34 Search results for "assimilation"

The internet, as a digital looking glass, can normalize violence for Black boys
by Donnie Moreland I’m entering my apartment lot, around 9:45 PM, having returned from the gym. My vision often obscured around this time, I’m hurried to brake as two figures creep along in front of me. The two feel my headlights on their backs, thus they oblige my curiosity, and turn around. They are Black […]
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 […]
Van Jones, language and the psuedo memory of national identity
by Donnie Moreland In my six years participating in scholastic speech and debate competition, the one lasting impression of the sport itself, less any social interaction, was that language is never fixed. Language is neither absolute, or inherent. Language is craftable, manipulatable, sellable and infinitely interpretable. This seems obvious, but when you think of how […]
The colonial politics of desirability, fitness and gay manhood
by Avery Ware The sexual question comes after the question of color; it’s simply one more aspect of the danger in which all black people live. I think white gay people feel cheated because they were born, in principle, into a society in which they were supposed to be safe. The anomaly of their sexuality […]
Watchmen, an homage to Black memory (loss)
*This essay contains spoilers from Watchmen* “You shouldn’t have swallowed your grandfather’s pills Angela. Do you know how Nostalgia works? How they make it? You know, they insert these little chips into your brain and they harvest your memories. And then they put them in a little pill and you pop one and you get to […]
We deserve to see more Black vampires on the screen
by Andrew Keahey The image on the screen is alway the same: a young woman, unsuspecting of any danger, twirls her hair and chats with a stranger. He’s always tall, he’s well-dressed and clearly of “good breeding”, and he’s always white. Pale white. The young woman’s thoughts ring clear, “Is this charming man a little […]
How white narcissism affords only white people the right to fear
This essay briefly mentions sexual and reproductive violences. A group of Trump-worshipping, MAGA hat-wearing white boys from Covington Catholic High School surrounded and taunted an Indigenous elder with the racist, xenophobic, and nationalist chant, “Build the wall!” last week. But somehow the mainstream media has framed the boys as innocent victims, despite the fact that […]
To force Muslims to assimilate, Denmark requires all to shake hands in citizenship ceremonies
In a direct move to target Muslims, Denmark’s right-wing Parliament passed a law requiring all individuals in naturalization ceremonies to shake hands with the official dignitary. Many conservative Muslims refuse to shake hands with people of a different sex on religious grounds.The law also includes a clause that deliberately prohibits the wearing of gloves, and […]
Navigating Christmas as a sexual assault survivor brought up in the Catholic church
by Tracey Onyenacho This essay discusses sexual violence, including molestation. Growing up in a Black and immigrant household, Catholicism has always reigned supreme. Forced assimilation into a country that is not your own makes holding onto Christian traditions feel like a blanket of safety in a new environment. Religious traditions and practices in my house […]
The violence of Black fratenities is a Black masculinity problem
by Daniel Johnson James Baldwin’s January 1985 essay for Playboy, ““Freaks and the American Ideal of Manhood”, engages with a discussion on androgyny and the American idea of sexuality in which he raises questions about the American idea of masculinity. In the essay, Baldwin affixes violence as the key to the (white) American imagination of […]
Why Black children must see themselves in the classroom.
by Liljuan Gonzalez I remember seeing a little Black girl being viciously yelled at to stop moving and to sit with her hands folded while her eyes followed the teacher. When she moved an inch, out of jitters or childish restlessness, her teacher responded with a death glare or a disparaging tone that blindly enforced […]
“I’m is talking right”: How the stigma around Black language holds us back from liberation
By Jae Nichelle There has been a language division among Black Americans for decades: African American Vernacular English (AAVE) vs. Standard American English (SAE). AAVE is a dialect used by Black people in social settings that pervades hip-hop culture, while SAE is the dialect generally taught in schools. Most people across racial lines do not […]