slavery
-
‘I Brought You in This World and I’ll Take You Out’: How Black Folks’ Obsession With Whupping Is Killing Us
Spare the Kids: Why Whupping Children Won’t Save Black America is one of those necessary African-American reads, like Between the World and Me; I’m Judging You; and Coldest Winter Ever. It’s not just for dinnertime conversation or deep professional panels, it’s for everyone. Spare the Kids, written by Stacey Patton, Ph.D., professor of journalism at Morgan…
-
Underground Season 2 Episode 2 Recap
I’m 1:30 into episode two of WGN’s Underground and I’m already crying. Sure, Venus is in Retrograde, my car is stuck in the ice and I’m craving salty snacks but I’m mostly crying because Bokeem Woodbine’s Daniel has been teaching himself how to read and write. This is courageous AF for any slave to do…
-
7 Times Harriet Tubman Was a Badass Superhero
Harriet Tubman is having a moment. Right now she is the “it” girl of history. No longer relegated to the pages of schoolbooks during Black History Month, the freedom-fighting, self-liberating she-warrior and “conductor” on the Underground Railroad is getting the recognition she so richly deserves. Last year the Treasury Department announced that Tubman would replace…
-
Underground: A Stellar Slave Tale Even if You’re Slaved Out
Whenever I hear skinfolk exclaim that they are exhausted by slave-related stories, my immediate reaction traditionally is to extend to them the invitation to shut their black asses up. About a year ago, though, I inadvertently behaved like the kind of people I have written about. The kind who more or less profess to be…
-
The Search For The Soul Ben Carson Once Possessed
Dear Ben Carson, Yesterday, you said that enslaved people were immigrants, and whether you believe that deep down in the soul you used to possess, one can never know. Nevertheless, I am going to talk to you even though I fear you vacated your body a long time ago. I believe you sent yourself away…
-
Samuel L. Jackson on Ben Carson’s ‘Immigrants’: ‘MUTHAF–KA PLEASE!!!’
Former neurosurgeon Ben Carson proved Monday that he knows absolutely nothing about slavery. Then Samuel L. Jackson proved that he has no problem calling the head of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development a dickhead. Be like Samuel L. Jackson. Don’t be like Ben Carson (well, unless you learn to stick to your medical…
-
Class Action Lawsuit Claims Thousands of ICE Detainees Were Forced Into Labor, Violating Anti-Slavery Laws
As it turns out, there are allegations that tens of thousands of immigrants who were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and held at a private U.S. prison company were also forced into labor at $1 per day or for no pay, which would be a gross violation of federal anti-slavery laws. The allegations…
-
Harvard Confronts Its Ties to Slavery; Ta-Nehisi Coates Calls for Reparations
Harvard University is the latest university to try to make amends with its slavery-tainted past. On Friday the storied university held a conference to explore the relationship between colleges and slavery, where university President Drew Faust said the school must confront its past to move forward. “Harvard was directly complicit in slavery from the college’s…
-
Watch: Spotlight on Black History’s Storytellers
The video below was published in partnership with Peabody Spotlight, a digital series produced by the Peabody Media Center at the University of Georgia in commemoration of Black History Month. Each part of the series draws from the vast Peabody Awards archives, the third-largest repository of audiovisual materials in the United States. Peabody Spotlight will…
-
Jefferson’s Monticello Makes Room for Sally Hemings
As the country slowly, surely comes to grips with its slaveholding past, one of its most iconic buildings is set to do the same. Monticello, the estate where President Thomas Jefferson lived (immortalized on the back of our nickel), will now give the enslaved young woman and alleged “mistress” of Jefferson “a room of her…