68 Search results for "collective conscious"

How Black people mourn the loss of a Superhero
The day I thought that Chadwick Boseman was James Brown, he lit up the screen with his rosewood colored skin and small gap. He was not the real James Brown except that he was, for over two hours he was James Brown. “Get On Up” was the first time I’d seen Chadwick’s acting skills, but […]
Guns too often become tools of intra-communal violence at the hands of cis het Black men
Trigger warning: domestic violence, gun violence, mention of suicide by Donnie Moreland On April 3rd, 1964 and at the Cory Methodist Church, Malcolm X would give one of his most quotable speeches. The speech was titled, The Ballot or the The Bullet. He began with these words, “The question tonight, as I understand it, is […]
Exploring the Black spectator’s relationship to film
by Donnie Moreland Most folk respond to the words, “I have a Master’s degree in film studies” with either, “What can you do with that?” or the more biting, “What’s the point of that?” Funny thing is that for much of my program, I asked the same questions. It’s when films such as Queen and […]
The conditioning that fuels the mental health epidemic for Black men, and how to stop it
By J.R. Yussuf I began prioritizing my mental health shortly after graduating college in 2012. I still felt as though I had to keep it a secret because going to see a therapist was seen as bizarre. But I went anyway because with each passing day, life increasingly felt like a punishment and soon sleep […]
How learning to work with my Ancestors created a relationship of reciprocity and parental support
by Taylor Amari Little My Ancestors are my protectors. No, really. Truly ride or die. It is imperative that you know this. As you probably know, sometimes parents ain’t shit. Though this is nothing unusual of cisgender heterosexual men in U.S. society. For me, that was my father who was absent for the majority of […]
Black women have to keep pushing back against internalized misogynoir
by Josie Pickens dream hampton’s Lifetime documentary, Surviving R. Kelly, continues to make Black folks do some serious soul searching and unpacking around the kinds of sexual violence too many of us have experienced in our families and connected communities. For Black women especially, much of the mental and emotional heavy-lifting has involved recalling our […]
Marc Lamont Hill was fired for telling the truth about the Palestinian resistance
by Daniel Johnson Recently, University of Temple professor, author, and activist Marc Lamont Hill was fired from his post as an on-air political commentator at CNN after delivering an address at the U.N. during the organization’s marking of the upcoming 70th anniversary of its original Declaration of Human Rights, which came on the conclusion of […]
Let’s give Jordan Peele’s ‘Candyman’ remake a chance to intrigue and horrify us
by Andrew Keahey Though there were many films that came before it, there are few Black horror films more revered than the 1992 classic Candyman, starring the frighteningly well-cast Tony Todd. Based on the short story “The Forbidden” by Clive Barker, Candyman is the dark tale of a graduate student doing research on urban legends, […]
Black academics need to stop reproducing anti-Black notions of exceptionalism
By CJ I received my undergraduate degree at a public institution, and now I am at an Ivy League. This is my first dive into the world of elite academia, and soon I will leave this program with both my degree and my brokenness. Though I am proud to be receiving my Master’s degree from […]
Calls to #AbolishICE are counterproductive unless they are also a call to #AbolishPolice
By Benji Hart In the last month, following the emergence of horrific images of migrant children being separated from their families and held in cages by border agents, the call to #AbolishICE has gone mainstream. Most notably, Congolese immigrant activist Therese Okoumou climbed the Statue of Liberty’s base on July 4th following an “Abolish ICE” […]
Shondaland on Law and Order (and Trump’s America) in ‘For The People’
by Nathaniel Phillips This essay contains spoilers for Shonda Rhimes’ For The People. A whistleblower is hunted by the US government for stealing highly sensitive information about the deportation of undocumented immigrants—medical records that should’ve been confidential and beyond the purview of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Her lawyer flips the script on the government […]
“Thinking Blackly”: State violence, U.S. law, and legal death dealing
by Tabias Olajuawon When a person of color is killed by a police officer, or badgeless vigilante, it exposes and strikes at the immoral fabric of Amerikkka. More viscerally, at the psyche of every person of color with a beating heart. More pointedly, at the very being of the collective Black body. Each strike, blow, […]