77 Search results for "caribbean"

The ‘Charmed’ reboot and the demonization of Macy Vaughn
by Cosima Smith Television, movies, and literary representations all serve to enforce, perpetuate, and reinforce the lived-realities of their subjects and audience. They also proliferate the ideas of their creators by portraying a set of characters who, ideally, undergo hardships and growth, experience love and loss, and who (work to) internalize a great deal of […]
2020 candidates are finally talking about reparations. It’s time to deepen the debate
This post is in partnership with Scholars for Social Justice By Adom Getachew Over the last two decades, Black organizers and activists around the world have moved reparations from the margins to the center of the political agenda. Organizers with the Movement for Black Lives included reparations in their ambitious Vision for Black Lives Platform […]
Finding our way back to the religions stolen from our ancestors
Not enough people know about Bois Caïman. I only learned of it myself within the last few years. Even among those of us who are familiar with the 18th century slave rebellion that led Haiti (once called Saint-Domingue) to its independence from French colonial rule, some do not know that this insurrection began with a […]
‘The Haunting of Hill House’ & the colonial obsession with salvaging a world of suffering for the sake of sanity
Editor’s Note: This essay contains spoilers of season 1 of Haunting of Hill House and discussion of suicide I don’t remember how my parents died in the nightmare, but I woke up screaming bloody murder. I had to have been about 4-years-old. I don’t think I had considered being indefinitely away from my parents before, […]
Queer sex freed me from the shame and discomfort of compulsory heteronormative sex
by Haillee Mason I wish I could say that I’ve always known that I deserved good sex. Or that I arrived into my twenties seeking out my own pleasure. But Black queer women like me are never taught that they deserve anything—not an orgasm, not empathy, or even apologies. I had arrived in my adolescence, […]
Mexico’s first studio-driven fiction film with an all Black cast is criticized for anti-Black representation
One might think it’s a step in the right direction that La Negrada, Mexico’s first studio-driven fiction film to star an all Black Afro-Latino cast, just won the cinematography award at the 2018 Guadalajara International Film Festival. However, many are now criticizing the film for relying on anti-Black stereotypes to relay the story.
The audacity of Aretha Franklin—a voice for Black liberation
by Tiffany Hobbs I hope Jesus doesn’t look like the white man on the wall. That flowy-locked iteration of the Messiah they wanted Black people to believe in would find his alabaster skin colored with surprise as Ms. Aretha Franklin entered the gates and demanded payment—her heavenly reward—upfront. Her blessings must be plentiful, as she […]
Our hair is a map to freedom: What I learned about resistance from the “1st” free Black town in the Americas
By Teju Adisa-Farrar When God made mountains He made runaway slaves — Nikki Giovanni, Chasing Utopia We were not supposed to survive. Last month, AfroPunk published an article about Argentina’s genocide of their Black populations. Unsurprisingly, Argentina is not much different from other countries who have tried to erase their Black populations or their impact […]
We need solidarity across the Diaspora in challenging anti-Blackness in the Dominican Republic
by Kleaver Cruz, Amarilys Estrella, and Yanilda Gonzalez The Dominican Day Parade will be held in New York City today, as it has been every year since 1982. As we gather to celebrate our Dominican heritage, we are also thinking of the oppressive systems present in the Dominican Republic. We believe that looking at these systems […]
The 2018 Black Muslim Psychology Conference is coming to Philadelphia!
The Black Muslim Psychology Conference (BMPC) will commence at the Chubb Hotel and Conference Center in Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania this July 20-22. Hosted by the Muslim Wellness Foundation and embarking on its 4th year, the 2018 BMPC is titled “Love & Liberation: Lessons on Sex, Intimacy, Marriage & Family”.
Review Roundup: Zora Neale Hurston’s book on one of the last Africans in the Atlantic slave trade
Nearly 90 years after it was first written, Zora Neale Hurston’s series of interviews with one of the last Africans brought to America from the Atlantic slave trade has arrived in bookstores across the country. Barracoon is introduced rather fittingly by Alice Walker, the woman whom we can thank for a revitalized interest and scholarship […]
The bittersweetness in Junot Diaz’s #MeToo moment and how men traumatize women on their way to healing
by Briana L. Ureña-Ravelo Content Warning: This essay mentions of r/pe of a child I just read Junot Diaz’s essay about his childhood rape and the years of sexual, romantic, and relationship trauma and toxic patriarchal behavior that followed. I applaud him opening up and owning to some really deep, dark trauma on a significantly […]