by rae leone allen Colin Kaepernick won’t stand for the national anthem. His peaceful protest, “…to not show pride in a flag that oppresses black people,” in concert with his picked out ‘fro sent his jersey flying off the shelves…
By Daniel Johnson Performative masculinity traps you in a cocoon of unrealistic expectations. If you aren’t physically strong enough, you are constantly considered weak. If you don’t perform well at traditionally masculine tasks or don’t particularly gravitate toward structured trades, and…
“Our society’s view on sex is important to understanding, preventing and dealing with child sexual abuse. We live in a hyper-sexual society that exposes sexual imagery but does not talk about it. Sex education in public schools has almost been…
By Ahlam Ali Dear black woman, Like you, I am painfully aware of the high price tag of black womanhood. In a world heavily hijacking our looks (see here, or here) while hating us, we're often bound to fall prey to…
by Paul Daniels, II I am male. I am Black. I am Queer. I am Christian. I speak from a place of psychological, existential, and theological privilege: the product of a Black church in the American South whose 12-year-old mind…
by Brian Alsup My mother used to tell me that I was just like you. She was right. We were both very afraid, cowardly, insecure, hurting, and traumatized black men. We’re both great runners. Some black men have legs that…
By Yolo Akili So much of it starts with the little boys we used to be. It starts with the ideas about the world that these little boys created in order to understand the confusion and the pain around them.…
by Sherronda J. Brown I spent an hour or so reading through Erykah Badu's tweets and mentions from the last few days so that y'all wouldn't have to. There is dissonance between what Badu actually says and what she claims…
by John Fleurimond “I need to see it,” I grabbed my friend’s iPhone after she refused to hand it over. I opened the camera application and there it was: my face. Blood flowed from my brow. Speckles of it got…
For Melissa Harris-Perry, Joy-Ann Reid and Janet Mock By Cherno Biko I wasn’t going to spill any of this tea because of fear and respectability politics. As a viewer of MSNBC, I was in shock when Jamil Smith publicized MHP’s…
