301 Search results for "representation"

Seven months ago you couldn’t tell me that Odd Future would achieve mainstream representation; I guessed that they were a group of outlaws that would manage their own channels. And here my predictions have been assassinated: while Earl is under a boarding school in Samoa, Tyler has won MTV’s Best New Artist and Frank Ocean […]

Last week, America’s Next Top Model brought an All Star Season of previous ANTM contenders onto the catwalk in the season premier. Ratings of ANTM having been sinking for a while now, this is clearly a pull-out-all-the-gimics twist on the series infused with all types of contradiction. Tyra persists with her usual persona, self-mocking and […]

Not that I pay that much attention to hip-hop anymore, but rapper, [The] Game (when did he drop the article?) spoke out recently about gays and hip-hop, and I noticed. And by “notice” I mean someone mentioned it to me and I bothered to Google it. Call it preparation for LGBTQ History Month. In case […]

Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected into public office was assassinated. In 1978 Daniel White, a former elected official in San Francisco killed both Milk and the Mayor. Now Milk is know as a “Martyr for gay rights” according to Peter Novak, who is a professor at University of San Francisco. […]

So, Osama’s dead. People have reacted to this in several ways, ranging from elation to hesitation, from fear of what happens next to disbelief. And people have judged these reactions in different ways. There are those who believe it is in poor taste to celebrate the death of any human being and those who believe […]

Thousands of people have convened at the Wisconsin’s state capital to protest Republican Governor Scott Walker’s unjust actions of sponsoring and roguishly pushing a bill that will destroy collective bargaining in the state of Wisconsin. Mind you, for days on in, I have watched both the online and offline media coverage of the protest. I […]

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 […]

Abahlali baseMjondolo or the Shack Dwellers movement began almost six years ago in Durban, South Africa. Abahlali has become (according to their website) the “largest organization of the poor” in post-apartheid South Africa. The organization was solidified through their first protest. This protest was a “road blockade organized from the Kennedy Road settlement” to speak […]

Dedicated to Gopher! I support you ma. Nothing spikes my blood pressure quicker than non-Black people that change their demeanor around Black people. It occurs mostly between womyn; non-Blacks add “u’s” to “girl”, perform the two snaps and around gesture, push their lips out to say “boo boo!”—the list goes on. A little imitation of […]

Some think only young children should be granted the “socially constructed appropriateness” that allows them to imagine. Contrary to this belief, it is my understanding that there is power in the process of “imagining” for both adults and children. So come with me and let us use our imagination. Imagine a principal that acts as […]

This weekend I was blessed to do a workshop at the Community Justice Network for Youth National Conference in Washington DC. My co-presenter was a dope young organizer named Armando, from an organization in Tuscan AZ called Skrappys. As the conversation about Hip-Hop inevitably turned to the misrepresentation of our community by mainstream rappers I […]

Would it be wrong for me to say that I am so over Tyler Perry’s For Colored Girl’s discussions? I have had at least one discussion of the film each day this week and I am finding myself in burn out mode. Yes, I am tired of talking about, reading about, and writing about the […]