65 Search results for "holidays"

I’m in a weird place as a parent and an activist; at what point do I talk to my daughter about the truth behind Thanksgiving or any other holiday draped in an ugly American truth?

While the holidays are a time for family and friends to get together, the season can also be difficult and exclusionary for members of the black LGBT community. Due to the alienation, more LGBT African Americans are turning to the holiday of Kwanzaa. 

26-year-old Jackie Turner only desires one thing for Christmas, and that’s to celebrate it with a family. The William Jessup University student has lived a life of emotional, sexual and physical abuse, and describing her situation as one that produced a product of a broken home is an understatement. Jackie has no family, so she […]

   By: Rashad J. Smith The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) also known to millions of Americans as “Food Stamps” surprised hundreds of thousands of recipients with extra “money” this past weekend. Residents of Rochester, New York rushed to grocery stores this weekend after they found out that their balance on their Electronic Benefit Transfer […]

By Jordie Davies This holiday season, many of us will return home to our families, who, even though they love us very much and we love them, may hold different political beliefs. It won’t be easy. The current political moment is an especially tough one if you or your loved ones voted for different presidential […]

by Jamila Dawn Mitchell I’m writing this because I need to feel wanted. That’s it. It may sound selfish to most. To a psychologist, though, this makes sense. Most things we do are done in spite of our desire to want to be loved. The sense of belonging is the essence of our humanity and […]

by Loni Amor This essay contains discussions of suicidal ideation. Inspired by First Fruit festivals of Southern Africa, African-American civil rights activist and academic, the extremely problematic  Dr. Maulana Ron Karenga established Kwanzaa in 1966. Deriving from the Swahili phrase “matunda ya kwanza”, which translates loosely to “first fruits of the harvest”, Kwanzaa offers Black […]

Today, President Trump vowed the government shutdown will continue until his border wall receives funding. He also promised to visit the border in January 2019.

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 […]

By Gloria Oladipo Being around family for the various holidays this year has reminded me a lot of religion, specifically Christianity, which has been in my life since childhood. Rules based on Christian teachings were foundational to my upbringing. Using the Bible’s critique of witchcraft, my parents banned Harry Potter from our house. I wasn’t […]

Acting Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler, Sarah Sanders, and other Trump administration officials have criticized their own government’s climate change report for being unnecessarily alarmist about a “worst-case scenario.”

I enjoy the fall season. All year long, I look forward to the cooler weather, the back-to-school hustle, autumnal harvest excursions, and the flurry of family and friends that the holidays bring. But between football season, Halloween, Native American Heritage Month, and Thanksgiving, fall is also the time of year that Indigenous people are catapulted […]