“As I said in my letter to Columbia,” Winter Tangerine Review editor-in-chief Yasmin Belkhyr shared with me, “how many women of color have not been able to enter writing competitions because of reading fees? How many are not able to pursue writing because of the high cost of workshops? One is too many.”
You just don’t wake up one morning and start enacting social change. There is a moment when you become racially conscious and from that day on, you cannot shake this political awareness–it sticks with you. Everyone’s path to wokeness is different. No matter the different paths that are taken, young Black people are doing good […]
Everyone keeps asking why there aren’t more Black STEM students and professionals. But few are discussing the difficulties faced by first-generation Black students. I am not shy about my experiences as an engineering student at the University of Southern California and STEM professional in Orange County, California. To put it lightly, it wasn’t fun. Actually, it was […]
Hampton University brings more diversity to its campus as it welcomes its first LGBTQ organization. On February 4, 2016, the students at Hampton University heard that the first LGBTQ organization had been approved by administration. It’s called Mosaic, which is an acronym for “Motivating Open-Minded Social Acceptance and Inspiring Change.” This group will be a safe space […]
The office of Black Youth Project 100 is a few blocks from President Barack Obama’s private residence in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. The organization’s national director, Charlene Carruthers, like Obama in his younger activist days, is a Chicago community organizer. The similarities may stop there. Indeed, Carruthers has been loudly calling for the resignation of […]
Howard University President, Dr. Wayne Frederick, recently made a suggestion about something that President Barack Obama can add to his plan to improve higher education. Obama is looking to make community colleges across the country free to students that maintained good grades while in high school. Frederick wants the President to consider adding HBCU’s under that […]
The music service that we completely try to ignore is making sure that we don’t forget about them. TIDAL is in the news again but for a completely new reason. Jay Z’s music platform, in collaboration with Roc Nation, is donating $1.5 million to Black Lives Matter and other local and national social justice groups.
As a mother of three, one of the central concerns I have each is for the safety of my children. While my partner and I have opted not to use corporal punishment in our household, we know that some parents still advocate for its use in their own homes. However, corporal punishment in schools is […]
During the early morning hours after Christmas, Quintonio LeGrier called Chicago Police three times to ask for assistance to no avail – he was even hung up on once. When his father called from the same address requesting assistance, an officer was sent to investigate. LeGrier was then shot six times –including in the back– along […]
The daily routine of watching Bernie Sanders fans hell-bent on bullying people of color on social media and hopelessly loyal Hillary supporters claiming her campaign an intersectional victory has left me feeling even less apt to cast my vote for either candidate in November. As a young Black, queer woman of middle-class means and working-class […]
According to the New York Times, 19-year-old Quintonio LeGrier called 911 three times before the police shot him. There have been new findings from a December police shooting in Chicago which left LeGrier, a college student who was experiencing a mental episode, and his neighbor dead after being hung up on by an impatient dispatcher. When […]
It looks like Flint, Michigan is getting help from nearby celebrities. Big Sean is an active participant in helping the Flint, Michigan water crisis, as he launched #HealFlintKids on Thursday, January 21, 2016 along with donating $10,000.
