culture
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Tracing Your Roots: Untangle My Redbone Heritage
A mystery illustrates how an 18th-century family became caught up in Virginia’s laws around race, sex and freedom. Dear Professor Gates: My book about the triracial “redbones” of the 18th century, My Bones Are Red, came out in 2005 from Mercer University Press. I’d like to pick up where I left off in my research…
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Color of Climate: Meet a Power Player in Miami’s Fight Against Climate Gentrification
Valencia Gunder loves the 305. However, there’s one nickname she says she’s never used for her hometown of Miami—the Magic City. Though she’s lived there her whole life, the 33-year-old resident of Liberty City, a predominantly black and working-class neighborhood in northwest Miami, told The Root, “Maybe where I grew up at, it was never…
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If Black Gay Men on TV Were All Masculine ‘Professionals,’ Would We Still Care About Diversity?
On modern-day reality-television shows, audiences often bear witness to stereotypical, one-dimensional representations of black queer men. From the iconic Miss J. Alexander on America’s Next Top Model to the frequent appearances on Real Housewives of Atlanta and even Love & Hip Hop, we have often seen narrow depictions of the black male queer experience: divas…
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This Is What It’s Like Being Named Isis in 2017
Hey, I’m Isis—and before we go any further, I love my name. I am still trying to figure out how my name can be found offensive to people, but enghhh we are in the age of Donald Trump—anything is possible. Growing up on the West Coast, I never had issues with my name. It made…
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Dirty, Pretty Things
Often, after an intense therapy appointment, instead of sitting in my car, folded across the steering wheel before I have the strength to face the rest of the day, I make a detour to the T.J. Maxx on the way home. I don’t always buy anything; I just wander the racks and flip through organized…
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How Ferguson, Mo., Changed America … and Me
On Aug. 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo., a police officer named Darren Wilson fired at least six bullets into the head and body of an unarmed, 18-year-old named Michael Brown Jr. Four hours later, they finally removed Michael Brown’s body from the sweltering heat and took his corpse to the St. Louis County morgue. By…
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Everything White People Think About Affirmative Action Is Wrong
After uniting with Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller and Betsy DeVos to form the Trump administration’s version of the Caucasian Avengers, Jeff Sessions has directed his efforts toward uplifting a class of people who have long been ignored by the American educational system: white people. According to documents obtained by the New York Times, the attorney…
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10 Things to Help Black Students Prepare for Life at a PWI
I regret not attending an HBCU. If I could do things over, I would have accepted those offers from either Howard or Hampton University and had a college experience devoid of the constant assaults on my humanity by way of microagressions and covert racism. Attending a PWI (predominantly white institution), I was ever aware of…
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Issa Didn’t Cheat on Lawrence in Real Life, and Angela Valdes Didn’t Snitch on Ghost. So Stop Sending the Actors Hate Mail
I hate Tariq St. Patrick and want him to die already. After four seasons of watching him behave like an ungrateful, bitchy, ho-ass child (minors can get cursed at after they hit puberty), any Power scene featuring him now physically angers me. Not even Assistant U.S. Attorney Angela Valdes has had that impact on me,…