Today, a Jacksonville mother of three has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing a single bullet into her kitchen ceiling two years ago in order to warn her husband against continuing his physical attack on her. Last week, Melissa Harris-Perry examined this case on her show. “Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” castle-doctrine law [...]

“Womyn[1] born womyn”, “Biological womyn”, “REAL womyn”. Other than being hurtful ways to discredit the innate womynhood of me and my transgender sisters- I’ve questioned the use of these terms for as long as I can remember. Yet and still, I often find myself having to face these pejorative epithets. Sometimes it’s from cisgendered womyn[2]. And [...]

First and foremost, I have a love-hate relationship with this show. I’m in love with the fact that the women on this show, in some ways, could be relatable to individuals like myself. This series involves four women: one who is a post-graduate/intern/jobless/sort-of-rich-sort-of-broke 22 year-old; the other who is a care-free party animal going through a bit of a funk; the other who is an absolute prude, clingy to her best friend while irritated by the clinginess of her boyfriend, and lastly, a friend… who… I really can’t describe. She’s fucking boring. But I know so many of those. Either way, in some way or another, I find myself relating to these twenty-somethings personally, whether they draw upon characteristics or experiences that are relatable to myself or my own core group of friends.

Dear Sofia,

You’re one of my favorite cousins. You’re smart. You’re hilarious. You’ve lived on every continent. Adults could learn a thing or two from you. There’s just one problem: You’re #TeamBreezy. That’s gotta stop. I mean, yeah, we can all get down to “Forever” or “Run It” at a party, but like, this guy is awful. I would say the same thing if you had a huge crush on Roman Polanski, or Terrance Howard. Girl, there are better celebrities out there to crush on, and tweet at. I mean, Breezy isn’t even cute. He looks like a rodent. Allow me to introduce you to some real hottiezzz….

if you voice how legitimately racist something is, and a white man says, “you’re too sensitive”— they’re not only displaying their privilege, they’re also displaying supremacy. they’re saying that they’re somehow more rational than you, that your response is unwarranted and crazy. that is gaslighting.

I had never read a Hunger Games book when I went to watch the movie a few weeks ago. I enjoyed the movie, as I do most. There weren’t many black characters, but I found myself really impressed with the ones that were there. They were not playing stereotypical roles, they were complex, and on the whole, the most sympathetic characters in the film. As it turns out, that was a problem.

#NERDVILLE The American author, MSNBC political commentator and political science Professor, Melissa Harris Perry (AKA our new favourite black woman) now has her own news and opinion show on MSNBC and is introducing a new image of the Black woman into the mainstream. For lack of better words, this is exactly how I feel about my [...]

In the fields of critical theory and postcolonial studies, it has been established that the systems of oppression used by the colonizer rely on an “order” that employs binaries such as black/white, self/other, and civilized/savage – “a deep structure which regulates and legitimates imperial practices” (Imperialism, History, Writing and Theory, Tuhiwai Smith). Scholar and theorist Ashis Nandy has identified this as the “code” or “grammar” that governs imperialism. The “grammar” that orders imperialism is nowhere more evident than in the use of prescriptive language rules. The overwhelming majority of people view language rules such as spelling and grammar as static and coming from a place of authority. This is false, as both constitute discursive practices and there is no single authority on the English language…

It was this time one year ago that Milca and myself were in the midst of planning for The Africana. Our original goal and purpose for this blog was on an entirely different path from where it is today. Both of us being avid blog followers, we wanted to create a place where we could make use of our photography, mainly, and create a space that helped shape the way we experience, feel and live as WOC. Although we’re still in the midst of defining the Africana and creating an idea of where we want it to go, I feel as if we’ve both mentally changed from the place we were one year ago.

A letter written to my father – an anonymous submission.