I have one job. To write us to, and through, the revolution. And while I’m able to serve in a few other capacities, my primary role has always been clear to me. These days I’m failing miserably. Because Black folks are dying and I just keep buying lipstick. And crying. I know exactly when I broke. Less than 24 hours after hearing about the death of yet another Black person at the hands of the state, I woke up to find my community sharing one more hashtagged name of someone who should have[...]
Rewind “You bet not come home without a pack of cigarettes.” I was about 14 when my aunt uttered those words as I left the family compound on the Southside of Chicago. Admittedly, I didn’t give much thought to what she said at that moment. It later dawned on me that she was essentially saying, “If you’re leaving this house to spend time with a man (boy), then you better not come home empty handed.” Wait, what? I know she didn’t mean that I should ask a guy to do something for me[...]
This week’s episode of Being Mary Jane circled back to a topic the title character wanted to explore in the first episode—ugly Black women. More specifically Mary Jane wanted to address a 2011 Psychology Today article that attempted to show that Black women were scientifically less attractive than women of other races. Many of the topics examined in the episode coincide with a weeklong series of webinars hosted by the African American Policy Forum under the title #HerDreamDeferred. Each d[...]