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The Real Anti-Blackness of Comedy
Tiffany Haddish has had quite a year. From her breakout role in the film Girls Trip to landing her own comedy special on Netflix, Haddish has become quite the household name. Recently she had the opportunity to be the first black comedienne to host Saturday Night Live in the show’s 42-year run. While much of…
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Fixing the Lives of Male Childhood-Rape Survivors
This weekend’s episode of Iyanla: Fix My Life dealt with a topic that often goes unmentioned in the black community: childhood rape and male survivors. The two-part conversation focused on five men who were victims of childhood sex abuse, and detailed the physical, mental and emotional struggles each victim had in discussing the trauma he’d…
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A Reminder: Black Queer People Are Whole
The Emmys were this past Sunday, and they were nothing short of black star power. From a black actor winning for the first time in decades in the drama category to a black comedian winning in a comedy series directed and written by all black people, one could say that the event was the most…
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On Loving White People and Hating Whiteness
“There is a difference between loving white people and loving whiteness.” This is something I often say when I begin social justice conversations around topics related to race. For some, the concept is easy to process and we begin a conversation around what it means to be white and a person of privilege. For others,…
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The Tragedies of Black Masculinity
I remember the feeling I had last week when I saw the text come in from a friend back home. The text read, “Y’all hear about North Park Elementary?” All I could do was think about the feeling I had in the pit of my stomach when I got the same text about the terrorist…
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Why Black-ish Is Winning This Season
For years there has been a progressive erasure of high-quality black, mainstream television sitcoms. It feels as if, after Family Matters and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air went off the air, the idea of black family comedies went right out the door with them. Though many have tried (My Wife and Kids, Reed Between the…
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From the Pulpit to the People: Kim Burrell, Homosexuality and the Black Church
Well, damn, tell us how you really feel, Kim Burrell. On Friday night, social media became ablaze when one of preacher-singer Kim Burrell’s sermons went viral. In the video, Burrell shared a hate-filled message about what she believes 2017 will look like for LGBTQ people if they fail to repent. Burrell had been slated to…
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Embracing Whiteness Won’t Save You
Black people: Embracing whiteness won’t save us. Last week Lee Daniels went on record again stating that much of his success can be attributed to his not embracing racism. Daniels went on to state that he doesn’t “have time to deal with racism” and expressed that his denial of racism in our country came from…
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Black Superheroes Are Here to Save the Day
News flash: Being a black superhero is in. Whether that means being able to walk through a sea of bullets or being able to protect yourself with a 6-inch machete, black superheroes are here to stay. From the nearly all-black cast in Luke Cage to Danai Gurira’s kick-ass Michonne in this season of The Walking…
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Just Because You’re My Father Doesn’t Mean You’re My Parent
Season 9 of The Real Housewives of Atlanta is in full swing, and the show would not be what it is without its typical storylines. From fights over who has the most expensive and well-decorated homes to who’s sleeping with whom or who’s stepping out on whom, The Real Housewives of Atlanta continues to provide…
