Welcome to the New Black Renaissance

Don’t drink the Kool-Aid. I don’t remember the first time I heard the phrase, or who said it to me, but instinctually knew its meaning due to context clues. Don’t blindly follow the masses. What was lost upon me was the connotation and the history behind the phrase itself. It wasn’t until the idiom was used about my mom’s religious denomination – Jehovah’s Witnesses – that I began to question what was wrong with said Kool-Aid. “A cult committed suicide by drinking poisonous Kool-Aid,” a friend explained, “Why a group of people would do that, is beyond me.” But it wasn’t just a group killing, it was a massacre. In fact, up until the attacks on September 11, 2001, the mass suicide at Jonestown represented the largest number of American civilian casualties in a single non-natural event – an estimated 900 people willingly drank poison and took their own lives. The word cult has always been thrown around when discussing the tragedy. It implies that the people involved were ...

White people calling the police on innocent people of color has become the new trend. Well, not exactly the new trend. It’s been happening for years but, with the power of the internet, it’s the new wave of viral videos blatantly highlighting yet another injustice that we face daily. But there must be a REASON for White people to feel such unease in all these situations, right? With the police brutality rate against people of color being so high, white people wouldn’t be risking Black people’s lives for folly, right? PHILADELPHIA STARBUCKS Two Black men arrive early for a business meeting at Starbucks. One man asks the manager for the key to the restroom and was informed that the restrooms were for paying customers only. Without any complaint or disorder, he returned to his seat where his companion was awaiting the arrival of another friend to begin the meeting. The police show up TWO minutes later based on claims that the men were trespassing and refused to leave af...

Black fans of hip-hop, or more specifically, Kanye West mourned the loss of a hero last week. We all know that Kanye has an eccentric view of the world to share and refuses to be silenced. But when he appeared on TMZ Live and referred to 400 years of slavery as a choice, many fans and colleagues of his own jumped ship. Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Rihanna, and many others have unfollowed him on Twitter. And although Chance the Rapper and John Legend have both pledged to continue their friendship, they have also spoken out on how they vehemently disagree with Kanye’s “politics” and his “relationship” with POTUS Trump. “My response is racism isn't the deal-breaker for me. If that was the case, I wouldn't live in America." The same man who went on television during the Hurricane Katrina telethon in 2005 and declared that George Bush didn’t care about Black people now supports right wing pundit Candace Owens and refers to Donald Trump as “his boy.” What coul...