When we blame Black women for our failure to be seen as āreal menā in a White racist society we only show ourselves to be immature. Our mothers, our sisters, our aunts, our girlfriends, our wives, and nieces are not our enemy.
Rhymefest on executive producing THE PLEDGE Mixtape: “Hip Hop can be used as a tool or a weapon, and I wanted to inspire more artists to use it as a tool.” The Pledge Mixtape is a 13-song compilation of various artists taking back their communal power through music.
CALLING ALL ARTISTS: Submit Music To THE PLEDGE MIXTAPE; sponsored by the Black Youth Project and Rhymefest’s Power of Purpose, Inc. Taking back our communal power through music!
I’ve spent the last week treading in the liquid of a queer-flavored ambivalence, trying to determine why the Anderson Cooper and Frank Ocean coming out announcements mean less to me than other people. I have seen enough episodes ofĀ Coming Out StoriesĀ and foolishly subjected myself and my partner to the awkward anti-climax of telling my father […]
The winds of change offered us another subtle and elusive breeze on the 4th of July as the nation celebrated another ironic Independence Day. Undoubtedly, many of you have already heard of Frank Oceanās beautiful tumblr post announcing that his first love was a man. In delicate prose laced in a humble font sans serif, […]
Contrary to popular belief I donāt dislike LeBron James. I almost feel sorry for him. He has been commodified since he was about 16 years old. I was a sophomore in high school the first time I saw him on television. And then he was on the covers of magazines. All before he even arrived […]
Off the West Coast a new movement assembles an army of sick-and-tired oppressed peoples. This group of artists, called Black Hippy, tours all over the world cultivating aĀ militantĀ program of HiiiPower. The philosophy of HiiiPower seems tailor-made for a generation of activists that are uniquely artistic and have easy access to brain drugs. Our only question […]
Commencement yesterday was filled with encouraging speeches reminding my senior class that ācommencementā is the beginning, not the end, and graduating is simply a marker that we have received and collected the tools we will need to move forward. The rhetoric of speakers, and of casual conversations on any graduation day is generally one of […]
When black men graduate from college, barriers are broken. When black men from poverty graduate from college, systems of power are shifted.Ā When black men from poverty are the first persons in their family to graduate from college, revolution becomes possible. As I become the first person in my family to graduate from college I […]
(I Learned By Watching You) I. Last week,Ā I submitted a news story to the BYPĀ concerning yet another case of bullying. Joel Morales, a 12-year-old from East Harlem, hanged himself because he had grown tired of relentless harassment from other students. I forwarded the story just a few weeks after having sent an update regarding theĀ FAMU […]
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzPhnVaw874 It is always amazing to me when organizations find interventions that can radically change the way young people view their place in the world. As you can see in the video, this is an example of how Chicago Freedom School uses music and chants to build the self-efficacy of young people. There is something […]
A Fulton County judge will not indict Union City police officer Luther Lewis for shooting unarmed 19 year-old Ariston Waiters late last year. During an altercation between Lewis and Waiters, Waiters was shot in the back. Was this shooting justified?
