In the wake of gun violence and police brutality being as obvious and perhaps more openly contested than any other time in recent memory, the DC Council has been hard at work in their efforts to reduce the volume of both. The Council made significant strides toward police reform in June, beginning just a week […]
The legendary sociologist, author, historian and more, W.E.B. Du Bois said in his 1926 \”Criteria of Negro Art\” speech that he did not \”care a damn for any art that is not used for propaganda. But I do care when propaganda is confined to one side while the other is stripped and silent.\” The response
The Spook Who Sat by the Door and the Art of Propaganda Read More »
On December 20, 2019 in Lawrence County, Indiana, a bald eagle was shot out of the sky. An investigation was launched almost immediately and a $500 reward was offered to anyone with information on the culprit. The event made national news, allowing countless Americans to see their symbol of freedom outstretched and lifeless on a
No matter how many statues of Christopher Columbus are felled, beheaded, or legally removed, his murderous legacy lives on in the city named for him. The terrifying volume of murders and other violent crimes in the District of Columbia is a topic The DC Voice has covered extensively. Unfortunately, it is an issue that continues
\”…Yet do I marvel at this curious thing: To make a poet black, and bid him sing!\” Countee Cullen, “Yet Do I Marvel” The final two lines of my favorite poem, “Yet Do I Marvel” by Countee Cullen, address a topic that has entertained much discussion in Black art and scholarship. In the poem,
The Black athlete, like the Black musician, politician, and the other varieties of stardom, has historically been victim to glaring double standards in their field. Serena Williams, for example, is criticized more severely than her white counterparts for openly disagreeing with line judges. White tennis players like Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova receive veritable slaps
If your social media feeds are anything like mine, you can’t get very far in them without catching wind of the latest celebrity being “cancelled” or seeing someone propose who the next one to cancel should be. Twitter hashtags and the influence of widespread movements for accountability, namely #MeToo and the current cries for accountability
The call for resistance in the United States has been heard and answered. Five days after writing an article about the disproportionate death of Black Americans historically and presently, I witnessed the now-infamous video of George Floyd\’s murder and the American public\’s response to it. To quote Dr. Cornel West, what we have now is
If there is anyone thing that everyone in our increasingly divided world can agree on, it is that 2020 has been a bizarre year thus far. It has seen the ramping up and full force of the coronavirus pandemic, a new American epoch of antiracist activism, protests and riots, a slew of American lynchings, the
\”It would be fatal,\” said Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his most famous speech, \”for the nation to overlook the urgency of this moment.\” Dr. King, of course, was referring to the strides being made in the civil rights movement and the importance of recognizing how crucial that moment would be for the future
