71 Search results for "colonize"

Caribbean countries sue former colonizers for reparations
Several Caribbean countries have decided to sue their former colonizers for reparations. According to an AP report, political leaders voted unanimously to pursue a lawsuit and have hired a law firm to help them with the effort.
What We Carry: A Coming-of-Age Tale of Grief, Therapy, and Reckoning
by Christian M. Ivey “What We Carry” is a powerful coming-of-age story that follows Drew, a young Black college student grappling with grief, anxiety, and the long shadow of racial trauma. Get yo ass up, Drew! My alarm rang, a nasty, raggedy rang, almost soundin’ like it was yellin’ at me. Get yo ass up, […]
Why Black pain will never disarm white supremacy
A nursing book was recalled in 2017 because of the racist way that it discussed pain; how it is felt, how it is interpreted, and how it should be understood by physicians, and therefore, how it should ultimately be treated. This entry, entitled “Cultural Differences in Response to Pain,” included sections on “Arabs/Muslims,” “Asians,” “Blacks,” […]
Why we need to stop excluding Black populations from ideas of who is “Indigenous”
*Editor’s note: This piece has been deeply informed by conversations with my friend and colleague Preston Anderson through the years, among other things. A few months ago, I posted a Facebook status regarding a viral meme featuring Disney’s cartoon version of Pocahontas and John Smith, arguing that it promoted white supremacist ideas of interracial relationships […]
Stolen bodies, Stolen land: Contemplating Blackness and Indigeneity
by Briana L. Ureña-Ravelo Today marks one year since I and a group of friends joined the frontline resistance in Standing Rock at the Oceti Sakowin camp, the ancestral lands of the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota Sioux people. I have spent this past year deconstructing, unpacking, learning, relearning, disconnecting, reconnecting, going through this whole process […]
How theology based on a “one true god” cuts Black people off from necessary indigenous practices
By DJ Ferguson My mother, no stranger to emotional blackmail, had no hesitation in using it on behalf of her god in an attempt to reconvert me. “Don’t you think God (Yahweh) ever mourns?” she asked, hoping to get me to feel sorry for the possessive West Asian shepherd god whom I no longer worship. […]
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 […]
Richard Akuson: the ‘A Nasty Boy’ editor talks the future of his queer fashion magazine and life as an asylum seeker in the U.S.
by Kathleen Anaza Richard Akuson obtained a level of success and visibility that could be the envy of many young people around the world. Before the age of 25, he was a licensed lawyer and opened a boutique PR firm within the Nigerian economy’s all-time highest youth unemployment rate. With all this success, his most […]
When the Ancestors tell you to go to therapy
There aren’t enough accessible therapists to go around. I met this reality after an Ifa divination that I got while I was in Cuba, and my dreams for an entire year afterward, told me that I needed to focus on my mental health. My ancestors were LOUD about the mental work that I needed to […]
Comic: We don’t want to learn about our own cultural practices from white people
By JeCorey Holder Is it just me or is it super fucking weird that white people insist on teaching whole classes on cultural practices that aren’t theirs? Yoga, African dance, Black/PoC Spirituality… White people will make their daily coffee money off of someone else’s entire closed practices while still pretending TO YOUR FACE not to […]