What is your role in the deconstruction of anti-Blackness?
Who has most benefitted from the anti-Black mythology that was (and is) used to justify the kidnapping and enslavement of African people? How does that mythology influence us today?
“There was no concept of race or a white race before the need to justify the enslavement of Africans. Creating a separate and inferior black race simultaneously created the “superior” white race: one concept could not exist without the other.”
― White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
Julian Assange: Devil or Daredevil?
I really don't know what to think of this Julian Assange WikiLeaks debacle. With the exception of those who have already judged and convicted the man, people seem to be afraid to write or say what they think for fear of having their words sifted through the NSA's...
Sleepovers to Resume at Neverland Ranch…
When a dozen cars filled with police investigators pulled up at the gates of Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch seven years ago, it's as if they brought along some kind of Dr. Evil-inspired device that could suck every last bit of magic out of a place. Though Michael...
@HolyWords, where art thou?
[slideshow] For almost two years a mysterious tweeter with the username @HolyWords (aka "Soul Food") has been blessing the timelines of its 20,000 followers with 140 characters of daily inspiration...and now suddenly they're not. I know what you're thinking. So what,...
Eva Longoria’s “Desperate” Daughter Faces Deportation to Mexico
If you're an avid Desperate Housewives watcher, you know that Eva Longoria's character, Gabrielle Solis, is currently tangled in a heart-wrenching storyline involving a past hospital baby switch. Gabby's daughter Juanita is not biologically hers, but is the "anchor...
The Sexiest Teacher Alive: Don’t Let the Clark Kent Steez Fool You
I mean no disrespect to Geoffrey Canada's wife, but her husband is my idea of what a real man looks like. Okay, okay, before I get myself in too much trouble, let me clarify that in using the term "sexy" to describe this married father of six, I am respectfully...
Prince William will be able to say the word “Mummy” again soon
“Being a princess isn't all it's cracked up to be." -Diana, Princess of Wales If you're like me, that whole Disney-style princess thing is one huge turnoff. I mean really, what self-respecting mother is going to teach her daughter that the ultimate happily-ever-after...
Nicole Richie Designs a New Life
I don't know about you, but I'm a sucker for any story that at it's heart is about transformation. I think that's why I love HGTV so much--you know--the creativity and elbow grease and coordinating fabrics of it all. Watching those funky old fixer-uppers being...
Give Oprah a Friggin’ Break
Let's suppose for a moment that we all agree on the following premise: The purpose of life is to Love and be of service to others Develop one’s own emotional, intellectual, creative and spiritual potential to its fullest Positively influence the emotional,...
Be the change you want to read…
I hate to admit this, but I read Internet gossip blogs just about every day. I have a folder on my Google Chrome toolbar with eleven gossip sites I visit regularly. A few of them I would loosely describe as "journalistic," that is, although they are made up of...
REPOST: I have a few (3) more t-shirts available
Calling a few adventurous anti-racists... I am conducting an experiment, and I need the help of ten people of various ethnic backgrounds who are willing to participate. The experiment will simply entail wearing a (free) t-shirt that features a photo of an abolitionist...
How Could You Not Know This?
Did you know there was a white woman who was murdered by the Klan because of her involvement in the American Civil Rights Movement? Did you know she was a wife and mother of five children? Did you know that among her last statements to her husband before she died was...
I Don’t Have a Racist Bone in My Body
I was returning home to Los Angeles on a flight from Atlanta, where I'd spent a couple of days at a writer’s conference. Weary from a weekend filled with late night poetry jams and early morning workshops, I boarded the half-empty redeye, found my aisle seat, shoved...
For Us, By Us
LUCRETIA AND JAMES MOTT ARE MY HEROES! Imagine you lived during a time when the clothes you wore were produced by slave labor. Oh... wait... that's right... if you're the average American, (or the average Earthling for that matter) it is highly likely that at...
“People of color…were tired of holding our hands.”
I saw the film Traces of the Trade and was impressed most by its courage and its frankness. It is definitely interesting to watch the transformation of the family members as they begin to realize exactly what the term “slave trade” means, and how the buying and...
James Breeden’s “Negro Woman”
(Photo: My father James H. Kelly | Great-great grandson of James Breeden and his "negro woman" On February 28, 1825, a white Tennessee farmer appeared before the Hawkins County Court with his enslaved black woman and two children he sired with her, with the intention...
Slave Traders’ Decendants Face Their Ugly Truth
THIS FILM GIVES ME HOPE! CHECK YOUR LOCAL (PBS) LISTINGS! I want to write something compelling that will make you want to NOT MISS THIS FILM, but every review I attempt does not do this documentary justice, so I'll just say TUNE IN to PBS and watch this one --...
A Scary, Twilight Zonish Thought
On a winter’s night in 2004, I was driving down Middlebelt Road in the Detroit suburb of Livonia, Michigan with two black teenagers—my daughter Akira and my nephew Nathan* (*not his real name). As I approached the freeway on-ramp and signaled to turn, I spotted a...
‘Back Then Slavery Was Legal and People Didn’t Think of it As wrong’
I can recall the exact moment my elementary school teacher fell off her greatest-teacher-in-the-world pedestal. It was a high, hard fall—I know because she fell on me, a freckle-faced “mixed-race” girl so blinded by love and admiration for the woman, I couldn’t have...
One on One with Tracey Edmonds: Serving Up a New Dish Called ‘Reality’
I am browsing the numerous awards on display in Tracey Edmonds’ expansive office when she enters through a private door, brightening up the already sun-drenched room with a radiance no cosmetic company could possibly take credit for. To call her beautiful is an...
One on One with Michael Clark Duncan: He’s Ready for Romance
Anyone who doubts the power of Hollywood to create bigger than life images that have little basis in reality should take note of actor Michael Clarke Duncan’s film career. On the big screen Duncan has been portrayed as an 8-foot giant—in real life he’s just under...
One on One with Don Cheadle: ‘We’re Getting Played’
Whatever we do, we should know that one day we will all face that man called ‘history’ and that day we should have a word to tell him. "–Paul Rusesabagina Imagine you lived in Kigali, Rwanda in April 1994 and you managed to survive the genocidal rampage that brutally...
Exclusive Interview with Queen Latifah: Living Life to the Fullest
When Queen Latifah’s debut album All Hail the Queen hit record stores in 1989, the mostly male-dominated rap world knew right away she was a force to be reckoned with. Surrounded by testosterone-only crews like Boogie Down Productions, Public Enemy and Run D.M.C.,...
One on One with Jamie Foxx: He’s Swinging at All the Right Pitches
I picture Jamie Foxx’s soul thirty-eight years ago floating around in the spirit world preparing for his ordained time here on Earth. An angel is pointing out the lines souls can wait in to get what they need to do good work as human beings. Foxx is paying extra close...
One on One with Regina King: Being Her Beautiful, Talented, Brilliant Self
Regina King was 13 years old when she earned a small part in a stage play called 227 at Marla Gibb’s Crossroads Theatre in Los Angeles. After the play’s successful run, it was adapted for television and King won the co-starring role of Brenda Jenkins (the daughter of...
One on One with Tyler Perry: Finally Reaping Write-ousness
If success really is the sweetest revenge, anyone who ever did anything wrong to Tyler Perry better recognize that the score has officially been settled—and he has upwards of $65 million in earnings on his side of the scoreboard. Sweet revenge indeed. But perhaps what...
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