I’m neither disappointed nor surprised by what happened at the capitol Wednesday. This has been a long time coming. Trump has been sending signals to his followers for months through social media, emails, presidential debates. “Proud boys, stand back and stand by.” The proud boys have been “organizing” in D.C. the past few months. Although, … Continue reading Are We Really Surprised by the Pro-Trump Insurrection of the Capitol?
Let’s start off with how crack-cocaine made its way into the Black community. The U.S. government is responsible for bringing crack-cocaine into Black communities (see the CIA Contra). They preyed on Black communities feeling the effects of the recession and high unemployment rates. Crack was affordable and it was to profit from it. Criminalization crack-cocaine … Continue reading It’s Time To Retire The Term, “Crackhead.”
Can Black people dead respectability politics now? It’s been tried before and guess what? It still won’t make us acceptable to white society. There is a recent story of Kevin Kelley, owner of True Kitchen, scolding Black women for twerking in his establishment. This has sparked a debate about what is respectful and disrespectful behavior … Continue reading Let Go of the Respectability Politics
The blind worship of American politicians is once again, another example of how celebrity culture has gone too far. AOC is on the cover of Vanity Fair. People are making fan cams of Kamala Harris. When do we draw the line between celebrity culture and politicians? The people whose decisions affect our livelihood. I was … Continue reading Celebrity Culture and Politicians Don’t Mix
As celebrity culture begins to grow out of control, there’s now an influx of “celebrity activists” or “corporate activists”. These corporate activists hijack movements and words from community organizers and profit from it. They’re praised by the mainstream media, hang out with A-list celebrities, and sign deals with corporations. I’d say that Shaun King is … Continue reading Celebrity Culture Needs to Die Part 2: Corporate Activists
"Show me in the white community where a comedian is a white leader. Show me in the white community where a singer is a white leader. Or a dancer. Or a trumpet player is a white leader. These aren't leaders! These are puppets and clowns that have been set-up over the Black community by the … Continue reading Celebrity Culture Needs to Die Part 1: Celebrities Are Not Community Leaders!
You should know about this even if you're not a Detroit. Shoutout to Green Light Black Futures for the lessons on this!
(This was an essay I pitched for Huffington Post about BIPOC Month and what it means to me. I didn't make it to the final process of having my work published. But, that's fine. I wasn't going to put this essay away.) Growing up in Detroit, mental health was not discussed. When I was eight … Continue reading Normalize Talking About Black Mental Health
Once again, Black culture is being appropriated. What's new? There was a recent debate on social media about African American Vernacular English (AAVE). For a couple of years, people have been trying to rename AAVE as "Stan Language." Brittany Tomlinson, AKA "Kombucha girl", recently shared an uninformed, Tik Tok video on AAVE. She believes that … Continue reading AAVE Is Not Stan Language (A Rant)
(I have previously written about Lizzo, Summer Walker, and Twitter’s obsession with humbling Black women. Just click the keywords for the link!) Examples of the “jokes” about Meg Last week, Twitter joked about Megan Thee Stallion being shot and prayed for Kanye’s health in the same breath. We revisit social media’s love of using Black … Continue reading Social Media, Your Misogynoir Is Showing AGAIN
