After years of troubling allegations of serial rape, the recent takedown of Bill Cosby as a public figure may mark a radical shift in how we address our rape culture. And though the spiraling effect of these claims has produced an unprecedented backlash against him, a chasm remains between this promising moment of activism—powered especially…

(The Root) — Steve McQueen’s masterful 12 Years a Slave has already changed history in two major ways: It is the first Hollywood-backed movie on slavery directed by a black filmmaker, and based on Solomon Northup’s 1853 oral account, it is the first film ever based on an actual slave narrative. While the former results…

Salamishah Tillet is a rape survivor and co-founder of A Long Walk Home, a nonprofit that uses art to end violence against girls and women. She is also an associate professor of English studies at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of Sites of Slavery: Citizenship, Racial Democracy, and the Post-Civil Rights Imagination. She is working…

In a piece for NPR, Salamishah Tillet reflects on the singer’s legacy and concludes that her aspirations for this country still haven’t been achieved.  Her music, as alluring and open as democracy itself, reconciled the divisions between artist and activist, protestor and patriot, and African-American citizens and their country. Living in exile for the rest…

For a rape survivor, recovery is hard enough, and without a crisis treatment center, it can be almost impossible, says the Nation’s Salamishah Tillet. Following the House vote to minimize the strength and effectiveness of the Violence Against Women Act, Tillet calls foul. Full disclosure: as a rape survivor, I have been a direct beneficiary…

By now, most HBO fans are aware that the channel’s newest show, Girls, is monochromatic in terms of race. The Nation columnist Salamishah Tillet argues that the show’s lack of color isn’t a product of writer-creator Lena Dunham’s racism but, rather, of the racial segregation used in New York City schools and housing areas. Segregated…

Dee Rees’ debut film, Pariah, has rightfully been celebrated for its tender coming-out and coming-of-age story of a shy yet sexually curious 17-year-old African-American girl, Alike (Adepero Oduye). An unprecedented black LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) success at the Sundance Festival in January, the film was immediately picked up by Focus Features for distribution…

On the hot night of Aug. 8, 1986, a line of young black people wrapped around the corner of New York City’s Cinema Studio 1, eager to catch Spike Lee’s much-buzzed-about debut feature film, She’s Gotta Have It. Eighty-five hot and sexy minutes later, they weren’t disappointed with Lee’s cinematic achievement. The following day, the…