40 Search results for "token"

Omarosa Manigault Newman was dismissed on Wednesday from her post as the Director of Communications for the White House Office of Public Liason, which leaves Trump’s White House with no Black senior advisors. Although virtually no one on Trump’s staff could tell you exactly what Newman’s job description was, she clearly viewed herself as a […]

This article was originally published in the Chicago Maroon. “If I were you, I would just go to whatever state school you’ve already been accepted to. The University of Chicago is really a tough institution, and I’m not quite sure you’d do well there, if we’re being honest.” I felt my heart beating fast, my […]

What’s scarier than a racist that calls out “nigger” or “coon” viciously? The racist who’s night you save by being the “token blacky”. I pose two disappointments for the eager audience at a non-black party: no weed and no freestyle. Still I manage to be the life of the party, dougieing on every song, judging […]

Sometimes, an answer is not an answer to everyone. Sometimes, whether something is an answer depends, like seeing a blue or gold dress or hearing yanny or laurel in that auditory illusion. Or like when Black people are finally allowed in token numbers to receive a few of the laurels we hear we should always […]

Content Warning: Descriptions of medical violence against folks who are intersex and/or have been diagnosed with PCOS by Gillian Giles When I was 12, the anticipation and excitement of preparing to experience my first period was all consuming. Cultural messaging taught me that the event would be a gender defining moment. I hoped starting my […]

AirGo is back for our second episode in front of a live audience! This time, we’re excited to launch our #BYPSpotlight, a collaboration with Black Youth Project, a website and resource hub examining the attitudes, resources, and culture of the young, urban black millennial. Over the next year, AirGo and BYP will be co-curating a […]

Black Youth Project joins forces with Chicago podcast, AIRGO, for a year-long series featuring our favorite Black academics and activists. Stay tuned for a new episode each month!  COMING SOON! More About AIRGO  AirGo is a weekly podcast and cultural media hub in Chicago, showcasing the artists, rappers, poets, musicians, organizers, and changemakers reshaping the […]

By “DJ Ferguson” If you were to listen to “Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin—really listen to the words and let their meaning sink in—it becomes clear after a few verses that despite its name the song is not about immigration. It’s about colonialism. We come from the land of the ice and snow From the […]

When Beyoncé’s Lemonade dropped in 2016, I became the target of ire from many of her fans. The album, its imagery, and subject matter did not move me in the way that it moved most of them, and my apathy towards it and critiques of the artist have always been easily dismissed as hateration. But […]

by Arnetta Randall I think the more identity boxes you check, the more you yearn to see people like yourself in the media. For me, its young, Black, educated, queer characters on the screen. Even though we now have television shows like Queen Sugar, Love Is, Insecure and the groundbreaking Pose, there is still a […]

I just knew that things would change for me the day I closed on my book deal. In my mind, this moment was going to be bigger than anything I had done in my 32 years of life, and I wanted to be aware and very present. I wanted to rejoice like all the viral […]

by Kirsten Howard “When people tell you who they are, believe them the first time.” -Maya Angelou Last week marked the return of rapper and producer turned alt-right Twitter provocateur, Kanye West. He came to Twitter with no warning after a long hiatus from the social media platform, and it seemed, at first, that his […]