11 Dec, 2024

#NotJustUVA: Martese Johnson and the American Norm

  20 year old Martese Johnson’s unprovoked beating by police was yet another example of the brutality that’s become America’s norm. Over the past couple years, our community has become almost numb to the consistent attack on Black life. Not only are the police abusing their authority, they’re doing it with impunity. Every instance of […]

5 mins read

Racism, Not Hoodies: The Real Menace to Society

Three years ago today, Trayvon Martin was murdered for no other reason than being a Black male. As much as detractors try to play up ambiguities in that night’s circumstance or justify George Zimmerman’s actions, we know what it was about. The criminalization of Black men by our society has embedded an innate fear in […]

3 mins read

To Be Seen, Not Heard: A Critique of Selma

Recent film Selma, produced by Oprah Winfrey and directed by Ava DuVernay, has joined the ranks of 12 Years a Slave, Cesar Chavez, and other films which downplay the role women of color played when it came to suffering discrimination, as well as fighting for civil rights. Though what makes Selma special is the two […]

3 mins read

The Montgomery Boycott and the Erasure and White Wash of Black Women

On this day in 1955, Rosa Parks helped spark a movement that would change this country forever. Yet, 59 years later Blacks continue to fight, bleed and sweat for their civil rights and humanity in this country. 59 years later, the same white supremacy that violated the rights and bodies of Black folk, is responsible […]

7 mins read

This is our Home: Ferguson and America

On Saturday, August 9th, Michael Brown was murdered in cold blood by the police in his town of Ferguson, MO. This is what happened. Whether you believe that he stole something or that he tried to wrestle a cop for his gun or whether you believe actual facts; the truth remains that at some point he stopped […]

6 mins read

A Glimpse into Black Art

It was Sonia Sanchez who said, “The black artist is dangerous. Black art controls the “Negro’s” reality, negates negative influences, and creates positive images.” Black contemporary art has met resistance from the white dominated art world. An arena that limited itself from a diverse aesthetic of culture and vibrancy. Galleries of “white walls, with white […]

1 min read

234: What Does it Take to be #1?

If it didn’t happen to African girls, would it be the world’s biggest story? Two-hundred and thirty four teenage girls were abducted from the Government Girls Secondary School in the northeastern town of Chibok, Nigeria. Gunmen from the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram raided the secondary school the night of April 14th, packing the students […]

9 mins read

African Americans and the Labor Movement

The Black Labor movement has remained in the shadows of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. The erasure of the labor unions role in civil rights is most apparent when The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom Unions is simply referred to as the March on Washington. However, Black membership played an important […]

6 mins read

Point to Your Land and I’ll Point to Mine

  Point to your land and I’ll point to mine. Our land was stolen. We had 200 acres of land in Linden, Alabama. My ancestors became very wealthy growing cotton and corn for the market place.  My great great grandfather, Richard Howard (Cherokee) was killed by a group of European settlers around the 1870’s in […]

1 min read