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The Danger of Forcing the ‘Runaway’ Label on the Missing DC Girls
Double-digit numbers of young black and Latinx girls in the nation’s capital are missing and, as expected, there has yet to be a national outcry. Instead, within the past week, Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department and other social media outlets are now focused on emphatically underscoring the message that social media distorted the stories and…
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Get Out Proves That ‘Nice Racism’ and White Liberalism Are Never to Be Trusted
Editor’s note: This article contains major spoilers about the plot of Get Out. Last year was a difficult time for many black people in America. We saw now-President Donald Trump making his way to executive power through sheer racist, sexist vitriol. We witnessed the continued state of institutional violence against black bodies, such as those…
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Why I Won’t Cry Over or Celebrate the Dylann Roof Death Sentence
On Tuesday a unanimous jury sentenced Dylann Roof, a 22-year-old white supremacist who killed nine churchgoers in Charleston, S.C., to death. This sentence made Roof the first person in United States history to be given the death penalty in federal court for a hate crime. It only took three hours of deliberation for the jury…
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Reclaiming My Body During the Month of My Rapist’s Birth
January is usually a time of celebration. It’s a time when people can revisit goals from the previous year, create new ones, craft vision boards and determine our course for the year, all while anticipating some unexpected hurdles along the way. I, too, can always appreciate how important celebrating the new year is—a time with…
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Kim Kardashian Should Not Be Blamed for the F–kery of Kanye West
When Kanye “He’ll leave your ass for a white girl” West and Kim Kardashian married in May 2014, the world knew that it would be a match made in heaven: two egos finally becoming one in holy matrimony. Kanye West, a man who has had an infatuation with stereotypically beautiful women—read: women who have a…
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Choosing Family: Stop Telling LGBT People We Need to Go ‘Home’ During the Holiday Season
Each December, I get excited about the idea of the upcoming holiday season—from Christmas music to baked goods to buying presents for loved ones; it is an enjoyable time for many people. This year has been no different. But it also does not escape me that the holiday season can be a difficult time for many…
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Donald Trump, Racist-in-Chief: Here Are the 10 Most Racist Things He’s Done So Far
We know that President-elect Trump is a racist—or, at the very least, racist-adjacent. Like no other before him, Trump won the 2016 presidential election because much of white America underestimated the level of white supremacy on which this country was founded. It is this supremacy that allowed Trump to claim that he didn’t know David…
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On World AIDS Day, Let’s Talk About How HIV-Criminalization Laws Won’t Lead to an AIDS-Free Generation
On Dec. 1 of each year, the global community celebrates World AIDS Day—a day that provides an opportunity for people to unite in the fight against HIV, show support for people living with HIV and to commemorate those who have died from AIDS. This year marks the 28th anniversary of the first-ever global-health day, which started…
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Your Conditioning Has Been Conditioned: Why Sexual ‘Preference’ Is Political
Though not straightforward, there is a connection between who we think is desirable and whose life has value within a white supremacist country like the United States. This question of value came to a head in the candidacy and unfortunate election of Donald Trump. What has become even truer now is that the status quo…
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After a Trump Victory, Black People Will Need Much More Than ‘We’ve Been Through Worse’ Language
As a 30-year-old black queer man working in majority-white spaces, I am no stranger to indescribable trauma requiring emotional check-ins: sexual assault, homophobia, racism, incessant microaggressions and other forms of institutional violence. To help cope, I frequently told myself, “Black people have been through worse; you will get through it.” It was a temporary help…
