Dear Professor Harris-Perry: When the news broke that you would no longer be appearing on MSNBC, it signaled the end of a very important era for me. I was in graduate school at Princeton University when President Barack Obama was sworn into office as our first black president, a time when we could only speculate…

Tracey Ross, writing at Ebony, sorts through a debate about the digital divide to conclude that some folks are mistaking the potential of the tech industry for reality. Luckily, she says, those who understand how things work have made their voices heard. In a thoughtful essay posted last week, writer Jamelle Bouie explored the many…

Ebony‘s Tracey Ross argues that the program Drag Race is an important vehicle for exploring the intersection of race, sexual orientation and gender — one not seen anywhere else on television.  The reality show, a cross between a beauty pageant and a lip-synching competition, pays homage to the drag ball culture born out of the Harlem Renaissance…

Writer Tracey Ross, who says she’s had her racial identity questioned because of everything from her hair to her interest in Buddhism, argues in a piece for Ebony that skepticism about her blackness reveals a misunderstanding of the forces that have shaped it. … While the report focuses on how the Black community defines Blackness,…