19 Search results for "symbolism"

by Inigo Laguda August 26th 2016: Colin Kaepernick tells NFL Media why he’s been sitting through the national anthem. “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people,” he exclaims in an exclusive interview. “To me, this is bigger than football and it would […]

On Tuesday, September 29 at the first presidential debate of the 2020 campaign season, President Donald Trump was asked to condemn white supremacist violence at anti-police brutality protests that have been happening all over the country in recent months. He refused. Instead, Trump blamed “antifa and the left” for the violence he has seen. When […]

By Gloria Oladipo My school, Cornell University, has tried very hard to help me forget that it once housed a plantation. My school, along with many other universities across the country, has continually tried to sanitize their campuses of overt references to American slavery while still allowing covert examples of anti-Blackness to flourish.

by Brittany Kirkland  Back in the day, when someone labeled you a “sellout”, there was no mistaking it. You were being called out as a traitor, and it wasn’t something to be taken lightly. What’s interesting is that as unambiguous as the term is, “sellout” is loaded for Black folk. It’s become heavily weighed down […]

by Liljuan Gonzalez I remember seeing a little Black girl being viciously yelled at to stop moving and to sit with her hands folded while her eyes followed the teacher. When she moved an inch, out of jitters or childish restlessness, her teacher responded with a death glare or a disparaging tone that blindly enforced […]

Colin Kaepernick has gone to great lengths to show that while he’s protesting the National Anthem, he has great respect for members of the military and their sacrifices. Despite this, many people feel that anything but unapologetic support for all things tied to American symbolism is un-American. While he originally supported Kaepernick’s freedom of speech, […]

The office of Black Youth Project 100 is a few blocks from President Barack Obama’s private residence in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. The organization’s national director, Charlene Carruthers, like Obama in his younger activist days, is a Chicago community organizer. The similarities may stop there. Indeed, Carruthers has been loudly calling for the resignation of […]

It is often assumed that, since White folks are a majority in this country, the key to ending racism is just making them happy or “listening” to them. Sadly, this has never worked. And, the suggestion that President Obama should waste his time on an angry White people “listening tour” is both ignorant and racist.

  The following post is from TheGrio. It was written by BYP100 member Jessica Pierce. By: Jessica Pierce While I applaud everyone who marched in Washington, DC, [Saturday], I chose to sit this one out — for several reasons.

California state government departments will be prohibited from displaying or selling items that carry the Confederate flag. The state’s Assembly passed the bill Monday. 

Now is the time to speak out. Hadiya’s murder is serving as our modern day Emmett Till with an open casket funeral exposing the senseless violence and brutality that has claimed far too many young people’s lives in this country.

Mr. Obama will be using two Bibles–one belonging to Abraham Lincoln, the other to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.–when he is sworn in for the second time. Is this empty symbolism, or does it suggest that he’ll concern himself with racial equality and the concerns of black Americans in his second term?