black women
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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…
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Do You Want More? September 2018 Is Shaping Up to Be a Beautiful Month for Black Women
It’s only the first day of August, but with a slew of September issues featuring black women on their covers, it’s hard not to look forward to a change of season. We’re still seeing new reveals, but already Slick Woods is in full bloom and beaming on Elle UK, Tiffany Haddish is glowing on Glamour,…
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Misty Copeland Portrays a Stripper in the 2019 Pirelli Calendar—and We Feel a Way [Updated]
Updated Thursday, July 26 2018 at 3:30 p.m. EDT: This story has been updated to include a statement from Pirelli regarding their 2019 calendar. Earlier: For fashion photography lovers, the annual Pirelli calendar has become a highly anticipated release, attracting some of the world’s most beautiful faces and most renowned photographers. Formerly best known as a…
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OK, I'm Happy for Ciara
If you have spent the slightest amount of time on Black Twitter or Black Instagram since 2015, you have probably come across a tweet or IG post about Ciara. And if you’ve seen a post about the singer/dancer/Russell Wilson muse—who dropped a new single and music video on Wednesday —you probably fall into one of…
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10 Observations From My First Essence Festival, the ‘Super Bowl for Black Women’
1. At some point during the two-hour layover at O’Hare International Airport on my trip from Pittsburgh to New Orleans last weekend, a supernatural force compelled me to glance up from my laptop and scan the gate around me. There was a shift in the space-time continuum that the universe was attempting to alert me…
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A Black Woman in Handcuffs For Climbing The Statue of Liberty on Independence Day is a Perfect Metaphor For America
The Statue of Liberty is a metaphor. One cannot carve a statue out of liberty any more than one can take a photograph of freedom or hold a jarful of justice. Liberty is not a thing, it is a concept. And, while it is the bedrock foundation upon on which white America as always rested,…
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Black Women Are People. Expecting Them to Be Our Saviors and Superheroes Is Killing Them
Of the myriad factors contributing to my mom’s death, the one I have the least concrete proof for is the one to which I attribute the most blame. I cannot prove that she died at 60 because she was a working-class black woman in a country built on and violent towards people who looked and…
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Protecting Black Women and Girls Is More Important Than Your Break Up With R. Kelly
Jamilah Lemieux has about 3,000 accounts muted and blocked on social media. As a black woman who often uses her platform to call out abusive behavior towards black women and girls, Twitter’s mute feature is a tool she’s become more than familiar with. She’s written countless pieces on men like R. Kelly and Bill Cosby,…
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A List of Things That Happen Within the 1st Hour After Beyoncé Drops New Music
In chronological order: I happened to be at the Ross Park Mall on Saturday afternoon, walking from the food court to Macy’s in search of a Father’s Day gift for my dad, when I happened to notice 17 black women, laid on the mall floor, paralyzed in shock, mouths agape and wigs snatched all the…

