1328 Search results for "black girl"

Cyntoia Brown is being failed by the justice system because she’s a black woman
In 2004, Cyntoia Brown was sixteen and facing a life sentence for killing her sex trafficker in Tennesee, a state that is known for its strong stance against sex trafficking. Tell Brown or those who support her about this supposed stance, as she is currently serving year 14 of a life sentence she received for […]
From the Million Woman March to #Metoo: How movements created by and for Black women are appropriated
by Jacquelyn Iyamah In October of 1997, an estimated 750,000 Black women congregated on Ben Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia for the Million Woman March. Spearheaded by Phile Chionsesu and Asia Coney, the march provided a forum for the issues that mainstream women’s rights movements often dismiss—the issues affecting Black women. Concerns about the abuses against […]
Black man: “give me a lawyer, dog.” Racist court system says he wasn’t asking for a lawyer
In common everyday usage, the term “dog” when used by Black people almost never refers to a literal dog, and when Warren Demesme used this parlance in a police interview, they claim actually thought Demesme was asking for a literal lawyer dog. As absurd as that should be in a court system that let Darren […]
We need to stop telling Black children to “sit down and shut up”
by Arnetta Randall Recently, I watched a live stream of a conversation between the Former First Lady, Michelle Obama and the First Lady of television, Shonda Rhimes. I found it simply amazing. One of the moments that resonated with me the most was when Michelle spoke about how her parents listened to her as a […]
White women hate losing to Black women
Kylie Jenner allegedly unfollowed Rihanna on Instagram when Fenty Beauty dropped, and the way I cackled left me aching and in tears. This was not long after I learned Maria Sharapova released her memoir, where she casts Serena Williams in the role of a jealous and begrudging contender. This vein of fragility is the modus operandi […]
National Book Awards finalists show that black art matters
Early Wednesday morning the National Book Awards committees cut down their long lists of forty works to the final twenty book selections across Poetry, Fiction, Non-Fiction and Young People’s Literature categories. According to NPR, two legacy winners have already been announced: Annie Proulx, who is being honored with the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American […]
What Azealia Banks, Cardi B, and Black Cornell students decrying African immigrants reveal about Black scarcity
Where I grew up, Black was the end of discussion. People clung to what law professor Juan Perea deemed the “black/white binary paradigm of race,” a bare-bones conception that acknowledged only whiteness or Blackness but did not allow for meaningful engagement with ethnicity. In college, I learned about different kinds of Black people. I met […]
The Black church can engage more Black millennials by bringing politics back into the pulpit
By Maya King For more than two centuries, religious institutions have sat at the intersection of pain and liberation within African-American communities. Churches like Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist and Atlanta’s Ebenezer exemplified this, giving birth to the people and movements that defined the Civil Rights Era while providing political capital and a sense of stability […]
What I learned about embracing my Blackest self from Baltimore’s IDGAF attitude
by Hess Stinson Unpacking respectability politics is a journey. Right now, I’m at a point in my journey where I can sit on the bench and catch a breather, but I know that soon I have to get up and keep on walking. I used to take most steps with my “best foot,” trying to […]
Why Black gender conversations will always fail unless we center Black children
“To refuse to participate in the shaping of our future is to give it up […] Each of us must find our work and do it.” — Audre Lorde I am hurting. On Saturday, as I walked through a Black gay club, a guy crossing my path grabbed between my legs. He barely reacted as […]
Throwing off the yoke of respectability politics in single Black mamahood
by Tanya Fields On a daily basis, I have to quiet the voice in my head telling me that I ain’t shit. It constantly compares me to all of the fabulous Black women whose lives I get to witness snippets of on social media and beyond. Women with the alphabet behind their name, posing for […]
The whitewashing of ‘IT’ is proof that it’s past time to start centering Blackness in horror
In the years between Victor Halerpin’s White Zombie (1932) and Jordan Peele’s Get Out (2017), Blackness in the horror genre has largely been a myriad of hidden slavery narratives featuring gendered anti-Black violence and racist dehumanization. Excepting the stories that include Black characters as tokens or magical negroes who ensure the survival of white characters—usually […]