24 Search results for "standard english"

Harvard University will have a new class available this fall, and it is a class centered around the Gullah people and their language. Gullah is a language that was birthed in what is called the “lowcountry” region of South Carolina, and is generally described as a mixture of English, Central and West African languages. Teaching […]

by Maximillian Matthews I wonder when my late father first observed the singularity of my gender performance. Perhaps he saw it when he took me to my first concert during Janet Jackson’s 1993 Janet tour, and noticed how I knew every word she sang on the stage. He may have seen it when he observed […]

By Jay Connor This summer, rapper Logic released his highly-anticipated third album, Everybody, to the delight of fans, cash registers, and Def Jam alike. Bolstered by its buoyant lead single “Black Superman”, Everybody elbowed Chris Stapleton’s From A Room: Volume 1 the hell out the way to debut at No. 1 in the country, with […]

By Shekinah Mondoua I cannot pinpoint the exact moment I began to question the masculinity of African-American men as toxic. At one point I found myself constantly attempting to live up to the standards presumed from my Black male counterparts. Acceptance from my Black male friends was something that I sought out more than accepting […]

JOHANNESBURG—The policing of Black women’s hair strikes again. This time, black students at the Pretoria High School for Girls in Pretoria, South Africa allege that their school’s dress code is being enforced in a manner that discriminates against natural hairstyles. The girls claim that they have been punished or threatened with punishment for wearing styles […]

  The following piece is from the Atlantic. It was written by Jessica Lahey. By: Jessica Lahey “Education,” Horace Mann declared in 1848, “is a great equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance wheel of the social machinery.” But increasingly, the condition of American children—and even their eventual role in society—is determined well before […]

By: William Darity Jr. It is now standard fare to hear that black economic progress requires young people in particular to alter their attitudes and behaviors. They repeatedly are told, in effect, “to pull up their pants”, to take financial literacy classes, to be more punctual, to speak “proper” English, and to be more polite or courteous. The […]

Dear Son, I want to start by apologizing to you. This is not the world I wanted you to be born into by any means. Your life won’t be easy and no amount of my love can change the way people will see you. And for that I apologize. I never wanted this for you. […]

A Black womyn grows up developing a hatred for the language accessed by the majority of Black men. I’ve heard about many occasions where the Black man has no chance with a womyn of certain standards using his familiar dialect. They know the call-outs very well; “ay lil mama” separates the scrubs from the eligible. […]

In my 21 years of existence I’ve been called almost every name under the sun. Some of the names were warranted, others are too foul to even mention in this blog post. Nevertheless, I always clung to what my Mom told me as a child: “it’s not what they call you, but what you respond […]

Ever had a song stuck in your head? “Its the money, money and the cars, cars and the clothes…I just wanna be successful.” This past Sunday I would not help but repeat the Drake rap song in my head. What caused this hip-hop hook rotation? Nothing other than a South African mega church that I […]

Watch video all the way through. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGv8PQr8Uo4 I don’t know what’s scarier: the black extremist advocating for genocide or the black reverend who makes white people out to be victims of unequal media coverage. No doubt, neither of them should represent black folks but the reverend is what most of our successes will grow to […]