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Black women’s impossible dilemma: How this world ties our “safety” to the protection of our abusers

October 7, 2020

The world has an appetite for our pain, and this is what I refuse. This is why I will never again decide to protect someone who harms me.

The publishing industry cannot continue to hide its anti-Blackness behind their #BlackBestSeller

July 28, 2020

A bunch of self-confessed book addicts that is the publishing industry, may struggle to admit to itself, and its readers, that there are some problems within that throwing the faces of their Black authors to the forefront now won’t fix.

How “Gayle King v. Kobe Bryant” obscured a valid critique of sensationalizing sexual violence

March 5, 2020

In our efforts to resist this silencing, however, we must also consider the ways that others who are not public figures are implicated in these discussions

What happened to Wilder during his loss was sexual violence, something that Black men know too well

March 3, 2020

This historical lack of cultural currency associated with Black men being raped has impacted how Wilder's assault has been read.

I hope you catch AIDS and die

February 20, 2020

When you tell me you hope my death is via “catching AIDS.” What you are saying is you want me to live forever, or at least until a miracle occurs. And in response I say, “Thank you!”

No Jay-Z, corporate sponsorships cannot replace protests

February 20, 2020

The danger in celebrating corporate activism, and elevating Jay-Z as a model of activism, is that it frames resistance and rebellion as something to be done with oppressors,

How “Black people are not a monolith” is used to promote respectability politics

January 10, 2020

I am in no way saying that Black people are a monolith. We have varying cultures, ideas, beliefs, etc. What I am saying is that we should be careful about when we feel the need to claim that and why.

Don’t call her bluff

January 3, 2020

FROM OUR NEW SHORT STORY SERIES, 'IMAGING OTHER WORLDS': "She leaned forward and put her hands on my desk, causing my papers and folders to shoot into the air and swirl violently around us. My laptop sparked, then burst into flames. I could hear myself screaming inside my head, but nothing came out when I opened my mouth. I couldn’t move a muscle."

Muklaal

December 27, 2019

FROM 'IMAGING OTHER WORLDS': "Zakiya switched to verbal communication when she replied next and it amazed Diya how easily she was adapting. Or maybe she was just experiencing a delay in a proper reaction to finding out everything she knew was a lie."

Take some into the mouth

December 20, 2019

FROM OUR NEW SHORT STORY SERIES, 'IMAGING OTHER WORLDS': "Pearl didn’t push Zura on the whole cunnilingus issue because that’s not what she needed from him. He wasn’t her only partner. What she wanted from him was a few free drinks followed by an enchanting night ride and a deep quickie."

Come on in, the water is fine

December 13, 2019

FROM OUR NEW SHORT STORY SERIES, 'IMAGINING OTHER WORLDS': "The weather wanted everyone in the state of Ohio to remember Henry Clement Strudel. For weeks plump, gray clouds carried heavy July rain and the sky wailed for justice."

This ‘Raising Dion’ story-line is a powerful lesson on consent, disability and possession

December 11, 2019

The relationship between Esperanza and Dion can be viewed to challenge the typical representation of disability while also encouraging nuance, accountability and change.

Increased representation for marginalized people won’t fix anything if people in power remain overrepresented

September 18, 2019

When we consider the dangers of the underrepresentation of marginalized people, we can’t ignore the potential danger in the overrepresentation of people in power.

At 20, Lil Nas X is still a child. Why do older adults keep sexualizing him?

September 4, 2019

Yes, 18 is the legal threshold from childhood to adulthood, but legality has never been something that applied “equally" to Black children, especially Black Queer children.

It’s not “complicated”: Black children deserve space to question, challenge & reject the world around them

August 29, 2019

When we collapse children’s autonomy in both fictive and lived realities, we undermine their ability to contemplate nuance.

Passing the torch to Black heroes in comics is part of the white supremacist lineage of reconciling servitude

May 31, 2019

I'm distasteful of the comic trope of for succeeding white men because I believe this is one of many strategies white people have adopted to cope with their mortality, and keeping us bound to them in servitude

Taylor Swift isn’t copying Beyoncé. She’s mocking her.

May 8, 2019

Taylor Swift is not copying Beyoncé. She’s mocking Beyoncé. This difference assumes a level of intent that brings forth deliberate malice and cultural disruption.

How “Avengers: Endgame” sabotaged Thor’s character development for a movie long fat joke

May 7, 2019

Marvel hates fat people, which is why there are no fat characters in the films except for in the background where they are either bad at their jobs, bad people, or the butt of a joke. Marvel, like superhero culture more generally, is obsessed with an idealized standard of beauty that expects hypersexuality from women, and hyper masculinity from men.

How Afro-futurism helped me reclaim the narrative around Blackness in a hopeless world

May 2, 2019

As social media made me more cognizant of the atrocities of state-sanctioned violence, my thoughts began to grow darker. My soft optimist soon crystallized into a hardened soul.

Black young adult fantasy is helping to heal my diasporic disconnection

April 30, 2019

The ancestors aren’t seen as a template of how to behave but represent a set of values and ideals with which to guide the living.

Hands Across America: What we can learn from “Us” about systemic inequality

March 26, 2019

While “Adelaide” may be difficult to sympathize with once we know her secret, we cannot deny that this terrible, violent, and unforgivable thing she did was for all of the right reasons.

“He didn’t have to hit her tho”: The ‘Beale Street’ slap scene & loving Black women who hurt us

March 19, 2019

How do so many Black women love violent Black men without reciprocating violence themselves, but can't get that love in return? How do we normalize care strategies for Black women who hurt us?

Appropriation is not a matter of authenticity

November 13, 2018

Fixating on the difference between others who "put on" our culture & those who create from "authentic" experiences obscures why we challenge appropriation in the first place.

What is hoarding for Black people who aren’t allowed things?

October 31, 2018

Why are Black folks only ever allowed to carry what we need, even in death? How are we hoarders if we never get what we need?

Rape Can & Must End: Poems

October 2, 2018

These poems are part of our monthlong collaboration with FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture, Rape Can & Must End

What’s next after Prison Strike 2018: An interview with activist Amani Sawari (Part 2 of 2)

September 25, 2018

We know that our communities aren't safer because more people are in prison, but a lot of people still believe and think that.

Prison Strike 2018: An interview with activist Amani Sawari (Part 1 of 2)

September 24, 2018

They could lock things down for one day, but prisoners thought, "We're going to stretch this out and make this longer."

How the “white voice” becomes a poison

September 11, 2018

Whiteness is a position from which we see ourselves as ratchet, ghetto, trash, tip drills, jump offs, niggas, parasites and as the shadows in Plato’s Cave.

We can hold Omarosa accountable without throwing a Black woman away

August 22, 2018

Perhaps this kind of "I don't care what happens to so and so" is also a reinforcement of anti-Blackness.

Why we should support Black self-care even when its not costly therapy

August 14, 2018

In doing self-care, I have to ask myself what systems am I continuing to perpetuate when I expect people to seek medical attention, go to church, spend time with family, etc.

‘BlacKkKlansman’s false promise in America’s next chapter and police

August 14, 2018

What could possibly come in the next chapter for America if these are our heroes?

Here’s what happens when you proclaim “Black Lives Matter” in the whitest sport in America

August 8, 2018

To say the lack of diversity is disheartening is an understatement for Black hockey players and fans.

“I mean Black folks are God”: An interview with ‘The Hole’ playwright Zhailon Levingston

July 31, 2018

When the walls of prison rub up against the walls of identity, love can be a violent thing.

‘Sorry To Bother You’ crucially legitimizes “violence” as a response to violent oppression

July 24, 2018

By Devyn Springer “…on the agenda of the bourgeoisie there is—there can be nothing but—violence, corruption, and barbarism.” – Aimé Cèsaire It was clear from the conversations in the full theater that none of us really knew what to expect from Boots Riley’s highly anticipated film debut Sorry To Bother You. Having spent the previous…

The social media we rely upon is killing us

July 18, 2018

By Arielle Iniko Newton I’m banned from Facebook again. This time for thirty days. Apparently, “Straights are weird. Goodnight.” is hate speech. The algorithms of a global capitalist enterprise that allegedly shares data with law enforcement, determined that my rhetoric is dangerous. Of course, “danger” is subjective. Because to me, every time I post on…

“Abolition begins with imagination, but it certainly does not end there”: An interview with ‘Neptune’ playwright Timothy DuWhite

July 17, 2018

By Hari Ziyad On July 13th, poet, writer, RaceBaitR deputy editor, performance artist and playwright Timothy DuWhite’s one-man show Neptune had its world premiere at Dixon Place in NYC, during the venue’s annual HOT! Festival: The NYC Celebration of Queer Culture. If you didn’t get a chance to witness the show many are calling

How to derail productive Black discourse: mention white women

June 26, 2018

By JaKeen Fox May 6th 2018. The date will go down in infamy, not as the day John McCain said he wouldn’t want Donald Trump to attend his funeral. You won’t remember that in Hawaii, lava from a volcano destroyed 21 homes, and caused 1700 people and hundreds of animals to be evacuated. You won’t…

The art of the drug deal: Kanye West, ‘Daytona,’ and the exploitation of addiction

June 21, 2018

By Tochi Onyebuchi It’s not the bathroom she died in. She would find that bathroom six years later in the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. She would find it after rehearsals with Brandy and Monica for Clive Davis’s pre-Grammy Awards party in 2012. Her last public performance—where she sang “Jesus Loves Me” with Kelly…

The NFL doesn’t fear punishing Black players because integration doomed mass Black protests

June 1, 2018

Integration has completely warped the way many Black Americans deal with race issues.

Carried by corpses: ‘This is America’ or the ingenuity of lynching in 10 parts

May 29, 2018

By Jonathan Moore “Is it possible to consider, let alone imagine, the agency of the performative when the black performative is inextricably linked with the specter of contented subjection, the tortuous display of the captive body, and the ravishing of the body that is the condition of the other’s pleasure?” — Saidiya

Looking for the dirt in ‘Dirty Computer’: Why Janelle Monae’s latest isn’t her ‘most radical & queer’

May 17, 2018

By Vernon Jordan, III I remember a time when I knew who I was, and knew who I wanted to be, without having the verbal language for it. I was three, four and five, trying to Moonwalk along with Michael Jackson in my godmother’s living room. On the rides to church or back home I…

Why did it take a man to get the public angry enough to #MuteRKelly?

May 16, 2018

By  Janelle Anise Williams Over the past few weeks R&B mogul and infamous pedophile Robert “R.” Kelly has met severe public criticism for his predatory exploits and has had to cancel multiple shows, appearances and has lost many endorsements. Spotify, Apple Music, and Pandora have all removed Kelly’s

Nigerian writers should embrace Afrofuturism in their literary work

March 30, 2018

By David Iruoje Afrofuturism in literature is more or less speculative fiction from an African perspective. It can also be considered as Black literary futurism. Speculative fiction is an aspect of narrative fiction that includes science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural or superhero stories. Fiction that depicts Dystopia, Utopia, Apocalyptic worlds, time travel and alternative

Yes, there are Black people in Alaska: How one cooking show dispels anti-Black myths about the frontier

March 20, 2018

By Keenan Teddy Smith You’re waking up. It’s a Monday morning and you’re drinking coffee at your kitchen counter. The snow-blanketed terrain of the Willow Creek Valley is mundanely breathtaking, as many people who visit such alleged “postcard” locales often report. Then, across the hazed lighting of the

3 Ways ‘Black Panther’ could have been more radical

March 6, 2018

By Brittani McNeill The Revolution will not be televised Didn’t Gil Scott Heron warn us? Still we go looking for power, inspiration, even validation on screen—the small and big. Because “representation matters!” And it does. But are we expecting too much from media representation? Or are we expecting—and accepting—too little? I loved Black Panther. It…

How anti-Black colorism forces dark-skinned Black women to be nothing more than “funny”

February 28, 2018

By  Kennedy Christine My first year of college, I took a sociology class that introduced me to the term “master status,” which is an individual’s social role or description that supersedes all their other titles. Master status can refer to how a person identifies or how they’re identified by others. This label

The polarizing responses to Killmonger reflect our inability to deal with Black childhood trauma

February 27, 2018

By Brittany Willis I’ve been sitting with Black Panther for over a week now, letting it “breathe” before saying too much or expressing my thoughts. During that time, I’ve seen thinkpiece after thinkpiece about the character Erik Killmonger (played by Michael B. Jordan), which is funny because after my initial viewing I

How entertainment journalism systematically exploits Black women

January 26, 2018

By Jazmine Joyner Entertainment Journalism is a reflection of the industry it investigates. A whitewashed landscape with very few POC (People of Color) who are usually dealing with niche topics that the white writers can’t. I am a black femme entertainment journalist, and I know firsthand—the industry is not kind to black women. Just like…

‘Black Lightning’ finally brings Black queer radical politics to the super universe

January 25, 2018

By  Janelle Anise Williams “Are you ready for a Black Lesbian superhero?” This is what Black Lightning star Nafessa Williams tweeted out to fans one weekend before the show in question premiered on the CW Network Tuesday, January 16. The CW has had a pretty shaky relationship with diversity. The network is notoriously known for…

A world “too far”: Aziz Ansari’s assault scandal and why #MeToo needs prison abolition

January 17, 2018

By Shondrea Thornton When news of Aziz Ansari’s alleged sexual assault began to spread, I chalked it up as just another drop in the trough of Hollywood revelations in recent months. Ansari, whose fame is tied to his ability to speak openly about social issues, is yet another man whose exposure as a potential abuser…

“Black Museum” is Black Mirror’s most cleverly disguised example of Black torture porn yet

January 10, 2018

By Brittany Willis I spent the latter part of my holiday break binge watching Black Mirror, mostly because of the hype surrounding the fourth season, but also because I love all things horror and sci-fi. The show had been sitting on my Netflix queue for months. Perhaps, due to the buzz, I was expecting to…

Art doesn’t like me: Contending with brilliant, problematic films as a Black person

January 4, 2018

By Austin S. Harris In Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, one of the year’s most acclaimed films, Sam Rockwell plays a moronic racist cop who is known to have tortured a Black suspect. He has rightfully received critical acclaim for the role, and will likely be nominated for an Oscar for the performance. While the…

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