What do twerking and Hurricane Katrina have to do with each other? Absolutely everything. I know that y’all have been inundated with discussions of twerking since Miley’s unfortunate, insidious, and downright bad performance at the VMA’s earlier this week. There have been some really great pieces about all that is wrong with her performance here […]
(Why) Does It Matter?: Raven Symoné’s Quiet Coming Out
As a close-enough-to 80’s baby I knew Raven Symoné as adorable Olivia on The Cosby Show. She was like the new Rudy, a yellow skinned toddler beauty to share banter and cute humor with Cliff once his fictional offspring were too old to pull it off. By the time Symoné emerged the star of her […]
Moving Forward
Dear Readers, We have been moving through a season of transition here at the CFC. We are choosing to be transparent with you, our community of readers, about these transitions because we are accountable to you, not only for what we say publicly but for the integrity that undergirds our message. Some members have formally […]
On Leaving The CFC
In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. – Martin Luther King Jr. One of my main growing edges as a person is being a recovering people pleaser. Blame it on being an only child, a lonely extrovert without lots of peers to play with, […]
lovers rock: the crunk feminist summer mixtape series
I refuse to cede this summer to cruelty. I have rubbed the roof of my mouth raw with pomegranate hard candies. I have learned how to take rapid-fire selfies at flattering angles. Underwhelmed by artisanal popsicles, politics and my own work ethic, I have brooded. At my best I have ridden the 2 train through […]
Trayvoning and Distance: Whiteness and the Problem with Pronouns
He distinctly remembers, some decade or so ago – much younger, more rigid and sanctimonious then – saying, “we do not want them to think we accept their sin.” New Spirit of Penn, the University of Pennsylvania’s gospel choir – but what was really, in his mind at least, his choir in the way he […]
Loving Ourselves: The Case for Radical Empathy
It’s been a rough past few weeks, hasn’t it? Between the SCOTUS rulings, Zimmerman trial, another recent discovery of a serial killer who has targeted Black women, and the general tomfoolery of white supremacy experienced on a daily basis, it seems like we can’t catch a break. Certainly, it’s never easy to be a person […]
The Time Isn’t Right, But It Is Now: Processing Our Anger for Trayvon the Black Feminist Way
I am still angry that Trayvon Martin’s murderer is a free man. I know many of you are still reeling, too, and that you share my sense of despair and helplessness. Every time I see George Zimmerman’s defense team, Mark O’Mara and Don West, give another interview and brazenly suggest that it is Zimmerman who […]
Reproductive Injustice and the ‘War on Women’ or, An Ode to the Intersections
These days, it’s hard to read something in regards to feminist activism without hearing the phrase “war on women.” Despite important and sharp critiques regarding the limitations of the phrase, it continues to hold cache as a means to characterize the depth and fortitude of the conservative legislative attack on women’s reproductive rights. This attack, as […]
this is how we do it: the crunk feminist summer mixtape series
Josephine Baker famously fled the U.S. for the reprieve from racism post World War I France provided. She called France her home for the rest of her life but continued to perform stateside. She also protested. She addressed the masses at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and juxtaposed the measure of […]