With May saluting health, women, and mothers around the world, I wanted to interview my mom, as it’s been a bit of a difficult month for our family. As an educator and the head of her household, she’s carried the heavy weight of maintaining her responsibilities and independence for much of her life. If her […]
What’s Happening Steven Eugene Washington, a Black man with autism, was only twenty-seven years old when a Los Angeles Police Department officer gunned him down in the streets of Koreatown. According to the resulting police report, the unarmed Washington was initially approached by two officers in a police vehicle in response to a loud noise
The “system” spoken of in the term “systemic oppression” is a devilishly intricate piece of machinery. In the American sense, it was forged from several centuries’ worth of enslaving, lynching, miseducating, litigating, suppressing, redistricting, policing, and a litany of further -ings that I haven’t the time nor the energy to list. It is the time-tested
America’s unappreciated hero is the Black woman. Often celebrated for being the first willing to protect, care, and give, the mental wellness of Black women is frequently corrupted by a false sense of autonomy – that everything maneuvered must be done so alone. Calling attention to how far we need to continue progressing doesn’t take
Analyzing Insecurities that Plague Black Girls Looking into the mirror is getting easier. Though I can’t say I don’t still nitpick, it used to be worse for me. From the time I became able to distinguish the difference between the childlike innocence of spotting what made me different from other kids, and the desire to
In a 1968 episode of The Dick Cavett Show, author James Baldwin unleashed a strikingly eloquent monologue that is still celebrated today as one of his most powerful. He was responding to a claim by another guest on the show, Yale philosophy professor Paul Weiss, that some of Baldwin’s earlier comments in the episode exaggerated
Shots fired…bullets flying…innocent people caught in the crossfire dying! Is this a hook from a hip-hop song? No, it’s reality. Individuals – male and female, from babies to the elderly – are injured or killed because of gun violence that continues to increase around cities. It’s a story that feels like it’s on repeat and has become
If you read my last post entitled “The Migrant Vine Reaches Martha’s Vineyard!” you’d know that I hinted that the dropping off of migrants in Massachusetts was nothing new, but a repeat of history. “How so?” you might ask. This roundtrip post ride will make station stops through the present time, the past, and back
Unknown to the world and any fan of Washington Basketball, the franchise player for over a decade, former Wizard John Wall revealed that he had thoughts of taking his own life. Personally, this news was shell shocking to me as a lifelong Wizards fan to this day. Wall is my favorite player. I almost lost
After doing extensive research on the key issues that face Ward 1, I found that the list extends much further than the average metropolitan could even imagine, and even further than the most educated government official’s knowledge base. I also realized that the specificity within each issue is crucial to explore because of all the
