Tag Archive for "African Americans"

Posts Tagged African Americans

It’s Juneteenth 2013. More Black people are in prison than were slaves and Paula Deen wants to bring slavery back

Today is June 19, or Juneteenth. While the Emancipation Proclamation was signed on January 1, 1863, slaves in Texas didn’t find out slavery was over until June 19, 1865, hence commemorating this date as the end of legal slavery in the US.

As Phillipe Copeland points out, the prison system was quickly positioned to take the place of slavery through the 13th amendment:

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” (emphasis mine)

If the architects of the 13th Amendment really wanted to abolish slavery, why make an exception for criminal convictions? Given that slavery at that time ...

By Lori Adelman • 11 years ago

Today is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day: 5 Things You Can Do

Today is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. I could (and will, sigh, later in the post) cite some scary and infuriating statistics about the presence of HIV/AIDS in the black community. It’s true that HIV/AIDS disproportionately affects people of color, not only in the U.S. but around the world. And there are a number of reasons for that, not the least of which are the pervasive, systemic racism, classism, and sexism baked into our institutions including healthcare. But when I think of the pain in my community around this topic the first thing that comes to mind is the work of the brilliant Lani Buinier and Gerald Torres:

“Race, for us, is like the miner’s canary. Miners often carried a canary ...

By Anna • 12 years ago

The Feministing Five: Regina Taylor

Regina Taylor is a Golden Globe-winning actress and playwright, gracing film, television and theater. Originally from Dallas, Texas, Taylor started writing at the young age of five. She continued writing throughout college until she took an acting class and got bit by the actor’s bug.

Most television audiences may recognize Taylor from her role as Lilly Harper in I’ll Fly Away, for which she won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series, among numerous other awards including two Emmy nominations. Taylor’s most recent work on television was in the CBS hit drama The Unit. Taylor has been a trailblazer throughout her career, cast as the first black woman to play Juliet in William Shakespeare’s ...

By zerlina • 12 years ago

Just how bad is the movie Red Tails?

Red Tails is a new movie about the Tuskegee airmen that the legendary George Lucas financed himself after years of the movie being rejected for Hollywood financing. It was #2 at the box office this weekend. This second place finish was largely based on black people flocking to the theater – myself included.

Jozen Cummings over at The Root put it best, when he said that Lucas played the race card to get people to the box office,

Media outlets like Entertainment Weekly are already spinning how George Lucas’ $58 million passion project, based on the true story of the African-American World War II fighter pilots known as the Tuskegee Airmen, did far better than anyone thought it would.

But don’t ...

By Lori Adelman • 13 years ago

America Is So Post-Racial, We Don’t Even Need Black People in Our Senate

Florida Senate candidate Kendrick Meek, who lost in yesterday’s election.

By now, many of you have heard the bad news that yesterday’s elections didn’t go so well for Democrats. Though they were able to hold onto control of the Senate, Republicans took the House and expanded their presence in the Senate.

While zillions of news outlets will be offering their analysis of the election results, I wanted to raise awareness around the rather unbelievable fact that the next United States Senate will not have ONE African-American in its ranks.

Florida Senate candidate Kendrick Meek, who lost in yesterday’s election.

By now, many of you have heard the bad news that yesterday’s elections didn’t go so well for Democrats. Though they were able to ...

By Rose • 13 years ago

Saddi Khali asks us to embrace the beauty in our bodies

At first glance, I fell in love — with Saddi Khali’s photography. Last week, the former HBO Def Jam Poet friended me on Facebook and I was so taken by his portrait above, “Heaven, Home…” I decided to cast away LSAT tutorials today to do some clicking through. This portrait is in his Facebook album “Pieces of Peace” (may be NSFW) which was updated on Monday, and it is genius at captivating what he calls “culturally competent” images of Black folks.

He totally gets right what Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty did in portraying women of different sizes as beautifully naked as Erykah Badu in the “Window Seat” music video. I am also a sucka for his natural ...