82 Search results for "hair freedom"

By Teju Adisa-Farrar When God made mountains He made runaway slaves — Nikki Giovanni, Chasing Utopia We were not supposed to survive. Last month, AfroPunk published an article about Argentina’s genocide of their Black populations. Unsurprisingly, Argentina is not much different from other countries who have tried to erase their Black populations or their impact […]

by Adam Mahoney I’ve been living in Vietnam for four months and from the first 30 minutes I arrived in the country, my hair was a problem. I’m a 20 year old junior in college, so when the opportunity to not be in a classroom full of wealthy, white peers presented itself, I jumped at […]

Content Note: This essay contains details about childhood sexual assault My parents didn’t hit me growing up. I know they hit my older siblings, but something had changed over the years before I got here. Maybe they saw it didn’t help. Maybe they even knew hitting children causes significant harm. But I like to think […]

When I first read the code of conduct administered at Pretoria High School for Girls in South Africa, I was mortified. As a mother, with a daughter whose hair at 3 years old would be classified by some as “nappy”, all I could think was “How would I do her hair if this came home […]

Lamont Lilly is a writer, activist, and father whose work echoes the struggles for justice and ambitions of our generation.  These four poems push us to think differently about blackness in the contemporary moment. From the author: “Each piece is a reflection of the people, places and experiences of struggle that have shaped who I […]

Created by Zindzi Rocque Drayton, Hair Freedom features Black women discussing the nascent natural hair movement in the UK. Watch the BBC Raw doc below: Photo: Youtube/Screenshot

This is the map Sarah Palin published on her site in 2010. Less than a week ago, someone reached one of those targets. Is Sarah to blame? She certainly doesn’t think so and she isn’t alone. What’s interesting about this situation though, is while a number of media outlets are speculating that Palin’s poor use […]

by Amber Butts I take my shoes off and step into the dirt. The ground is cold, damp enough to come up through my feet and ease something that had been tight all morning. Leaves press, then give, then press again. The soil shifts under me, not giving way, just answering back. I stand there […]

by Charles Tremblay Black culture is everywhere, on runways, in music, even in the way people speak and move online. But the people who create it, especially Black women, are rarely protected when culture is copied, mocked, or commodified. This is especially apparent in K-pop, where Black aesthetics, from language to hairstyles, are often adopted […]

by DeLisha Tapscott, Ed.D. I learned to be useful long before I understood what labor was. Long before I had language for work, worth, or expectation, I understood that being helpful mattered. Being capable mattered. Being low-maintenance mattered. Those traits were praised early, offered as signs of maturity and goodness, folded into what it meant […]

by Desmond King On Thursday I found myself with a bleeding tongue Warm water washed over my soapy hands, blood filling my mouth  I did not speak when he said “We’re almost there” My tongue is used to being bit open, to keep the peace To keep secrets  What does “Friday’s Eve” even mean? Constantly […]

By Teju Adisa-Farrar When God made mountains He made runaway slaves — Nikki Giovanni, Chasing Utopia We were not supposed to survive. in 2018, AfroPunk published an article about Argentina’s genocide of their Black populations. Unsurprisingly, Argentina is not much different from other countries who have tried to erase their Black populations or their impact […]