Guess Who’s Back? Kinda…
Hey internet friend! I know I’ve been gone for a minute. But, good news: I’ve got two exciting announcements to share with you!
#AirbnbWhileBlack aka Racism Lurks Everywhere
You may be familiar with #AirbnbWhileBlack, the hashtag that quickly gained traction on Twitter, and attracted coverage from several media outlets. NPR even hosted a Twitter chat on the subject. Tweet after tweet, Airbinb users contributed personal accounts of rental requests being rejected due to discrimination by the host.
I Could Have Used More Laughs and Fewer Tears, but 2015 Was Actually Pretty Okay
Happy New Year! 2015, like every other year, had it’s ups and downs. However, it’s important not to let the year’s lows overshadow the highs. When I considered writing an end of the year retrospective, my face scrunched up in disgust as I reflected on 2015. Not my favorite year by a longshot. So much of it felt like a continuous struggle – like I’m in the middle of a significant lesson which I’ve tired of learning.
Stop Lecturing Black People on How to Behave
In an LA Times op-ed Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor at NYU, and judging by his photos, decidedly not Black, deemed it necessary to take to a national newspaper to tell Black students how to behave and advise university faculty and administration on how to treat them. Not only did he step out of his lane to admonish America’s least favorite ethnic minority, he had the nerve to use the name and highly regarded words of black writer Ralph Ellison to do so. Here we go again.
White Supremacy: I Don’t Know How Much More of It I Can Handle
I told someone recently that fighting racism is like trying to kill roaches. You kill a few and then 50 million of their disgusting relatives appear. Let’s say I open one person’s eyes. I help them wake up to the reality of our country. Then what?
Don’t Call Me “Girl”
“Girls! Girls!” a large, middle-aged man in a bright yellow safety vest hollered at me and my new friend from across the parking lot as we walked away from my rental car. I turned slowly around, cocked an eyebrow and didn’t begin moving in his direction until my companion did. “Yes?” I asked with a touch of attitude as we neared him. He’d yelled out to us like we’d done something wrong. “Where are you girls going?” So far I liked nothing about this encounter.
Guest Post: My Blackness is Enough
Nearly 200 million people in the world identify as African or African-descended. Like Europeans, Asians and other “racial” groups, our culture, languages and experiences are extremely varied, despite the fact that, especially in the United States, we’re often seen as one large, indistinguishable group. For my first guest post, I’ve asked Mary from Verily Merrily Mary to share her experiences growing up as a Nigerian-born black woman in North America. I met Mary through a bloggers group and enjoy her thoughtful and absorbing writing. I hope you enjoy it too!
Not Your Grandparent’s Brand of Racism
This isn’t the 1950s anymore. Today’s racism isn’t your grandparent’s brand of racism. Today’s racism is cloaked so well we can have a biracial black President, while unarmed black civilians are gunned down by law enforcement with seeming impunity.
5 Myths About Black Americans That Need to Disappear
Despite significant and continued economic, educational and social progress among black Americans, inaccurate and offensive stereotypes persist. In part these myths are aided by the mainstream media (MSM). In reports about the state of “Black America” MSM tends to focus on reporting negative news or framing reports around the pessimistic view.
When You Agree to Discuss Racism on the Radio with a Black Conservative
That was around the time Jesse asked me, “What else can white people do for black people, so that black people will finally say: ‘ok you’re not racist, you love me, you’ve given us allllll that we’ve wanted, and we appreciate it, so now we’re going to take control of our own lives’? Is there anything else that white people can do to satisfy black people?”