stanley-Jones’ […]

It’s Happening Again. What Aiyana Jones’ Death Tells Us Juell Stewart, RaceWire, May 17, 2010 It’s an all-too-familiar occurrence: A young person of color gets killed by the police, the community rallies around the victim’s family, and everybody wonders what can be done to prevent it from happening again. Well, it’s happening again in Detroit, […]

So, that we are crystal clear I do not run behind black men. I do not beg them to spend time with me. I am not desperate for their attention, money, or third arm. I am so tired of Nightline, CNN, ABC, and yes the great matriarch himself, Tyler Perry, telling me that I am […]

On Tuesday night, friend of mine posted the following question to her twitter: “What’s the difference between African-American, Black or Negro?” I jokingly replied: “About 60 years”. She, of course, was speaking about Negro being included as one of the racial options on the 2010 Census. When the story first broke, there was quite a […]

Nannie gave me my first lessons–and anxieties–about race.  My great-grandmother was pretty damn light.  So much so that I remember being nervous during grandparents day at Weisser Park Elementary School.  Kids’ grandparents would show up sometime in the afternoon and sit in on our classes.  We’d introduce them to our fellow classmates and perform poetry […]

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom. –Maya Angelou So, how do you make a little black girl believe that all she has gone through does not determine her ability to […]

A few years ago, I took on the unbelievably complex and daunting task of constructing the maternal branches of my family tree. My first step was to sit down with my grandmother and listen as she recounted the names of her grandparents and their parents. Granny relayed some wonderful, albeit slightly inaccurate information. Beyond my […]

“Mirror . . . mirror on the wall who the fairest of them all?” In most fairytales, the mirror would reply, “Snow white is the fairest of them all.” However, in the case of Vanity Fair’s March cover, the names are Abbie Cornish, Kristen Stewart, Carey Mulligan, Amanda Seyfried, Rebecca Hall, Mia Wasikowska, Emma Stone, […]

When most people think of Christmas they usually envision images of an older, portly, White man in a hot, itchy red costume, encouraging children to sit on his lap while desperately trying to not look like a pedophile. Others may think of a grandmother getting trampled in Best Buy because she did not move fast […]

Like most people who do not live in the same city with their biological family I look forward to the Christmas’ holiday with sheer delight and seethed dread. Yes, I use the five letter word dread because it seems as if all the unfinished family’s drama from the previous year is dysfunctionally packed away in […]

I am my mother’s daughter and my mother is the daughter of my grandmother. And both their stories and silences speak through me. I begin with this mantra because spiritually and mentally I desperately need to understand why tears stained and wrinkled my cheeks as I watched the movie Precious. Yes, I am a Cancer […]