black women Archives

Don’t call her bluff

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."

Summer Walker and how the pressure to perform wellness is killing Black women

December 24, 2019
Latonya Pennington
Health

Â Â Â Content Warning: This essay contains a suicide mention.Â When video of R & B singer Summer Walker shakily accepting her medal for Best New Artist at the Soul Train Awards was posted online, people were quick to criticize…

It’s hard to celebrate how Black women always have each other’s backs when we shouldn’t be the only ones who do

October 17, 2019
Amber Butts
Race & Blackness

There are folks in close proximity to us that will never know how and why we despair because they haven’t made space for us to be anything but strong. And it is killing us.

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

March 19, 2019
Kole McDaniel
Blackness & Anti-Blackness, Film/TV, Gender & Queerness, Men & Masculinity, Women & Feminism

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?

Misogynoir wants me to feel ashamed for being single today. Here’s how I’m refusing

February 14, 2019
Gloria Oladipo
Blackness & Anti-Blackness, Gender & Queerness, Women & Feminism

I refuse to blame myself for the inability of others to see the many gifts I have to offer.

I won’t let them have you, Ms. Aretha: On surviving grief and reclaiming Black joy after death

August 31, 2018
RaceBaitr
Women & Feminism

That’s what we do. We reclaim our people after death. We carry them home on our backs and in our hearts.

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

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.

Being nerdy, Black & male doesn’t entitle you to any woman’s attention

By Lorenzo Simpson All eyes are on Donald Glover this year, with the release of his new video “This Is America” making waves all over the internet. I blinked hard when I saw it was going to be a segment…

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

ByÂ Â Janelle AniseÂ Williams Over the past few weeks R&B mogul and infamous pedophile Robert â€œR.â€ 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,…

Protests aren’t eulogies: Fighting for more than Stephon Clark and his misogynoir

By Chelsea Neason On March 18th of this year, the Sacramento Police Department committed yet another act of aggression against our nation. Stephon Clark was standing in his grandmother Sequita Thompson’s backyard—sacred land, the dwelling place of an elder—when they…