I don’t believe bitch is the new Black, anymore than I believe that 30 is the new 20. As our most recent racial shenanigans have reminded us, Black is still its same ol’ Black self. And anybody who engages in the same shamtastic behaviors at 30 as she did at 20 is just plain trifling. […]
Climbing PoeTree, on a Long, Summer’s Day
Some days are so long. Some days being an activist takes all the energy you have, and some that you don’t. Some days you get up in the morning and think about the moment, 12, 14 or 16 hours later, when you will get to be still again. But sometimes, on those long days, there’s […]
A Broken hearted feminist
Okay, so now that I have shared with you the trials and tribulations of coming out to my mother, the difficulty of working in an often homophobic academic environment and revealed my most un-feminist moments, I feel like we’re friends now. I mean, you sure do know a lot about me. Some things you may […]
Listen Harder. Look Longer.
“every 3 minutes a woman is beaten/every five minutes a woman is raped/every ten minutes a little girl is molested” –ntozake shange (with no immediate cause) Ntozake shange’s poem, with no immediate cause, begins with statistics that push us into awareness about the perpetual nature of violence against women in our communities. And while I […]
Shirley Sherrod’s Victory: A Teachable Moment on Talking Race
Family, here’s the follow-up to Wednesday’s piece Shirley Sherrod’s War. Shirley Sherrod should retire from the USDA, get her book deal, and tell her story. I certainly would not want to work for a group of people that were so quick to hang me out to dry. But seriously, Ms. Sherrod should pick the options […]
Who the hell you calling fat? … I hope it was me!
What y’all know ‘bout big girls in sassy outfits, swinging hips from left to right and daring anybody to say a damn thing about it? If ya don’t know and you want to, this post is for you. Let me introduce to the world of fatshionistas. Fatshionistas are reclaiming their right to enjoy their bodies […]
Shirley Sherrod’s War: When Keepin It Racially Real Goes Wrong
It’s ironic how much time the daughters of Rosa Parks spend under the bus these days. The administration’s willingness not to take a stand on behalf of Shirley Sherrod’s is the latest evidence that when it comes to race we are long on cowardice and short on integrity. This week, Sherrod, an employee at the […]
How it feels to be…
Last week, I spent some time with thirty black high school students from rural Alabama as a part of a summer enrichment program. After leading a session discussing Zora Neale Hurston’s “How if Feels to be Colored Me,” I had the students break into small groups to talk about how it feels to them in […]
Dating While Feminist, Part II: Last Words
My dating experiences, which I chronicled in a prior post, have a sparked a range of conversations that for both better and worse, I did not anticipate. In light of several misreadings of my post, both in comments on the CFC blog and in this recent response by Sai Grundy, I want to make a […]
Won’t You Celebrate With Me?
Trigger Alert: The following is a meditation on childhood abuse. A few months ago, the family of Oscar-winning actress Mo’Nique went on Oprah to discuss an issue that has torn them apart. After years of denials, Gerald Imes, Mo’Nique’s older brother, admitted to molesting his sister for several years. Though I suppose I shouldn’t be […]