culture
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Are We Misappropriating the Term ‘Hotep’?
“Hotep” has taken on new meaning as social media escalates the evolution of words. Language is fluid, and with cultural shifts, words can fall in and out of use or morph into new definitions. What was the term “social media” 20 years ago? “Hotep” is not as new a word, but it has come into…
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With Atlanta and Queen Sugar, TV Gets a Dose of Real Southern Blackness
“I’m criminally Northern,” from black Twitter stalwart and cultural critic Jamilah Lemieux about the epic Tuesday night of black Southern intensity fueled by new TV shows Atlanta and Queen Sugar. Clearly, the Chicago native, who now calls New York City home, was not alone, as similar sentiments also showed up on Twitter. Those from the…
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Protest This: The NFL Is a Shelter for Violence
After we applaud Colin Kaepernick’s protesting of police brutality, don’t let the spectacle of demonstration distract us from the crooked stage of the American football field, where social ills are churned into entertainment. When the commencing whistle is blown, cheers for the game and its heroes drown out screaming acts of domestic violence, racism, sexism,…
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Dragon Con: Where Black Nerds Come Out to Play
Most people spend their Labor Day weekend cooking, shopping or just getting the heck out of town. Other people spend Labor Day weekend cooking up plans for world domination, shopping for rare-action-figure collectibles and finding ways to fly to another galaxy. At least that’s the main explanation for most black folks who attended Dragon Con…
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Hidden Figures: Meet the Black Female Math Geniuses Who Helped Win the Space Race
Even before the publication of Margot Lee Shetterly’s Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, the rights to the film version of the book—starring Octavia Spencer, Taraji P. Henson and Janelle Monáe—had been sold. This comes as no surprise: The story of…
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How Police Fail to 'Protect and Serve' LGBTQ Communities of Color
Police killings of unarmed black men and women—such as this summer’s shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile—have highlighted the need, long recognized by racial-justice advocates, for a more critical examination of the ways in which police fail to “protect and serve” some of our country’s most marginalized communities. These killings have forwarded a national…
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Are Blacks Missing Out on the Medical Benefits of Weed?
Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing series that looks at the growing legal marijuana industry and its effect on the black community. If you search “babies cured with cannabis” on YouTube, you come up with a plethora of emotional videos. There’s California’s Dr. William Courtney from 2013, using X-rays to show what…
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Professional Black Girl: Video Series Celebrates ‘Everyday Excellence’ of Black Women and Girls
Dr. Yaba Blay, a leading voice on beauty politics and the creator of Professional Black Girl, has been in the game for a minute, loving on black women and girls from the top of their heads to the bottom of their feet. A sister’s sister, Blay has tackled everything from colorism—with her (1)ne Drop project—to affirming melanin as black and…
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Be a ‘Real’ Man: Black Gay Man Shares Homophobic Experience in Nail Salon
I love everything about manicures: the soaking of my nails, the clipping of my stressed-out cuticles, the massaging of my hands, the polishing and drying—and the lotion that people can never seem to find anywhere else. The nail salon has been my home away from home since my undergraduate years in northeastern Ohio. It provided…
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Wanna Be Starting Something? 5 Ways Kaepernick’s Protest Drum Beats On
Colin Kaepernick’s measured moral protest against police brutality continues to be a topic of national conversation, its fallout touching the culture in new and unexpected ways. The backup quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers says he will no longer stand for the national anthem until there is a “significant change” in racism in America, and…