The summer of 2000 I went to my hairdresser and said, “I want you to cut all of this off,” pointing emphatically to my badly-damaged permed hair. She asked me if I was sure and I told her I was–and off went four or five inches of angst onto her linoleum floor. What was left […]
Category: Race
Battle of the What?: A Brief Reflection on the Battle of the Complexions Controversy
I am sick and tired of the cultural story line that insists only one version (complexion) of black women can be “in style” (beautiful, popular, desirable) at any given time. There seems to […]
Feminist Care Packages: Healing Love for Hard Times
“Thrown away where? The world is round.” – Luciente This month we’d hoped to talk about love and relationships but a lot of terrible things have been happening in the world. Whitney died. Too Short gave some terrible advice. So did Not So Very Smart brothas. and there’s a thread in these narratives about black women and girls bringing things […]
Don Cornelius, Indelible Soul
Don Cornelius, creator of the television show Soul Train, changed the media entertainment landscape forever. Yesterday, the Los Angeles County Coroner confirmed that Cornelius had died from a self-inflicted gun shot wound to the head. He was 75. Soul Train is one of the longest-running syndicated shows in television history. Created by Cornelius after he returned from Marine […]
The World Can Wait
Cis and trans* women of color do a lot of work that they don’t get paid for. Work at home, work at work, work in our communities, everywhere really. And a lot of it is done out of love. Love for our communities, love for our lovers, and things/people we believe in.There’s a saying, “do […]
Why I’m (Probably) Not Watching “The Game”
Last year I posted on the return of The Game (yes, it has been a year since it (re)debuted on BET) and offered a critique of the ways in which the characters morphed to fit BET programming, which compromised the integrity of the characters that fans had fought and petitioned for. After The Game came […]
Tonight! Join a conversation on the State of the Union!
CF Eesha here, y’all. Tonight is the President’s State of the Union address to Congress. If the election season so far is any indication, we know that amidst the politicians and the pundits there’s very little time for real talk. This is one of the most important elections in recent history : there is a […]
Culo, Coffee and Crime: More on Disrespectability Politics
From an Australian researcher claiming Beyoncé’s name and her celebrity bum with a horse fly, a pissed Wisconsin congressman attacking the national obesity campaign by deriding the First Lady’s derriere, to Diddy riding on somebody else’s butt for more fame in his new book called Culo, across the academic, political, and the popular, our booty […]
Some Reflections on the Limits of Sainthood
How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: […]
5 Reasons To See The Mountaintop
I went to New York City over winter break to see Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop on Broadway. I had been excited about seeing the play since it debuted in October. It stars Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett in a re-imagining of the night before Martin Luther King’s death. I found the play to be provocative […]