6693 Search results for "son"

The Black body remembers our traumas even when we try to forget
By Najya A. Williams Throughout my childhood, my mom always scheduled early morning dental appointments to accommodate the remarkably busy lives we both led. Once I was old enough to schedule my own visits, I unsurprisingly fell back into this familiar routine. I normally don’t think twice about my check-ups, especially if I’m not experiencing […]
Used in a relentless pursuit of the elusive middle class, side hustle culture is killing Black folx
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 […]
White supremacy is where my PTSD and intrusive thoughts intersect
by Ja’Loni Amor Owens “The bus is late. Again,” I mumbled to myself. A lanky white man plopped down next to me even though there was plenty of room for him to sit further away, and not invade my space. “You waiting for the bus?” he asked. Duh. “Yeah, I am. It’s late though.” “You […]
Faced with commercialization, the Black Punk community turns to its past for a guide to keep resisting
By Monika Estrella Negra The majority of the Black punks I have talked to were drawn to (or got lost in) the Punk scene in order to escape the rigidity and heteronormative idealism of traditional Black political organizing. This is not to infer that all Black punks identify with far leftist views, nor does it […]
Keeping Black history will always be necessary, but it takes a toll
I imagine that I would be a historian, a social librarian of sorts, whenever Black liberation is realized, and I imagine that my role wouldn’t look much different from the work I am already doing: Helping to keep Black histories. For as long as I’ve been aware of my Blackness as a threat to whiteness […]
Black women, our closeted emotional needs won’t get met
by Najya A. Williams In the dark of the night, the world had fallen asleep and I was left to the comfort of my favorite recliner and a random Enneagram personality test my friend had shared with me. With the popularity of tests and quizzes meant to predict your life, I held a healthy amount […]
“E pluribus unum”: Federalism is a reactionary structure built on anti-Blackness
by Aaron Jamal E pluribus unum — Latin for “Out of many, one.” Included in the Great Seal of the United States in 1776. The political system of the United States is in a state of perpetual crisis. The state of Tennessee has proposed a new bill that will drastically limit the voting power of […]
Sometimes, I give gentrifiers the wrong directions when they get lost
Editor’s Note: This essay contains descriptions of anti-Black and anti-queer violence. Sometimes, I give white people the wrong directions when they get lost. For awhile, this was on accident. I am horrible with directions, and so I wouldn’t even know I was pointing them the wrong way. But mostly when I do this today, it […]
#UnderHisEye and the erasure of Black women in the carceral system
This essay contains discussions of racialized sexual violence and mentions r/pe and molestation. by Mekleit Dix The Handmaid’s Tale is a wildly popular American Television show based on a novel of the same name by Margaret Atwood. It portrays a dystopian nightmare: sterility in women becomes a widespread epidemic resulting in a break down of […]
Steve McQueen’s ‘Bear’ is an exploration of intimacies among Black men
by Donnie Moreland Two Black men, their naked bodies shifting in-between spaces where shadows were not obstructed by an abrasive key-light. The slow moving image stripped bare of any noise aside from my own breath. Even still, their bodies colliding, their grunting, their moaning—though I could not hear—shook me as thunder might. I was disquieted, […]
There’s no such thing as a “progressive prosecutor” in a system designed to criminalize Blackness
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 […]
How heterosexual Black men project the psycho-sexual traumas of the plantation onto our queer brethren
This essay contains discussions of racialized sexual violence and mentions r/pe by Donnie Moreland There is this thing with us, as Black men. This war. Well, less war and more an inter-communal pogrom, wherein any Black man who shows no desire to lay with women exclusively is designated a cancer, subject to extermination. The prevention […]