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Change Agents of 2014: Black Women on Social Media
When herstory reflects on the year 2014, the many ways in which black women used their social media influence to address pivotal issues will be front and center. In the tradition of iconic feminist scholar Audre Lorde, the year 2014 found black women positioning self-preservation as an act of political warfare on both individual and…
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The Root Names 2014 the Year of the Protester
“America never loved us. Remember?” Phillip Agnew, executive director of the Dream Defenders, a youth-fueled civil rights organization formed in response to the 2012 slaying of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, spoke those powerful words Jan. 28 during the 2014 State of the Youth. And the Year of the Protester began. Agnew’s heart-wrenching declaration—equal parts call to…
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No, Mayor de Blasio, There Is Never a Wrong Time to Say That Black Lives Matter
During his remarks Monday at the Police Athletic League, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called for a moratorium on protests demanding justice for the scores of black people who have fallen victim to police brutality while the city mourns the deaths of two police officers—Wenjian Liu, 28, and Rafael Ramos, 40—killed in Brooklyn on…
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Brandon Tate-Brown’s Mother Says ‘There Was No Excuse’ for Philly Police to Shoot Her Son in the Back of His Head
Brandon Tate-Brown, 26, was just trying to make it home in the early-morning hours of Dec. 15 when police officers pulled him over for allegedly driving without his headlights in Philadelphia’s Mayfair district. By the end of that encounter, Tate-Brown would be dead—a bullet piercing the back of his head—and his mother, Tanya Brown, would…
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Does the Movement Need Another March on Washington?
The Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network’s National March on Police Brutality is scheduled for Saturday in Washington, D.C. While attendance estimates are sketchy because of the rushed nature of the event, the march is seemingly being positioned by organizers as the culmination of months of protests that have swept the nation since the Aug.…
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2 Storied Black Sororities—AKA and Delta—Won’t Let Their Members Protest While Wearing Greek Letters
Collectively known as the Divine Nine, black fraternities and sororities have long been central to the African-American college experience—standing as vanguards of social justice, community service, black excellence and achievement. So it has been surprising and, to many members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., disappointing that they’ve been…
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Ben Carson’s ‘Women’s Lib’ Rant Was a Barely Veiled Shot at Black Women
Known for being the beloved darling of the Grand Old Party, Dr. Ben Carson has a penchant for pathologizing blackness that dovetailed last week with his blatant misogyny, causing the good doc to blame the extrajudicial killing of African-American boys and men on—wait for it—the “women’s lib movement.” “Certainly in a lot of our inner…
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When It Comes to Ferguson, President Obama Could Take a Lesson From Cornel West
The fiery uprising in Ferguson, Mo., in response to the slaying of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown by former police Officer Darren Wilson has arguably signified an end to several things: apathy in the face of grave injustice; “peace” in the face of state-sanctioned killing of black people in America; and, according to Cornel West, “the…
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Black New Yorkers Want Increased Policing Despite Eric Garner’s Death?
Despite the looming specter of police brutality, which casts shadows over street corners, neighborhoods and homes across black America, 56 percent of black voters in New York City support “broken windows” policing tactics, compared with 61 percent of the city’s white voters, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll. The controversial policing style frames community…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
