culture
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Charlottesville, Va., Is About Choosing Who We Want to Be as a Nation
A year ago I went to visit the farm, located east of Charlottesville, Va., where my grandmother’s grandfather Phil was born enslaved to the Parrish family. Phil (born in 1852); his mother, Rachel (1828); and his wife, Susan (1860), were in this country when most white Americans’ ancestors were still in Europe, but they weren’t…
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Should Confederate Symbols Be Banned in the US?
Symbols of the Confederacy have been the subject of two very different events over the last few days. In Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday, white supremacists gathered to protest the removal of a Confederate statue from a public park, and their “protest” turned into a bloody riot, with one woman being killed and countless others being…
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To White Folks Who Dance With Devils: ‘What Kind of Extremists Will You Be?’
In a press conference during which Donald Trump shed any pretense of being anything other than a white supremacist demagogue deploying his power in the service of fascism, hate-mongering and violence wrought from the desperate need whiteness has to preserve itself, he said this: Trump: Well, George Washington was a slave owner. Was George Washington…
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Look at This Picture. This Is America.
The only difference between Heather Heyer and Deandre Harris is that Deandre Harris is alive. They were both in Charlottesville, Va., protesting against white supremacy. They were both victims of white supremacist terrorist attacks. Heyer was killed Saturday when authorities say James Fields drove his car through a crowd of counterprotesters during the convention of…
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We Need to Talk About Being Mary Jane
Mary Jane Paul has always been a mess, but her many, many faults are what made Being Mary Jane such an interesting watch. As Kelley Carter wrote in the 2015 BuzzFeed piece “BET’s ‘Being Mary Jane’ Has Started a TV Revolution,” the show was a “revolutionary series about a perfectly imperfect single black woman.” Those…
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Michael Bennett Sat During the National Anthem Because He Loves America
My mother loves Michael Harriot. I know this, not because she has told me thousands of times, but because she has loved me. She kisses me on my cheek. She hugs me tighter than Young Thug wears his skinny jeans. We have long, meandering phone conversations. She praises me for every little thing I do…
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With Domestic Terrorism in Charlottesville, Va., Betsy DeVos Fails to Recognize a Teachable Moment
President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos didn’t wholeheartedly renounce white supremacy over the weekend, but teachers must. James Alex Fields Jr., the driver who allegedly plowed into a crowd of counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday, killing one and injuring at least a dozen more, had spouted Nazi ideology in high school, according…
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No, Open and Nonmonogamous Relationships Are Not Just for White People
Show of hands: Who here was raised to believe that the only healthy, positive relationships are ones that are monogamous, just one-on-one? Now a show of hands: Who here thinks monogamy is bullshit? Many of us were raised on the idea that we would grow up and find one person whom we would marry and…
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For Black People Who Have to Deal With White People This Week
Bruh (and when I say “bruh,” I don’t mean it in a sexist, gender-erasing way. I mean it as an introductory phrase, like how people from Florida start their sentence with “Fam,” or people from New York start their sentences with “Son” and end them with “B.” Or how people from everywhere start their sentences…
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Here’s a Cookie
Wow. I guess a hit dog will holler. When I wrote this on Sunday regarding the gaggle of white people online who turned the carnage of Charlottesville, Va., into a contest to prove they’re not terrible, I was surprised that so many white people would interpret this to mean I was talking about all white…