Tag Archive for "black masculinity"

Lena Dunham’s Odell Beckham Jr Comments: Readings on Race and Sexual Violence

Okay, I know I’m late on this one, but unfortunately questions of racism, white femininity, and sexual violence remain relevant. Basically, a couple weeks ago the internet exploded over Lena Dunham’s comments (for which she later apologized) that Odell Beckham Jr hadn’t spoken to her at a fancy party because she didn’t fit traditional images of femininity.

Okay, I know I’m late on this one, but unfortunately questions of racism, white femininity, and sexual violence remain relevant. Basically, a couple weeks ago the internet exploded over Lena Dunham’s comments (for which she later apologized) ...

By Mychal Denzel Smith • 10 years ago

When black women die from street harassment

Who cries when black women die?

I’m not asking that as some type of rhetorical, poetic question, meant to move you toward ferocious finger snaps. I want to know. Who cries when black women die?

Further, who cries when black women are killed?

Mary Spears was killed. The man who killed her did so because she refused to give him her phone number. She told him “I have a man I can’t talk to you,” and yet he persisted. Rather than respect her wishes to be left alone, he shot her.

Who cries when black women die from street harassment?

Who cries when black women die?

I’m not asking that as some type of rhetorical, poetic question, meant to move you toward ferocious finger snaps. I want to know. Who cries when black women die?

Further, who cries ...

By Mychal Denzel Smith • 11 years ago

I love Outkast. I hate misogyny.

I love Outkast. Everyone should. I don’t trust people who don’t love Outkast. If you don’t love Outkast, stop reading this. You aren’t welcome here.

(I’m not really kidding!)

So I, like many others, was incredibly excited to find out that the duo of Andre 3000 and Big Boi would reunite this spring/summer, after not performing on stage together in 10 years, to play Coachella. I was highly disappointed that I’m too poor to be able to actually go to Coachella and see them, but modern technology is great in that huge events like this get livestreamed on the interwebs and then saved for posterity.

I watched. Not live, but the next day. I got excited. I danced ...

I love Outkast. Everyone should. I don’t trust people who don’t love Outkast. If you don’t love Outkast, stop reading this. You aren’t welcome here.

(I’m not really kidding!)

So I, like many others, ...

By Verónica Bayetti Flores • 11 years ago

Feministing Jamz: Dancing our way to the revolution with Gordon Voidwell

Since releasing his Voided Checks mixtape in 2009, Gordon Voidwell – born Will Johnson – has gotten some really positive attention and approximately one million comparisons to Prince. His latest mixtape, Bad Études, has continued to elicit these comparisons, but Voidwell himself would rather describe it as a postmodernist deconstruction of late ’80s R&B and 98.7 KissFM’s midnight mixes, “for the most part.” Call it whatever you will – this mixtape is full of incredibly catchy tunes that I danced to while making giant pots of soup to warm my freezing ass through all of February.

Though you might start listening to Gordon Voidwell because of his infectious jams, you’ll notice pretty quickly just ...

Since releasing his Voided Checks mixtape in 2009, Gordon Voidwell – born Will Johnson – has gotten some really positive attention and approximately one million comparisons to Prince. His latest mixtape, Bad Études, has ...

By Mychal Denzel Smith • 11 years ago

It’s time for black men to stop building culture around the destruction of black women

Yesterday, I watched my friends Marc Lamont Hill and Brittney Cooper do this HuffPost Live segment entitled “Do ‘Hood Sites’ Normalize Black Stereotypes?” The conversation was mostly about the infamous WorldStarHipHop.com and their penchant for posting videos of black youth engaged in violence toward one another. These videos generate thousands upon thousands of hits, are circulated widely, and become entertainment for many. The discussion was about whether or not the distribution and popularity of these videos help to perpetuate stereotypes that are heaped onto blackness.

On that particular question, I think there’s a “yes, but…” These videos don’t help combat the stereotypes, but they would exist even without WorldStar. Getting rid of the video hosting site would not end the violence ...

Yesterday, I watched my friends Marc Lamont Hill and Brittney Cooper do this HuffPost Live segment entitled “Do ‘Hood Sites’ Normalize Black Stereotypes?” The conversation was mostly about the infamous WorldStarHipHop.com and their penchant for posting videos ...