564 Search results for "blackness"

Editor’s Note: This article contains spoilers of Black Mirror S4, E6, “Black Museum” I do not trust myself when I enjoy a tale of Black people experiencing unbearably violent situations on screen. Perhaps I have read too much of Frank Wilderson’s Afro-pessimist film critique Red, White and Black, but I am never quite sure whether […]

The reviews are in, and by most accounts the straight to Netflix “blockbuster” Bright is a really expensive bomb. The 90 million dollar Will Smith led action/buddy cop/fantasy film is a big part of Netflix’s gambit to compete with not only the major Hollywood studios on the TV front, but to eventually compete with and […]

Nearing the end of each year, I like to compile a list of upcoming films that look intriguing to me or that I have been anticipating for months, or even years. This year, I tailored my list to be extensive and hella Black, just for y’all. Each of these feature a predominantly Black cast, Black […]

On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission finally delivered its long-expected and devastating death knell to Obama-era Net Neutrality rules—policies supposedly put in place to ensure the internet remained on a level playing field with access equity. The repeal is likely to further impede the work of digital organizers for social justice and exacerbate economic disparities […]

I keep having to come out as “nothing.” To family, friends, coworkers, and anyone else who might make assumptions about my religious identity and affiliations. By “nothing” I mean that I do not subscribe to any organized religion or form of spirituality. Neither do I identify as atheist or agnostic. This is a point that […]

By George Johnson The “closet.” A colorful phrase used to describe the lives of people like me who were too afraid to live as a queer people publicly. The place where we brought all of our lovers to do sexual things in the dark. The place where we could sneak off to and party with […]

When people contemplate the ways that anti-Blackness converges upon those of us who are of the Black African Diaspora – and who also identify as Black – they can make oppression seem insurmountable. The alternatives can seem both binary and grim: bury oneself in mountains of racist news, history and despair or bury one’s head […]

Editor’s Note: This post contains discussions of sexual and domestic violence. It also contains spoilers of the Netflix film One of Us. I’ve been thinking a lot about growing up Black in the Hare Krsna community lately, owed primarily to the fact that I am currently working on a memoir. But I was most recently […]

If you’re a book lover, a literature lover, or a writer of any sort who needs recommendations on what to read, you’re in luck because NPR has released a “best of” list of over three hundred books in several different genres. I have gone through the trouble of looking through the list for work by […]

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 George M. Johnson There is no such thing as Blackness that doesn’t encompass Queerness, despite the attempts from toxic masculinity and those willing to protect its image at all costs to have you believe otherwise. This cost is paid in the form of transgender people murdered, young boys killed by their fathers over their […]

“She don’t even like us. She only help us because of this.” My coworker pointed at her forearm with an ardent finger, calling attention to the mahogany of her skin. A deep, dark, gorgeous color. The white woman she spoke of was a member of the church that housed the after-school program we worked for. […]