108 Search results for "u s army"

                  While it should be commonplace to study, promote, and protect Black History each and every day of the year, I still find it rewarding to dig into our history during the month of February to highlight those of our predecessors, especially the lesser know ones, to […]

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfzKsUYwKxo In 1994, (when I was four years old) I remember the day that I moved in with my grandmother. The geographical context of my situation was found on the south side of Chicago in Marquette Park (67th Street), where my grandmother had owned a home for a couple of decades. 28 Years before this […]

Texas state officials are deciding whether or not to offer a Confederate Flag option for state license plates. As with any controversial issue, there has been significant backlash. Proponents of placing the symbol on license plates cite historical pride and recognizing the bravery and strength of their ancestors, for whom the flag served as a […]

What if Fred Hampton and the Black Panthers who were murdered by the Chicago police department had the capability of recording the police raid that caused so much controversy in 1969? What if the Rodney King Video was never recorded in 1991? What if someone had been able to record John Burge when he enforced […]

What happened this week that made me imagine my father a superhero: This week, I went to the doctor to check on my blood pressure. A couple of weeks ago it was a tad bit above the normal rate and so my doctor wanted to monitor it. So, I scheduled an appointment to come in […]

For far too long have people been forced into silence, a silence that neither yields equality or freedom. This is the silence that conjures depression, subjugation, and ostracization. A creed that keeps people quiet in the name of sustaining what traditionalist preach to be “proper.”  This silence is what keeps men on the DL, women […]

“I don’t want no feminine person defending me in the army” I try not to be desensitized by comments like this. I try to be as offended as I was the first time I encountered ignorance. But in reality, once you hear something for so long, it can never strike you in the same way […]

For the last month or so, I have been trying to wrap my mind around how Antoine Dodson’s instant celebrity fame helps his sister, Kelly Dodson. Yes, I know Antoine’s internet fame allowed him to move his family from a less safe neighborhood context to a safer residential area. But, the reasons why a man […]

Assata Shakur, like many of her contemporaries, is a product of her circumstances. As the hopeful and peaceful Civil Rights era gave way to the more ardent struggle for Black empowerment, Shakur was at a critical time in her life. Campuses and cities across the country were struggling with the Vietnam War and the continued […]

And to think blacks spend all this money on big colleges, still most of y’all come out confused. – Arrested Development A few weeks ago, N’s daughter, E came into the living room, and asked us if she’d be “ruining [her] life” by traveling for a few years after high school before she went to […]

Though I am ostensibly a U.S. Citizen (some days it feels tenuous as hell), I also have a Crunchy Nation green card, which means my Twitter feed was full of earth mother goddesses, headwraps, and the like drooling over Erykah Badu’s new video for “Window Seat,” the lead single from her album, New Amerykah Part […]

MSNBC.com | February 22, 2010 This week on the Today Show, former U.S. Army Spc. Shoshana Johnson spoke with Matt Lauer about her experience as a 19-year-old  prisoner of war in Iraq in 2003.  She recently wrote an autobiography about her experience called I’m Still Standing.