46 Search results for "code switch"

Code switching, Baggy Pants & Contextualizing Behavior
My professor walked into class today wearing a 3XL white tee, black timberlands and blue jean pants that were sagging down under his but. His underwear revealed a checkered red and white pattern that possibly symbolized the color of a local gang. Can you, no…would you believe that a tenured University of Chicago […]
A team of Black girls were winning a NASA competition, then NASA switched up the rules
A team of three Black girls from D.C.’s Benjamin Banneker Academic High School—Bria Snell, India Skinner and Mikayla Sharrieff—was excited to enter the NASA Goddard‘s Optimus Prime Spinoff Promotion and Research Challenge (OPSPARC) student competition to win a trip to NASA. Their project, IN3-Incubator Program, aimed to create a filtration jar that will filter water continuously and […]
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 […]
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 […]
Black youth suicide is increasing. We can’t wait to create space to talk about mental health
Editor’s Note: This essay contains discussion of suicide By Carlett Spike The thought of killing myself has crossed my mind before. I was depressed as a teen — overwhelmed by the pressures to succeed in high school, keep up with way too many activities and ultimately get into a good college.
Letter to my Black mother who wants me to forgive the world when I saw it try to kill her
By Kejhonti Neloms I can never forget the time when your car broke down in the parking lot of those shitty Flaget Apartments across the street from the old folks’ home. It was the West End. It was summer. It was 8AM. I think it was Sprint that fired you. Maybe it was Nextel. I […]
What being Lincoln in a school play taught me about efforts to whitewash Black children in schooling
By George Johnson Anti-Blackness and the “alternative facts” about it did not start when Donald Trump became the 45th President of their United States. For Black children in America, we have only known a history rooted in false narratives, erasure, and the omission of any of our history unless it is first routed through a […]
Today in Post-Race History: Nah, Bruh
Last week, writer Kiese Laymon published an essay, “You Are the Second Person,” chronicling his experience getting his novel, Long Division (which hit shelves earlier this month), published. Laymon’s thought-provoking, powerful, and inspiring work centered on exchanges between him and his former editor. Laymon’s former editor, described in the piece as a 54-year-old black man, […]
From the Black People are Awesome Files: (And I Miss My) Uncle Charles, Y’all
Charles Ramsey is my dude. He’s currently in the throes of his fifteen minutes of fame, since he had the nerve to care about his neighbor, who turned out to be Amanda Berry, a girl who had been kidnapped a decade ago. Since his interview on local Cleveland television, Charles Ramsey has been autotuned, memed, […]
A New America in the Age of Two Term Obama(?), Lorraine Hansberry and the Social Meaning of Race
So this past week we all voted and made the decision to re-elect Barack Obama. (Woot-Woot!) However, now that he is re-elected I am lead to think about two things. The first: how will those of us who care about the issues of the poor put pressure on the president to make it a priority […]
Where Are the Obama Youth? Busy Building Their Own Futures
Where Are the Obama Youth? Busy Building Their Own Futures Jamilah King, Colorlines, October 29, 2010 There’s something intangible that makes this year’s election different than most. For many, Barack Obama’s candidacy brought to the forefront a new, more accessible form of democracy. There was a massive communications network that engaged voters online, on the […]
The Black Lunatic
A history of forced institutionalization in service of white supremacy