181 Search results for "economic justice"

Black excellence?: How a school abused Black students & got fame for sending them to Ivy Leagues
By Kevin Clay The culture of physical and emotional abuse, blackmailing, and the intellectual sabotage of students recently uncovered at the T.M. Landry school in Louisiana by the New York Times, atop what was previously a narrative of “Black student exceptionalism,” positions the school at the nexus of much larger and pervasive problems in the way […]
The excellence of Black Hollywood doesn’t need to be validated by mainstream awards
by Khaaliq Crowder As a Black millennial, I sometimes forget about the advantage that folks of my generation have as opposed to our grandparents and older relatives when it comes to media representation. Black people weren’t always in movies, and when we were, our presence was seldom. My grandparents, who grew in the 1930s and […]
Queering Kwanzaa: How the seven principles remind me of QTPOC power
by Loni Amor This essay contains discussions of suicidal ideation. Inspired by First Fruit festivals of Southern Africa, African-American civil rights activist and academic, the extremely problematic Dr. Maulana Ron Karenga established Kwanzaa in 1966. Deriving from the Swahili phrase “matunda ya kwanza”, which translates loosely to “first fruits of the harvest”, Kwanzaa offers Black […]
Reconciling ‘glorious healing’ & the ‘loving refusal’ of intracommunal violence in an era of disposability
By Tez Files Baptize me. Now that reconciliation is possible, if we’re gonna heal, let it be glorious. – Beyoncé, “Sandcastles” I must have heard Beyoncé’s “Sandcastles”a dozen times. I read all types of complexity into its lyrics. After having gone through a very difficult break-up, it was healing to sit with my emotions and […]
How liberal discourse that distances migrants from “criminals” obscures the crimes of this anti-Black state
By “DJ Ferguson” All Star Batman and Robin: The Boy Wonder written by Frank Miller is an unholy mixture of camp and 90s grim-and-gritty/edgy for its own sake, but this interaction between Batman and Green Lantern will stick with me for the rest of my life. This story takes place not long after Batman: Year […]
Canada is still not a “Plan B” for Americans when our country is going to sh*t
by JaLoni Amor Owens For many Americans, one of the only days that left the nation feeling as hopeless and defeated as it did on November 8, 2016 was the day after. Those on the left, whether or not Secretary Clinton was their first choice for President of the United States and whether or not […]
More role models for Black boys in school won’t fix anything if we continue to overlook Black girls
By Brittani McNeill It is common knowledge that Black children are on the low end of an ever widening racial achievement gap in this country. It’s even becoming more widely acknowledged that systemic problems and institutional neglect, as opposed to simply personal or even parental shortcomings, lead to this problem. An examination of this achievement […]
Why the NYC specialized high school exam is discriminatory and must be terminated.
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 […]
New Orleans judge is the latest to strike down money bail after class-action suit
Following a ruling by Houston judge Lee H. Rosenthal of Federal District Court last year, Judge Eldon E. Fallon of the Louisiana Eastern District Court has also ruled against the implementation of money bail, calling it a violation of equal protection and due process. In the New Orleans case, the judge struck down the city’s kickback […]
I thought my transness would betray my Blackness. I was wrong.
by Indigo If I were to introduce myself to anyone today, I would introduce myself as Loni. I would introduce myself as a non-binary afro-boricua whose gender pronouns are exclusively they, them, and theirs. I would introduce myself as someone who is unafraid to correct anyone who refers to me by my given name, or […]
95 bodies—how sanitizing slavery keeps America’s hands clean
The remains of ninety-five Black people were recently found buried at a construction site in Sugar Land, Texas. The vast majority of reports about this discovery neglect to call these dead Black people what they really were: enslaved. This essay contains discussions of racialized state violence, slavery, and lynching. “African-American forced laborers” have […]
Black youth need more than public health strategies that read sexuality as diseased and immoral
By Jallicia Jolly In the aftermath of National HIV Testing Week in the US, it is crucial that we talk openly and honestly about what it means to live, love, and sex while being Black and young. As an HIV tester and counselor, I am well aware of the conversations about “safe sex” that populate […]