When Michael Dunn murdered 17-year-old Jordan Davis in the parking lot of Gate gas station in Jacksonville, Fla., on Nov. 23, 2012, the bullets not only ripped through Jordan’s body but also tore open the hearts of his parents, Ron Davis and Lucia McBath, before finally slicing through the post-racial lie America pretends to believe…

Media injustice, which leads to both the erasure and criminalization of marginalized communities, has had dire consequences for both the psyches and lived experiences of black people in the United States since at least the 18th century, when newspapers ran lost-and-found ads for runaway slaves. In 1964 it compelled Malcolm X to stand before a…

It seems as if some white people have had a deep investment in the “white superhero” since the creation of blond-haired, blue-eyed Jesus, and now that noxious narcissism has spilled over into pushback against Marvel’s Fantastic Four. Michael B. Jordan, who rose to fame portraying 22-year-old Oscar Grant in 2013’s Fruitvale Station, has been tapped to…

There has been no federal holiday designated to honor Malcolm X, and on Tuesday, on what would have been his 90th birthday—in the midst of the continued devaluation of black bodies and the dismissal of black truth—the question on some people’s minds is: Should there be? He was born May 19, 1925, as Malcolm Little…

African-American scholars at predominantly white institutions are faced with a challenge that resonates from the streets of Baltimore and Ferguson, Mo., all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.: Tiptoe lightly around white supremacy or face consequences. Saida Grundy, an incoming associate professor of sociology and African-American studies at Boston University, faced swift condemnation this week…

On Wednesday night, approximately 1,000 community leaders and activists from around the country were able to “sit in circle” via telephone with legendary entertainer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte for one hour as he shared his thoughts on the uprisings in Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore, and the crippling poverty that victimizes too many communities…

During a time when President Barack Obama and Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake referred to disenfranchised Baltimore youths as “thugs” for failing to politely revolt against police brutality, Chicago has publicly condemned the real thugs in a police department that has abused its power with impunity for decades. In an unprecedented move, Chicago’s City Council unanimously…

There have been no marches for her. Natasha McKenna’s name eased in and out of America’s collective consciousness before it could make an imprint, just like those of Aura Rosser, Tanisha Anderson and so many other African-American women killed by police before her. But the information that we do know is heartbreaking. McKenna, who was…

When Baltimore police officers left 25-year-old Freddie Gray with an almost severed spine and a crushed throat, they became the straws that broke black America’s back. Many of us feel righteous anger as we reach out to one another across time and space, reaffirming not just our collective humanity but also our individual right to…