Posts Tagged black men

ishmael_reed
By Mychal Denzel Smith • 10 years ago

Ishmael Reed is still mad about The Color Purple (and other observations)

Ishmael Reed thinks I said Ray Rice represents all black men.

I was on Melissa Harris-Perry’s show this past Sunday, and we discussed how Rice’s indefinite suspension from the NFL had been lifted, along with Janay Rice telling her story as the woman whom Ray Rice punched and then dragged from an elevator.

Ishmael Reed thinks I said Ray Rice represents all black men.

I was on Melissa Harris-Perry’s show this past Sunday, and we discussed how Rice’s indefinite suspension from the NFL had been lifted, along with ...

franklin1
By Maya Dusenbery • 10 years ago

Photos: Black dads and their kids

As part of their “Life Cycles of Inequity” series on Black men, Colorlines highlights this photo series by Marcus Franklin that captures Black men sharing ordinary moments with their children. Check out the rest of the photos in The Fatherhood Project here. And also read Feministing favorite Stacia L. Brown’s profile of four unmarried working-class Black dads in Baltimore City.

As part of their “Life Cycles of Inequity” series on Black men, Colorlines highlights this photo series by Marcus Franklin that captures Black men sharing ordinary moments with their children. Check out the rest of the photos in 
By Maya Dusenbery • 10 years ago

“I question a society that values property over black life.”

As the community comes out of another night of anguished protests sparked by the death of Michael Brown, met with tear gas and rubber bullets by the police, Brittney Cooper defends Black rage in Ferguson — and beyond.

It seems far easier to focus on the few looters who have reacted unproductively to this tragedy than to focus on the killing of Michael Brown. Perhaps looting seems like a thing we can control. I refuse. I refuse to condemn the folks engaged in these acts, because I respect black rage. I respect black people’s right to cry out, shout and be mad as hell that another one of our kids is dead at the hands of ...

As the community comes out of another night of anguished protests sparked by the death of Michael Brown, met with tear gas and rubber bullets by the police, Brittney Cooper defends Black ...
By Maya Dusenbery • 10 years ago

“Ferguson Police just executed my unarmed son.”

Stacia L. Brown has a powerful piece on the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was killed by a police officer in a St. Louis suburb while walking unarmed down the street on Saturday afternoon. 

Stacia L. Brown has a powerful piece on the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was killed by a police officer in a St. Louis suburb while walking unarmed down the street on Saturday afternoon. 
By Maya Dusenbery • 10 years ago

Quick Hit: On the murder of Jordan Davis and knowing Black boys

In 2012, a white man named Michael Dunn fired ten shots into a car of unarmed Black teenagers outside a convenience store in Jacksonville, Florida because they were playing loud “thug music,” and killed 17-year-old Jordan Davis. This weekend, on the eve of what would have been Davis’s 19th birthday, Dunn was convicted of attempted murder of the other teens, but the jury failed to reach a decision on the murder charge and the judge declared a mistrial.

You should watch our own Mychal Denzel Smith talk about the burden of living in a young Black male body on the MHP Show. Read Ta-nehisi Coates on how “the irrelevance of black life has been drilled into this country since its infancy” and

In 2012, a white man named Michael Dunn fired ten shots into a car of unarmed Black teenagers outside a convenience store in Jacksonville, Florida because they were playing loud “thug music,” and killed 17-year-old Jordan Davis. This weekend, on ...
By Katie Halper • 11 years ago

Quick Hit: Race, respectability, and the murder of Jonathan Ferrell

Our own Mychal Denzel Smith has an excellent and, at some points, heartbreaking, piece on the murder of Jonathan Ferrell, the unarmed 24 year-old shot by police on Saturday for, essentially, looking for help while being black.

Mychal explains,

Ferrell had been a car crash and then ran to the nearest house to find help. The woman inside answered the door, believing it to be her husband on the other side. When she realized it wasn’t, she immediately closed the door, hit her panic alarm and callled 911. She reported a man attempting to break into her home. When the police arrived, Ferrell approached them, presumably still trying to get help, ...

Our own Mychal Denzel Smith has an excellent and, at some points, heartbreaking, piece on the murder of Jonathan Ferrell, the unarmed 24 year-old shot ...
By Mychal Denzel Smith • 11 years ago

#Solidarityisforwhitewomen, #Blackpowerisforblackmen, but many are still brave

Like many others, I watched with intense interest as Twitter was virtually taken over the other day by the hashtag #Solidarityisforwhitewomen, started by blogger Mikki Kendall in response to the Hugo Schwyzer debacle and what she describes as “dismissing women of color (WOC) in favor of a brand of solidarity that centers on the safety and comfort of white women” in a piece for the Guardian. I had only been vaguely aware of Schwyzer and his abusive behavior before his recent meltdown, but the issues brought up by #Solidarityisforwhitewomen are longstanding critiques of white feminists, many of whom responded to the hashtag and its participants with the type of defensiveness that further silences the WOC who felt it ...

Like many others, I watched with intense interest as Twitter was virtually taken over the other day by the hashtag #Solidarityisforwhitewomen, started by blogger Mikki Kendall in response to the Hugo Schwyzer debacle and what ...
By Vanessa • 12 years ago

On Trayvon Martin, smear campaigns, and black men as menaces to society

Think Progress has a comprehensive and startling roundup of the events that have transpired over the course of the last two days where conservative media and others have attempted to paint the deceased teenager as a drug-dealing thug. Between fake photos, The Daily Caller publicizing Trayvon’s tweets, Geraldo saying he was “dressed like a wannabe gangster,” and hoopla over a fucking empty bag of marijuana, the behavior of the right wing media has been beyond shameful.

I agree with Lindsay that the worst offense is to think that authorities may have intentionally leaked information to change the media narrative around the case, but at its core, this smear campaign makes ...

Think Progress has a comprehensive and startling roundup of the events that have transpired over the course of the last two days where conservative media and others have attempted to paint the deceased teenager ...