239 Search results for "teaching"

Police-Free schools are necessary, as is abolishing the white supremacist state they are rooted in
by Mustafa Ali-Smith As protests continue on both the national and global scale, widespread call-to-actions ramp up. Dismantling, defunding, and divesting from policing and providing police-free schools are becoming a part of everyday conversations. Early educational institutions have even begun to respond to these call-to-actions by ending their relationship with local police departments and promising […]
Recognizing the labor of Black women, mothers, and caretakers during COVID-19
by Jenn M. Jackson My sixty-eight year old mother has been an unpaid, unofficial caretaker for my grandmother for at least twenty years. She was a social worker for more than three decades. Now, she also works for free as an administrative assistant at church. After delivering fresh produce and cooked meals to my elderly […]
Crisis makes clear who can afford to survive (and who cannot)
“That’s all anybody can do right now. Live. Hold out. Survive. I don’t know whether good times are coming back again. But I know that won’t matter if we don’t survive these times.” – Octavia E. Butler While on a hike today, I spoke with two folks about how our bodies are shaped by the […]
Talking to Black youth about the complexities of sexual racism after Wilder v Fury
by Jacques P. Lesure It’s no secret that boxing is a gladiator-esque game that draws in hundreds of millions of dollars per year. Those who watch the sport must remain flexible to a wide range of unpredictable outcomes such as knockouts, excessive bleeding, and swollen faces. It was reported that the boxing rematch Deontay Wilder […]
Gameschooling is a critical tool that helps Black children learn
by Tonya Abari Tanya Butler grew up on the backroads of a small, predominantly white Pennsylvania town. Much of her time was spent at her grandparents’ home, playing games with her younger siblings and cousins. Nights filled with shuffling and double-dealing weren’t about winning or losing–they were about learning. Games taught Butler and her […]
We need Restorative Justice in our schools, not more police
by Rann In The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander, she states, “The fate of millions of people—indeed the future of the Black community itself—may depend on the willingness of those who care about racial justice to re-examine their basic assumptions about the […]
These 2 films reveal the powerful ways Black queer women find pleasure despite heteronormative violence
By Kim M Reynolds Audre Lorde defines the erotic as a “creative source,” something that is incredibly generative and “self-affirming in the face of a racist, patriarchal, and anti-erotic society.” The erotic functions as a respect for life, a recognition and practice of intentionality and sense of love that combats the individualistic and oppressive world […]
Virginity and hymen myths must be challenged to protect Black teens like Deyjah Harris
This essay contains discussions of sexual coercion & violation, as well as invasion of sexual/medical privacy I used to go to church when I was in college. Not because I wanted to, but because I felt obligated to. I grew up in “the church”—of the Southern, Black Non-denominational Christian variety, and I hadn’t yet escaped […]
How the myth that all Black parents give kids “the talk” about police is used to silence resistance
It’s interesting how so many of the stories we claim to be universal Black experiences seem to involve cutting ourselves smaller to avoid anti-Black violence. Stories involving that ever-present white woman—more perennial than any weed—who clutches her purse whenever she crosses our path, and how we all supposedly just want her to know we aren’t […]
Why I no longer police my Black son’s behavior to make the world more comfortable
Editor’s Note: This month at BYP, we will be exploring the US Elections & Family/Parenting issues, and we are interested in publishing works that address these topics. How has our political system been working for and against us? What dynamics are different today? How should we prepare for the presidential election, and what is the […]
5 tips for engaging non-voters this election
Editor’s Note: This month at BYP, we will be exploring the US Midterms & Family/Parenting issues, and we are interested in publishing works that address these topics. How has our political system been working for and against us? What dynamics are different today? How should we prepare for midterm elections vs presidential ones, and local […]
‘Set It Off’ and the Black feminist lessons it still holds for us
This essay contains spoilers for Set It Off, and discusses sexual exploitation and state violence “Women respond to racism. My response to racism is anger. I have lived with that anger, ignoring it, feeding upon it, learning to use it before it laid my visions to waste, for most of my life. Once I […]