Welcome to the New Black Renaissance

Living in the southern states of America was difficult for Black Americans. Not only were we vulnerable to the burden of daily racism –  in the form of public lynching, violence, and the caste system known as Jim Crow – but the impact of the eugenics movement shifted the violence into medical legality on those placed in mental institutions. Between 1907 and 1940, more than 18,000 sterilizations of individuals deemed as "defective" took place in mental institutions, particularly in southern states. That was the norm for mental hospitals at the time, but nothing is more heart-wrenching than the story of Junis Wilson and his time at Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro, NC. Junis Wilson had been a resident of Cherry Hospital from the tender age of 17. He was accused of rape in 1925 and because he only communicated in grunts and strange hand gestures, he was deemed insane by a judge and locked up at the Asylum for the Colored Insane. For decades, no one tried to understand him or le...

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...

Beyoncé’s return performance just happened to be the headlining set that she had to skip out on last year due to her pregnancy with her twins, Rumi and Sir. The world anticipated what she would do, but we KNEW that we wouldn't be disappointed. Beyoncé came and sat back down on her throne with a performance that broke all types of records and earned accolades galore. And while we ALL thoroughly enjoyed Beychella, I feel as though Black people enjoyed it much, MUCH more. “Coachella, thank y’all for letting me be the first Black woman to headline Coachella. Ain’t that bout a bitch!” The first Black woman to headline Coachella. That’s a crazy concept to me. The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival inaugural weekend was back in 1999. While there may not have been scores of Black women who could be deemed headliners in the past 19 years, I know Janet Jackson should have had the honor at least once. Beyoncé took this platform and this lifetime chance and let loose on one of ...

I take pleasure in being, what I like to call, a Cultural Consultant for the African American race. I believe that my values are deeply rooted in notions that are mainly objective so I can understand when my melanin-less friends ask me about certain topics dealing with race – I live in a judgment-free zone and I’m fair, sometimes to a fault. The topic of my latest conversation was cultural appropriation. My friend Wendy is a cosmetology student, so she’s learning about all hair types and the differences in hair routines. We bond over our knowledge of natural hair.  She was confused about whether fashion head-scarfs were an accessory that only Black people should wear. My answer was a skeptical no. But I needed more info on the situation. One of her fellow colleagues of Hispanic descent wore a fashion head-wrap over her hair one day and was met with contempt from a Caucasian woman. “Why are you wearing that?” she was asked. And after she tried to explain the concept of a protec...

“They were hard-edged, soft-centered, brutally demanding, and easily pleases, these women of Brewster place. They came, they went, grew up and grew old beyond their years. Like an ebony phoenix, each in her own time and with her own season had a story.” I’d rather be reading The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor than going grocery shopping. The Women of Brewster Place weaves the tale of seven women and the circumstances that led them to the community dubbed Brewster Place. Brewster Place was a housing development that was destined to be an unfortunate place since the people linked to its creation are all corrupt. Despite the secrecy surrounding its development, Brewster Place is the end destination for these women. Mattie Michael, Etta Mae Johnson, Lucielia “Ciel” Turner, Melanie “Kiswana” Browne, Cora Lee, Lorraine, and Theresa’s lives are explored in short stories that chronicle the ups and downs many women of color face. The life history of Brewster Place comes to re...