809 Search results for "knowledge"

Forbidden Laughter: The History of Laughing Barrels
By Sherronda J. Brown Seems like every year I learn some new factoid about how plantations operated during the time of chattel slavery of African peoples in the Americas. I inevitably come across another unfortunate piece of knowledge that I wish I never had to know. At the same time, I always understand how it’s […]
How Black Mirror’s “Striking Vipers” episode failed bisexual men & trans women
Editor’s Note: June is LGBTQ Pride Month. At BYP, we will be exploring gender, sexuality, transgender issues and queer theory, and we are interested in publishing works that address these topics and the things surrounding them. We want to hear from you! Send us your pitches at info@blackyouthproject.com This essay contains spoilers for Black Mirror […]
The silent pain of transwomen—or, why I don’t have male privilege
Editor’s Note: June is LGBTQ Pride Month. At Black Youth Project, we will be exploring gender, sexuality, transgender issues and queer theory, and we are interested in publishing works that address these topics and the things surrounding them. This essay contains discussions of transphobia, and mentions molestation, suicidal ideation, and r/pe by Jamila Dawn Mitchell […]
I want Black time travelers to be a threat to the status quo
This essay contains spoilers for See You Yesterday, Siempre Bruja, Mortal Kombat 11, and Kindred, as well as discussions of sexual violence and anti-Black state violence. I was eighteen, a freshman in college studying film and visual arts, and deeply interested in the history of both. A film studies professor asked the class one […]
I’m tired of seeing my light skin represented in Black media
by Indigo In May, People Magazine reported that 21 year-old model Jordyn Woods would make her acting debut on season two of Freeform’s Grown-ish. Woods is scheduled to guest star as a freshman undergraduate named Dee, who possesses a “soft-spoken and sincere vulnerability” and is expected to share the screen with Trevor Jackson’s character Aaron. […]
WHO will no longer consider transgender identity a mental disorder: Here’s what it means and why it matters
Editor’s Note: June is LGBTQ Pride Month. At Black Youth Project, we will be exploring gender, sexuality, transgender issues and queer theory, and we are interested in publishing works that address these topics and the things surrounding them. by Jamila Dawn Mitchell Transgender identities will no longer be considered a mental health disorder by the […]
Solidarity in translation: Anti-Blackness from the U.S to France
by Fania Noel The assassination of George Floyd by the police and the uprisings that followed reverberate across the Atlantic Ocean, finding resonance and solidarity in France. Four days after the murder of George Floyd, a medical expert was called in to evaluate the case of Adama Traoré, a Black man who died while in […]
Africa must decolonise the violent patriarchy solidified by white colonialism
This essay contains discussion of sexual violence, gendered violence, and mention of r/pe by Sabelo Mtsweni “khanda elixegaxegayo liyofulela abafazi; indoda iyindoda ngokuba umthetho wayo uhlonishwe ekhaya” Loosely translated, this isiZulu idiom means that a man’s authority in a household forms his very essence as a man. Before I read it in Laurence Mabuya’s […]
Why we need to stop excluding Black populations from ideas of who is “Indigenous”
*Editor’s note: This piece has been deeply informed by conversations with my friend and colleague Preston Anderson through the years, among other things. A few months ago, I posted a Facebook status regarding a viral meme featuring Disney’s cartoon version of Pocahontas and John Smith, arguing that it promoted white supremacist ideas of interracial relationships […]
Stolen bodies, Stolen land: Contemplating Blackness and Indigeneity
by Briana L. Ureña-Ravelo Today marks one year since I and a group of friends joined the frontline resistance in Standing Rock at the Oceti Sakowin camp, the ancestral lands of the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota Sioux people. I have spent this past year deconstructing, unpacking, learning, relearning, disconnecting, reconnecting, going through this whole process […]
We shouldn’t be surprised by Jay-Z’s NFL move. He’s always been a capitalist & this is what capitalism looks like
By Brittani McNeill By now, we’ve all seen the news about Jay-Z’s new partnership with the NFL. The rap mogul, through a deal between the league and his company Roc Nation, will serve as an advisor, helping to select music for NFL events, including the Super Bowl, and lead conversations about “social justice.”
How the Coalition to End Money Bond is working to help reform pretrial practices in Illinois
by Jamila Dawn Mitchell Every year, 90% of the 250,000 people held in Illinois jails are incarcerated pretrial, prior to actual convictions, putting the rate of pretrial incarceration far above the national average of 67%. The percentage of pretrial detentions range county to county – with 51% of the jail population in Tazewell County and […]