215 Search results for "acceptance"

By Salaam Green Dear Black Girl, While tutoring an eight year old girl, she looked down at me and stated, “We have the same bodies.” This young girl attends a predominately suburban white school, and as we were doing homework she observed the notable fact that we were shaped alike. The look on her face […]

by Sazia Patel This fall, 30,000 eighth graders across New York City will take the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT). The SHSAT, is a tool that bars many of the most marginalized students in NYC, namely Black and latinx, from attending historically high performing schools. It also poses a barrier for those students from […]

by Cody Charles The Whitney documentary details how the legendary singer would often meet up with Michael Jackson in his hotel room of ever they found themselves in the same city. They could both sit comfortably in silence, because they didn’t have to explain anything to each other. Their positions in life were that similar. […]

by Denarii Grace “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.” These words, uttered by legendary Black civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer, have become as much a part of Black languages and cultural understandings, both past and present, as “lit,” “bumboclaat,” and “the bomb.” Her expression of the ongoing oppression of Black […]

By Denarii Grace Some days I wonder if the work that I do is worth it. On the surface, Black artists/cultural workers, healers, teachers and activists who live most on the margins have the least to gain in their lines of work. And in a society based on the allure of social and financial capital, […]

By Briana Lawrence Ah. There they are. Your fave. The person who puts a smile on your face whenever they take a breath. If they’re at a convention, you best believe you’re gettin’ that autograph. Hell, you might even spring for a professional photo — or, at the very least, a selfie. You use their […]

by Victoria Collins Though she was absent of critical acclaim in the very beginning, Janelle Monáe set in motion the narrative of a dystopian reality that would serve as the backdrop for a decade-long narrative of freedom, love, and acceptance with her 2003 self-released album, The Audition. In 2007, she followed her debut album with […]

by Kirsten Howard “When people tell you who they are, believe them the first time.” -Maya Angelou Last week marked the return of rapper and producer turned alt-right Twitter provocateur, Kanye West. He came to Twitter with no warning after a long hiatus from the social media platform, and it seemed, at first, that his […]

by Josie Pickens Sonya Renee Taylor’s The Body Is Not An Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love is equal parts self-help guide and interrogating conversation about body shaming and body terrorism. Taylor’s premise is that if we stop terrorizing our own bodies, we will feel obligated to not only stop terrorizing the bodies others, but […]

Writer, director and producer Jordan Peele can now add Oscar winner to his resume after he took home a golden trophy Sunday night for Best Original Screenplay, beating out Guillermo del Toro & Vanessa Taylor (The Shape of Water), Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird), Emily V. Gordon & Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick) and Martin McDonagh (Three […]

Which came first: the derailer or the eraser? This question was inspired by pop star Camila Cabello’s pro-immigration speech to millions of viewers at the 60th annual Grammys last night. “Today, in this room full of music’s dreamers, we remember that this country was built by dreamers, for dreamers, chasing the American dream,” Cabello said […]

Jesmyn Ward’s sprawling, definitively Southern novel Sing, Unburied, Sing has rightfully been rewarded by the National Book Foundation with the National Book Award in the genre of fiction. The novel sees Ward return to the fictional town of Bois Sauvage, which was also the setting of Ward’s 2011 National Book Award winning Salvage the Bones. […]