There are few phrases as triggering and colloquially violent as the term “black and brown.” The term typically precedes a discussion pertaining to some systemic or social wrong rooted in physiognomy. Moreover, the term suggests a similarity between the experiences of black and non-black people of color. The issues here are plentiful; however, the most…
Category: Cultural Controversy
Discussion of controversial topics within Race and Gender.
Chauvin and American Chauvinism
To offset this post, I wish to enlist a famous quotation from the late Toni Morrison’s expository catalog. In “The Nobel Lecture in Literature,” Morrison writes: “We die. That make be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives” (203). While this quotation speaks to death as…
A Word on Nancy Pelosi and the Petting Incident…
I admit that I always had an issue with the way that the media treated Gianna Floyd. Nevertheless, I, along with millions of others, watched the interview where a six-year-old Floyd said she missed her father and wanted to be a doctor to help people. Upon looking at Gianna’s face, one could see George Floyd…
George Floyd, Four Hundred Years Later
It is imperative that the African descended resurrect George Floyd from the chokehold of American his story. The morning of May 25, 2020, would become the final hours of Floyd’s life. By this time last year, his feet were tagged, his organs prepped for an autopsy that would “prove” what millions would see from various…
The Derek Chauvin Trial and Verdict, A Black Female Perspective
Three weeks ago, like countless others throughout the nation, I tuned into the Derek Chauvin trial. After watching George Floyd die from multiple angles, it didn’t take long to access the intractable loss that no outcome could overcome. Shortly after calling the first witness, it also became evident that George Floyd was the one on…
The Black Ally: Why It’s “Stop White Supremacy” not “Stop Asian Hate”
Not even a year ago, flames engulfed police cars, and the names Breonna Taylor and George Floyd filled the air alongside the phrase: “Black Lives Matter.” From living rooms across America and overseas, the moment resembled a resurrected and recharged Ferguson. For many, last summer appeared to centralize systemic white terror on black bodies. Yet,…
The Difference between Poetry and Rhetoric: A Black Female Perspective on the Inaugural Poet
When I think of poetry, I think of, in no particular order, Sterling A. Brown, Amiri Baraka, Mari Evans, Lucille Clifton, Nicki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, Countee Cullen, and Langston Hughes. When I think of black femininity as personified in poetry, I depart from Maya Angelou’s gentrified and universalized “Still I Rise,” and ‘“Phenomenal Woman,” and…
6 Points on Inauguration, A Black Female Perspective
Appeal Through Representational Politics: Lady Gaga, the recording artist selected to perform the national anthem, is the daughter of Italian immigrants, Jennifer Lopez, who was also selected to sing, is the daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants, just as new Vice President Kamala Harris is the daughter of two immigrants. This showcase makes a notable departure…
Glass Ceiling or Glass Slipper?
Trump is gone, but white supremacy presides. He has dissipated into the anti-black climate that created him, made him president, and promises to invent new ways for him to redefine and actualize his supremacy. The ambiance of the next four years looms in the air and the minds of those who prepare to counter “we…
A False Premise of Unity
Whether CNN’s “reflection” on 2020 on The Grio’s “analysis” of the black teen assaulted by a domestic terrorist, the contemporary black face and voice illustrate a conflicting espousal to an anti-black farce encompassed by a single word: unity. CNN’s 2020 reflection, which predictably solicited black correspondents Abby Phillip and Van Jones as its Neo-liberal mask,…
Whispers of a Womanist 