401 Search results for "loss"

I wish Black folks could mourn in our own little bubble
by Indigo In the early hours of October 17, 2019, United States Representative Elijah Cummings (D-MD 7th District) died of complications related to long-term health conditions at age 68 at a hospice center in Baltimore, Maryland. Representative Cummings has represented Maryland’s seventh district since 1996, Kweisi Mfume preceding him prior to becoming President of the […]
The ‘Charmed’ reboot and the demonization of Macy Vaughn
by Cosima Smith Television, movies, and literary representations all serve to enforce, perpetuate, and reinforce the lived-realities of their subjects and audience. They also proliferate the ideas of their creators by portraying a set of characters who, ideally, undergo hardships and growth, experience love and loss, and who (work to) internalize a great deal of […]
Maybe Black men protect white women because we see ourselves in them
by Donnie Moreland My crushes, in high school, were all white girls. I used to fantasize about asking them out, kissing them, fucking them. It was about the only way by which I judged my social value—by how many of them I was of interest to. In fact, the first girl to ever hear the […]
‘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 […]
Black people don’t need to be “twice as good”: Unpacking the communal depression of watching Serena lose
As far as I can tell, no one really knows who first stated that Black people have to work twice as hard and be twice as good to be as successful as white people. I’d like to think that a great mass of ancestors came up with the old adage apart but simultaneously, a testament […]
From John Henry to James Evans: Black men married to hard labor in the white American imagination
by Donnie MoreIand I find myself humming the theme of Good Times, quite a bit. It’s calming, in the way only Black Baptist Church Choirs can be calming. In fact, I find all of it pretty calming—Good Times, that is—because it’s so unequivocally Black, that it feels a part of my cultural genome. Now, I […]
Comic: Sex Education utterly failed you and that’s not our fault
Editor’s Note: This month at BYP, we will be exploring Education & Schooling, and we are interested in publishing works that address these topics. What are the implications of charter and private schools in communities of color? How do we counteract anti-Black textbooks and teachers in our childrens’ education? How did you heal from bullying […]
I don’t know what my grief looks like outside of social pressures to perform it in acceptable ways
My heroes are never buried when they die, at least not at first. As soon as I hear the news, I borrow their face from their still chilling body to post alongside a hastily written message of grief and well-wishes. I want to be the earliest to write about their loss, for everyone to see […]
Don’t get too excited about tech advances. Many are designed to leave Black people behind
Editor’s Note: This month at BYP, we will be exploring Black Liberation & Organizing, and we are interested in publishing works that address these topics. How do we hold politicians accountable to Black communities? Is that even possible? What should be our role in the electoral politics? What does abolition look like in practice? What […]
Somewhere over the rainbow: Reading the Pride symbol as a queering of the Bible
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 By Ciarra Milan Jones Genesis 9:13–16 I […]
Childhood trauma and pornographic visions of the Black phallus made me ashamed of masturbation
Editor’s Note: May is Mental Health Awareness Month and National Masturbation Month. This is also the month that we celebrate Mother’s Day. At BYP, we will be exploring these topics alongside the theme of Imagination and the Arts, and we are interested in publishing works that address these topics and the things surrounding them. This […]
Sexual assault programs must address racial power dynamics & acknowledge the history of racist lies about assault
Editor’s Note: April is Black Women’s History Month. Throughout this month, Black Youth Project is celebrating Black women. This month is also National Minority Health Month, Autism Awareness Month, Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Child Abuse Prevention Month. We are interested in publishing works that address these topics and the things surrounding them. We want to […]