66 Search results for "independence"

If we aren’t fully free, how do we celebrate this country’s freedom? Next Monday, Americans all over the world will celebrate Independence Day, the day the thirteen colonies declared their independence from the British crown. On July 5th, 1852, however, Frederick Douglass was not in celebratory mood. In a speech to the Ladies’ Antislavery Society, Douglass […]

G Unit has gotten back together with a new EP entitled The Beauty of Independence. With the album title in mind, it immediately harkened me back to a brief clip from former Roc-A-Fella records CEO Dame Dash discussing the “independent spirit.” The implications of what Dame discusses could change the Black and Latino community as […]

As the fireworks lit up the sky over the San Francisco Bay and emitted smoke and dust that contained various heavy metals, sulfur-coal compounds and other noxious chemicals I reflected on the ever evasive concept of independence. What does independence means to the ex felons who have been relegated to the lowest rung of the […]

Yep, Glenn Beck’s show on Fox News has officially been terminated, thanks to his own insane rantings and a big push by activists that hounded his advertisers to abandon him, most notably Color of Change.  Justifiably, he went out with a whimper, although not the customary Glenn Beck tear filled whimper. Yeah, he has some […]

by Juahl Ganaway In a scene ripped from The Sugar Shack, the character Pearline (played by the stunning Jayme Lawson) stalks across the stage purring the lyrics to “Pale, Pale, Moon,” the Brittany Howard-penned song that feels more like an invocation than a performance.  “I wanna sing Like I hear the crickets do I wanna […]

Dalvin Aboagye Near the end of May, the more melanin-infused parts of the internet were set ablaze by a questionable scene in the second season of She’s Gotta Have It, the Spike Lee-produced Netflix series based on his 1986 film of the same name. Within what many already saw as a weak portrayal of Black […]

by Fania Noel The assassination of George Floyd by the police and the uprisings that followed reverberate across the Atlantic Ocean, finding resonance and solidarity in France.  Four days after the murder of George Floyd, a medical expert was called in to evaluate the case of Adama Traoré, a Black man who died while in […]

by Aaron Jamal  E pluribus unum — Latin for “Out of many, one.” Included in the Great Seal of the United States in 1776. The political system of the United States is in a state of perpetual crisis. The state of Tennessee has proposed a new bill that will drastically limit the voting power of […]

by Janyce Glasper Hannah Bledsoe loved Linda Crawford. Yet Hannah desperately needed a quiet, isolated place to paint alone. One simply could not crash on a college friend’s couch forever. She found salvation in the good neighborhood— a drafty basement converted into a studio apartment. The tightly jarred windows and cracked ceilings poorly congealed together […]

By Donnie Moreland Only on nights like this, could “sweet” be an adjective to describe the air. A prize, really. All those brothers, shoulder to shoulder on the Mall, and you can imagine how much funk can stew in a day. But a soft wind started everyone on their way back from where they began […]

by C. Imani Williams Findings from The National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs reports 1 in 5 children between the ages of 12-17 have special needs. For Black children, however, that number increases as they are more likely to be identified as persons with disabilities. On top of this stark disparity, Black […]

 by Imade Nibokun Black people invented mental health treatment before the “pray it away” stigma and the white supremacy that produced it. While Black folks continue to address the stigmas attached to mental illness, we must also acknowledge that Black mental health practitioners existed first. The first known physician in history is an Egyptian architect […]