culture
-
Marvel Made a Black Panther Movie Partly Because Reginald Hudlin Put the ‘Black’ in Panther
Editor’s note: This excerpt from Marvel’s Black Panther: A Comicbook Biography, From Stan Lee to Ta-Nehisi Coates (published by Diasporic Africa Press, 2018) talks about the impact black filmmaker Reginald Hudlin had on the character. For the first 32 years of its existence, the Black Panther—created by Marvel Comics legends Stan Lee and Jack Kirby…
-
How Detroit Photographer Tafari Stevenson-Howard’s Couch Became a Work of Art
I’m not one to brag, but my friends are all types of amazing. From leaving their mark in the entertainment world, to being able to handcraft jewelry and accessories, and even going from an NFL career to acting, their talents are immeasurable. But when it comes to having an eye for art, photography and interior…
-
White Men and Their ‘Blackcents’ Need to Stop Coming for Black Women Online
You know what I am getting increasingly sick of lately? White male culture vultures who think they can say and do anything around black people with impunity. Whether it’s because they have embraced black culture and mimic it or because they married a black person and think that makes them an expert on “the Negro,”…
-
When Wakanda Was Real
The reason people love superheroes is that, when done correctly, they are the perfect combination of our wildest fantasies and reality. There is no white guy born on a distant planet who came to Kansas and discovered that he could fly. If you are ever bitten by a bat, you probably want to get a…
-
How Boyce Watkins Became the Negro Whisperer, Explained
Sure! Earlier this week, a video of a screenshot of what seems to be an online conference call began circumnavigating the inboxes of the woke black internet. The video shows two men having a conversation about Boyce Watkins, Ph.D., and his … Watkins is the less charismatic Umar Johnson of black financial independence and wealth.…
-
Black Panther Delivers the Biggest, Blackest Superhero Movie Ever and It’s Just as Good as You Want It to Be
When I sat in the theater and screened Black Panther, I felt like the woman in the audience at the Five Heartbeats’ show who couldn’t stop squirming out of her seat. And then I Googled “Wakanda ticket prices,” as if the country were real. The short review is: Black Panther is a thing of cinematic…
-
Dear, Teacher: How Does It Feel to Be an Oppressor?
The New York Daily News reported Feb. 1—the start of Black History Month—that a teacher in a majority-minority school in the Bronx, N.Y., instructed three black children in her seventh-grade class to lie on the floor during a lesson on slavery. Then she stepped on the students’ backs, allegedly to show them “how it feels…
-
‘Long Live the King’ Black Panther Commercial Wins the Super Bowl
King T’Challa, also known as the Black Panther, came all up through the TV screen during Super Bowl LII, and hands down, the ad won. The commercial uses the set from the film, in which we hear actor Chadwick Boseman’s lilting voice as T’Challa, reveling in all his coolness in the spot featuring the all-new…
-
When Therapy Is a Comfort
“So, what do you want to talk about today?” the thin Asian woman across from me asks. She asks this twice a week because I see her twice a week. Twice a week, I sit on a gray sofa with red accent pillows and talk for 50 minutes. She listens, often interjects and asks questions.…
-
Sex Trafficking and the Super Bowl: There’s More at Play Sunday Than Just Football
On Sunday, when the Philadelphia Eagles and the New England Patriots meet for the Super Bowl, the spotlight in Minneapolis will be on more than the gridiron clash at U.S. Bank Stadium. Minnesota is the 13th top child trafficking and sex trafficking state in the country, and this poses a problem with the presence of…