We can discuss the etymology of ‘ratchet’ all we want, but long story short, it is one of the few words in the English language that can equally serve as an adjective (“That club is pretty ratchet.”), verb (“We need play some Fat Trel so we can ratchet it up in here.”), and noun (“This […]
Jasiri X and Pharoahe Monch at the Brooklyn Bowl for the Sandy Relief Concert (Photo by Paradise Gray) On “Our World with Black Enterprise“, hosted by Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, we discussed the current state of Hip-Hop and it’s future, with Hip-Hop artist Pharoahe Monch, Dr. Tricia Rose, chair of the Department of Africana Studies at Brown University and myself. […]
Megan Piphus, an upperclassman at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, recently appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She’s using music, ventriloquism, and puppetry, to inspire youth to dream big and in color!
I had planned on using this morning’s post to conclude my silly holiday special. Since I took time last week to make a mixtape of rappers covering Christmas songs, I figured I’d spend this morning telling you all about this new, mythical black Christmas figure I had invented. Since Kwanzaa is insufficient and the idea […]
In the LGBTQ community there is something called “throwing shade.” A colloquial term used to describe instances when one individual verbally and offensively altercates another. I am not interested in the shade itself, but moreso the reasoning as to why this experience is so common among interactions between youth of color in the LGBTQ community. […]
According to a report in the Journal of American College Health, one in five young women have experienced attempted or completed sexual assault while a student. Horrific. What can be done to transform the sexually violent culture of so many college campuses?
A report by California’s Assembly select committee on the status of of boys and men of color finds that, among other alarming statistics, by kindergarten, 1 in 4 African American boys believe they will fail at school. What can we do to improve the life chances of young men of color?
Express your current obsession with a womyn to let her know that her efforts haven’t gone unrecognized. Explain to her how she provides you with mental, physical, & emotional support. Speak metaphors that clarify your position in the life of your relationship. Relationships engage a backbone-to-backbone collision that lays cement for a foundation, that produces […]
Every week, the Black Youth Project collects the top news stories about black youth from across the country. This week: ‘Remember Trayvon Martin – stop the war on Black and brown youth,’ ‘Black youth critical to Obama’s Victory’ and more!
It is true that “all the girls wanna play Baywatch” at the swimming pools full of liquor (Kendrick Lamar, “Swimming Pools”). Generation Y parties, both in college and high school, present you with a reality surfacing from the deep end of young adult freedom. Diving through the future, our new understandings of suffering blend with […]
Very few athletes, or any person in the public eye for that matter, handle themselves with the amount of humility and class that Derrick Rose does. And I for one am so glad that he can be someone who kids look up to. More kids will believe that they can make it. Because he did.
The aftermath of last week’s presidential debate ruled the land of the internet for, like, three whole days. Twitter and the blogosphere burst with excuses for the POTUS’ underwhelming performance and slo-mo video clips of Mitt Romney allegedly cheating by bringing notes with him. Big Bird n’em stole the show, though. After Romney claimed he […]
