Birth of a Nation: Imagining Black Resistance I’m taking my students to see Birth of a Nation and I’m excited to use this film as a tool in my curriculum. At a time when #BlackLivesMatter has become a unifying rallying cry, I’m eager to use the film to show an example of Black resistance, something most of our students rarely, if ever, get to see. And our inability to see … [Read more...]
Why Racial Profiling is Here to Stay
When we see an example of police brutality in action, racially disparate policing becomes part of the conversation. Though we know racism plays a huge role, rarely do we make the necessary connections between the racist ways that policing in America began and how Black/Brown communities are policed today. That is repeatedly proving to be a fatal mistake. The History of … [Read more...]
Maroons: The Only Free Black People
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Free Black People Brag Different I've said before that slavery impacts us as much today as it did in the past. "Trying to understand race relations (or the conditions ailing the Black community since anyone alive can remember) without understanding slavery is like trying to cure cancer without understanding anatomy." As descendants of the recently enslaved, part of … [Read more...]
When #SlaveryMatters More than #BlackLivesMatter: Alton Sterling & Philando Castile
Ignorance Can Kill You Trying to understand race relations (or the conditions ailing the Black community since anyone alive can remember) without understanding slavery is like trying to cure cancer without understanding anatomy. That’s how much slavery matters to what’s happening in protests all over the country today. We are all historical products and who we are today … [Read more...]
Black Hair, White Racism & the Law
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New Hair Era | Same Old Racism When I first cut out my perm in the 1990s I had no reason to believe that I was going to live long enough to see a natural Black hair movement. Nobody, and I mean nobody at my predominantly White Penn State University campus was wearing natural hairstyles then and I remember feeling very alone. A lot of my friends and advisors would ask me … [Read more...]