black women
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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…
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‘Suck It Up’ or Pray: Advice That Almost Killed Me
I was beaten quite a bit as a child. I wasn’t a “bad kid” or a troublemaker, I just happened to come from a violent place (America) and a culture (small town, black, 1980s; take your pick) where beating children was de rigueur. As an infant, I was beaten with a wooden yardstick until my…