black women
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Revisiting Anita Hill: On Racism, Stereotypes and Respectability Politics
“The more things change. The more things stay the same.” My 7th grade English teacher, the black woman who taught me how to write, said that quote in class on a cool spring day in March 2006 and looked at us to explain what she meant. Loads of us scratched our heads in that, “Well,…
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A Look Back at the Reaction to 'Straight Black Men Are the White People of Black People' a Year Later
A year ago, a line in a piece from Saki Benibo—an assertion also articulated a year before in a tweet from Mela Machinko—inspired me to write something of my own based on that statement. The result (“Straight Black Men Are The White People Of Black People”) was my most read VSB piece of 2017. It…
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Made for Now: Janet Jackson's Beauty Is Eternal on October's InStyle
They said it wouldn’t last, we had to prove them wrong: Fresh off the historic wave of melanated magnificence on September covers around the world, a new crop of black beauties of is greeting us for October, as epitomized by Janet Jackson on the cover of InStyle magazine’s Beauty Issue. The internet may currently be…
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GirlTrek Takes Over The Root’s Instagram in Celebration of Black Women Coming Together in the Rocky Mountains for a #StressProtest
GirlTrek, the largest national public health nonprofit and movement for black women and girls, continues to offer a balm in a world that clearly still doesn’t recognize the beauty, badness and innovative brilliance of black women. More than 400 black women from around the country will gather in the Rocky Mountains for a weekend dedicated…
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Making Miss Black America: As the Pageant Turns 50, an Early Contestant Looks Back
When Oprah Winfrey represented her home state of Tennessee in the Miss Black America pageant in 1971, she was part of a pioneering group of young women daring to define beauty on their own terms. In fact, the pageant, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, was launched in protest of the Miss America pageant,…
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Janet, Lena, Latifah and More: Black Girls Rock! Returns to the Red Carpet
The ceremony won’t be televised until Sept. 9, but on Sunday night at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, N.J., black girl magic was on full display as an array of our established and future icons hit the red carpet for Black Girls Rock! 2018. Honorees Janet Jackson, Mary J. Blige, Naomi Campbell,…
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Yeah, Telling Black Women ‘To Carry Pepper Spray’ to Fight Street Harassment Is Missing the Point
While at lunch with a friend a few years ago, she couldn’t locate her lip gloss, so she emptied her purse out on the table to find it. She didn’t have much in there—an iPhone, a wallet, her keys and a small make-up kit. And also, a can of pepper spray. She noticed me noticing…
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This Is How a Black Woman Unravels
I walk a lot. I have a car, but sometimes, it’s nice to be able to look around you and see what’s out there. I lived in New York City for about four years, so walking is no big deal. Cat-calling is no big deal. I was walking, today, in the Baltimore Inner Harbor. It…
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A Study in Contrasts: Teyana Taylor & Ruth Negga Stun on Separate September Covers
What do multihyphenates Teyana Taylor and Ruth Negga have in common? Aside from both being well known and extremely talented black women, it would seem not much … except the two were both raised as only children, both worked at their crafts for decades before making a major breakthrough, and each is a style icon…