47 Search results for "academia"

“Who taught you to love yourself?”: How political education moved me to leave academia
By Deria Matthews “The university was not created to save my life. The university is not about the preservation of a bright brown body. The university will use me alive and use me dead. The university does not intend to love me. The university does not know how to love me. The university in fact, […]
Academia’s role in legitimizing conservative hate speech
by Idiley In 1985, a conservative group called Accuracy in Academia (AIA) was established with the intent of protecting “academic freedom.” Their mission was to get schools to return to “the quest for truth,” which manifests as an active push against what they claim to be a “liberal bias” in academia. Since AIA’s inception, these points […]
We Were Taught to Be Useful Before We Were Allowed to Be Human
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 […]
In the Wake of ‘The Trayvon Generation’
by Jenn M. Jackson, PhD When I found out that George Zimmerman, the white-passing, mixed race Latinx man who killed Trayvon Martin on February 26th, 2012, was acquitted of all charges, I was sitting in a massive auditorium of Black women, all members of my sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, Inc. That night, we were in […]
Welcome Home to the Black Youth Project
by Jenn M. Jackson, PhD Almost a decade ago, I said goodbye to my editing position here at Black Youth Project. I was 33 years old, working on the final edits of my dissertation at the University of Chicago titled “Race, Risks, and Responses: Mapping Black American’s Reactions to Policing in the United States.” My […]
The Price of Presence
The Price of Presence: Notes From Atlanta’s Strip Economy Notes From An Urban Feminist A year ago I landed in Atlanta, Georgia without my three children, my husband or community. I arrived with four luggages in tow, and although I considered myself a fully realized feminist whose identity could stand alone, I felt like something […]
Virtual affinity groups are supporting Black students during a pandemic
by Imani Brooks When I fell into depression, questioning if I was strong enough for law school, it was virtual affinity groups that saved me. Five days after graduating from Emory University, I moved to Washington, D.C. in a full U-Haul complete with my dad and dog in tow. I was looking forward to the […]
Professionalism is a lie, sheltering in place is no exception
Whether we want to admit it or not, there’s a superficial boundary between professionalism and unprofessionalism that undergirds constant productivity, capital and unhealthy notions of self worth. This boundary exists to reinforce white supremacy, carcerality, punishment, policing and surveillance. The structures that legitimize this faux boundary do so in service of themselves always. All the […]
I’ll always be the “angry” and “unreasonable” Black student when I call out racism on my campus
by Indigo During my first semester of law school, I struggled with acclamation into legal academia, but being at an institution invested in public interest lawyering, I shrugged it all of. Then, the racial tensions within my first-year cohort at my University exploded after several of my colleagues complaining to Academic Affairs about our only […]
After graduating college, I received my best education from my uncle and his books
by Daniel M. Johnson Lesson 1: Origins 1964-65 was a volatile time for Betty Shabazz. The conclusion of the winter saw her gazing at her husband’s corpse, riddled with bullets, leaving her to care for her four, soon to be six, daughters. Just into her 30s, she moved to Mount Vernon, NY to continue her […]
Airgo x BYP with Danielle Roper
Black Youth Project has joined forces with AirGo for a year-long #BYPSpotlight series, featuring our favorite Black academics and activists. This month’s #BYPSpotlight episode is featuring Danielle Roper, a professor and scholar at the University of Chicago. She talks about performances of Blackness across Latin America, navigating academia as a Black woman, the grassroots LGBTQ+ […]
Black women student leaders often feel unsupported in their roles
Editor’s Note: This month at BYP, we will be exploring Education & Schooling, and we are interested in publishing works that address these topics. What are the implications of charter and private schools in communities of color? How do we counteract anti-Black textbooks and teachers in our childrens’ education? How did you heal from bullying […]