slavery
-
We Get It. It’s Harvey Weinstein’s News Cycle. But What About Our Black Girls?
I stopped watching broadcast news five years ago, after a sex crime was reported in close proximity to where I live. The local news was beginning to feel like trauma porn and was much too close to home. The purge had been a healthy choice—that is, until national news infiltrated my timeline, the Twitterverse and…
-
Jemele Hill, Jerry Jones, the NCAA and the Sports Slave System
Stop. Before you object to my use of the word “slave,” let us be clear: I do not mean “slave” in the way you are thinking. I am not trying to invoke the pain and trauma of our ancestors in a hyperbolic comparison. When I write “slave,” I am not using it in the narrow…
-
10 Black Things I Did While Watching Last Night’s Super-Black Season 4 Premiere of Black-ish
After last night, the ABC show Black-ish should change its name to Black-AF. Kenya Barris and crew decided that they wanted the crown for blackest prime-time television episode of all time (appropriately titled “Juneteenth”) and basically created a live-action version of a super-black episode of Family Guy complete with musical numbers, the Roots and the…
-
Calif. High School Sparks Criticism for Using Slave-Ship Role-Play to Teach Students History
A California high school’s “unique learning experience” designed to teach its students about slavery is drawing national attention after a concerned mother spoke out about it last week. Shardé Carrington spoke to HuffPost last week about an email she received from Whitney High School administrators regarding an upcoming eighth-grade history lesson. In the email, sent…
-
Whiteness Is Useless Without the Nigger
“What would white people do without the nigger?” It’s a question that courses and bleeds through Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “The First White President.” It’s never asked explicitly, but it lurks beneath each point, ensconced in the piece’s premise: a fundamental and connective marrow. And it’s been with me since Sunday afternoon after I visited the National…
-
Tracing Your Roots: Who Were My Granddad’s Enslaved Parents?
A reader encounters the proverbial brick wall that African Americans encounter in antebellum genealogy research. Dear Professor Gates: Please help me find the parents of my grandfather Frank Lockhart (born July 28, 1878; died March 15, 1968). At some point he married Amanda Standback, but I have not been able to confirm any records for…
-
Are We Returning to Jim Crow?
When Donald Trump campaigned on the slogan “Make America great again,” many of us saw it for what it was: coded language for taking the mask—or the hood, as it were—off of white supremacy. Since his inauguration, Trump, and those in his administration, have shown that they mean to make good on their promise to…
-
Why You're Trash-Ass Trash If You Use Negro Bed Wench As An Insult, Explained
What is a Negro Bed Wench? Many things! A reliable hotep identifier. An ash magnet, as anyone who says it immediately becomes engulfed in a shroud of ash, like a chimney sweep with sentience. A valuable source of time efficiency, as hearing those three words in succession lets you know you don’t ever have to listen to…
-
Ala. Mayor Wants New Orleans’ Recently Disassembled Confederate Monuments for Display in His City’s Memorial Park, Because of Course He Does
Seems like one Alabama mayor wants to collect all the white supremacist last-place trophies, including those that have already been discarded by states that either know or are learning to do better. In this case, Hanceville Mayor Kenneth Nail claims he’s gotten nothing but a thumbs-up from his constituents after reaching out to New Orleans…
-
Hillary Clinton, Jeff Sessions and America’s Secret Slave System
Contrary to popular belief, slavery was never outlawed in the United States. This statement is not a debatable, half-twisted analysis or a cynical opinion. It is a fact. The 13th Amendment to the Constitution does not outlaw slavery; it only prohibits slavery in certain situations. It is entirely constitutional to turn drug dealers, gangbangers and…