Racism’s Shadow: A Conversation with Maurice Carlos Ruffin
Maurice Carlos Ruffin discusses his debut novel, WE CAST A SHADOW.
...more
Posts Tagged: Trayvon Martin
An Arduous Reality: Testify by Simone John
Simone John’s first full-length collection of poems, Testify, is a remarkable exercise in documentary poetics.
...more
Where You Put It on the Line: A Conversation with Mychal Denzel Smith
Mychal Denzel Smith discusses his debut nonfiction book Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching, how the activist space has changed in recent years, and who he is writing for.
...more
VISIBLE: Women Writers of Color: Angie Thomas
Angie Thomas discusses her debut novel, The Hate U Give, landing an agent on Twitter, and why she trusts teenagers more than the publishing industry.
...more
The Friends of Dorothy Have Something to Say to Kansas
As we move backward in time, we must beware of yellow brick fallacies. Also: poppy fields, flying monkeys, and entrepreneurial wizards.
...moreNotable Chicago: 2/17–2/23
Friday 2/17: Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, Trayvon Martin’s parents, will discuss Rest in Power: The Enduring Life of Trayvon Martin at the DuSable Museum of African American History. Tickets are $15–20 and are available here. Saturday 2/18: Head to Township for Wit Rabbit Weekend #11! Readers include Matthew Corey, Molly Dumbleton, Diddle Knabb, and […]
...more
Binary States of America: A Letter to Obama
In the end, although I wanted you to be more like Charles Bronson or Malcolm or Luke Cage, I am very proud to have witnessed your historic presidency—the successes, and even the disappointments.
...more
The Rumpus Interview with Emily Raboteau
Emily Raboteau discusses her essay, “Know Your Rights!” from the collection, The Fire This Time, what she loves about motherhood, and why it’s time for White America to get uncomfortable.
...moreMore Reasons Why Beyoncé Is Great
If you make a visual album and get nominated for crazy amounts of awards, you should probably honor your performers. Beyoncé gets this (or her people do, which is close enough to the same thing), once again proving that she stands apart as an unbelievable performer and public figure. In case you didn’t catch the VMAs, Beyoncé made sure […]
...more
The Rumpus Interview with Ben H. Winters
Ben H. Winters discusses his new novel Underground Airlines about an America where the Civil War never took place, writing speculative fiction, and modern racism.
...more
Southern Girl: Beyoncé, Badu, and Southern Black Womanhood
None of the imagery of Lemonade is foreign to those of us who grew up in the South or who have Southern roots.
...more
The Recipe to Decolonized Love is in Beyoncé’s Lemonade
“There is a curse that will be broken,” she promises.
...more
The Conversation: Jeremy Clark and Thiahera Nurse
I’m thinking about the difference between “I stay somewhere” and “I live somewhere.”
...more
The Conversation: Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib and Paul Tran
The sitting down to write, convincing myself that my voice matters, even though there are so many telling me that it doesn’t.
...more
The Rumpus Interview with Matt Bell
Author Matt Bell talks video games, fiction, nonfiction, politics, empathy, and his new books, Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn and Scrapper.
...moreFerguson: A Rumpus Roundup
On Saturday, August 9, an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown, was shot and killed by a police officer. The boy was on his way home from a convenience store in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, where about two-thirds of the residents are black. With so few of the facts confirmed, many of the […]
...more“bell hooks’ Feminism Is My Feminism”
In the latest installment of an Autostraddle feature described as “a biweekly devotional to whoever the fuck I’m into,” Carmen Rios throws a little love party for bell hooks. Inspired by an eerily prescient hooks quote about “the white male home owner who made a mistake,” Rios ends her celebration of hooks’ legacy as a writer […]
...more“You’re Not Surprised, Are You?”
“Imagine a life in which you think of other people’s safety and comfort first, before your own. You’re programmed and taught that from the gate. It’s like the opposite of entitlement.” In light of George Zimmerman’s recent acquittal, drummer and producer Questlove reflects on “pie in the face” moments and what it means for him […]
...moreTa-Nehisi Coates’s Brilliant Take on the Zimmerman Verdict
Not to overload anyone on political coverage, but Ta-Nehisi Coates’s reaction to the George Zimmerman trial is an absolute must-read. In it, he looks at the actual legal text involved in the case and points out that what’s so deeply frightening about it isn’t that the verdict flouted the law; it’s that the law—and in many […]
...moreStaving-off-Despair Roundup
When there’s an injustice as great a man walking free after killing an unarmed teenager, at least we have writing to turn to. Our essays editor Roxane Gay has done some of that writing for Salon in a piece about the George Zimmerman trial titled “Racism is every American’s problem.”An essay or an Op-Ed won’t solve anything,” […]
...morePlaying By the Rules: White Privilege and Rachel Jeantel
Clue: Post-Racial Edition. It was the black kid in the hoodie, with his cell phone, and “hostile” girlfriend.
...moreTrayvon Martin Roundup
The Sanford City commission has rejected police chief Bill Lee’s resignation. George Zimmerman was released on $150,000 bail as he awaits trial for second-degree murder. Jelani Cobb on what it took to get Zimmerman arrested. “When law enforcement officers accept—without question—an admitted killer’s assertion that a homicide was justified because ‘he scared me,’ they license […]
...moreTrayvon Martin/George Zimmerman Roundup
The news broke earlier today that George Zimmerman will be charged for the killing of Trayvon Martin. The charge is second-degree murder. Something important to remember about this case: Trayvon Martin was killed 46 days ago. This only became a bit of a story less than a month ago. If not for the public outcry […]
...more“What It’s Like to be a Problem”
At The Nation, Melissa Harris-Perry breaks down the wider political context surrounding the Trayvon Martin killing, outlining the historical and contemporary reality in which it is “acceptable to presume the guilt” of black bodies. “Liberal democracy—based on commitment to individual liberty and dignity—does not exist if the government legislates against particular bodies in public spaces, […]
...moreA Place Where We Are Everything
Oftentimes when having difficult conversations about complex topics, certain kinds of people (the small-minded, feeble-minded, profoundly ignorant, etc.) will try to derail the conversation.
...moreTrayvon Martin
President Obama made a statement this morning. Updates from Ta-Nehisi Coates, who was on PBS Newshour last night. “Anyone who’s outside of straight white maleness, you have to deal with other people’s expectations and fear of who you are.” Our friend W. Kamau Bell on The War Room. Images from Wednesday night’s Million Hoodies March […]
...moreTrayvon Martin
A Million Hoodies March for Trayvon Martin is taking place in NYC right now. Live streaming video here. There’s a Bay Area Million Hoodies March that begins at the Bradley Manning Plaza at 5:30 PM and ends at UN Plaza. Today is the UN International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. At The Atlantic, […]
...moreTrayvon Martin
“How did a kid armed with Skittles and an iced tea get gunned down by an overeager neighborhood watch captain? And why didn’t police detain shooter George Zimmerman?” Mother Jones reports. Ta-Nehisi Coates has had ongoing coverage. “This investigation wasn’t one. It was a sham, an homage to the bad old days of Southern justice.” Evidence […]
...more