By Sydney Matthews February 1st marks the beginning of Black History Month — 28 days dedicated to celebrating Black individuality and achievement. Not only does February celebrate Black excellence, it promotes a complex dialogue about race in America. A dialogue that acknowledges struggle, survival, and success. Ivanka Trump does not share these sentiments. On February 1st, the fashion designer tweeted, …
Jordan Peele’s 2017 social thriller, “Get Out,” received four Academy Award Nominations including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. Following the Oscar reveal, Peele expressed his gratitude via Twitter. “Right now I’m just thinking about everyone who bought a ticket and told someone else to. You did this. Thank you,” wrote Peele. Peele’s directorial debut, Get Out, is a testament …
For many, the march instilled feelings of hope and progress. But for others, the march preserved the same divisiveness it sought to dismantle.
Multi-national clothing company, H&M has faced immense criticism and backlash for a racially insensitive online advertisement which features a Black child wearing a green ‘Coolest Monkey in the Jungle’ hoodie. H&M’s marketing mishap is particularly disturbing considering the long and horrific history of the racial slur. Since the 1800s, white individuals have augmented racial hierarchies by comparing Black individuals to …
Recy Taylor, daughter of Alabama sharecroppers, passed away ten days before her 98th birthday in her Abbeville nursing home. Taylor had become a prominent civil and women’s rights activist after surviving a traumatic rape during the Jim Crow era. In 1944, 24-year old Recy Taylor was brutally raped by six white men while walking home from church in Alabama. With …
Erica Garner, 27, passed away on December 30th following a medically induced coma. Garner, mother and activist, had become a prominent figure in the Black Lives Matter Movement after her father, Eric Garner, was killed by New York Police Officers, Daniel Pantaleo and Justin Damico. Eric Garner’s 2014 death incited numerous protests after a witness uploaded footage of Pantaleo and …
Photo by Thomas Hawk via Flickr Following Adele’s album of the year Grammy victory, criticisms about race in the music industry have dominated post-Grammy conversations. Critics asserted Beyonce’s Lemonade “dominated critical discussion in 2016” and her grammy-loss reflected racial bias and lack of diversity in the Recording Academy. Adele called attention to Lemonade’s significance and apparent “snub” during her acceptance …
Photo by Francisco Schmidt via Flickr I recently saw Hidden Figures at the Westwood Village theater and it was inspiring, to say the least. The phenomenal (and I do mean phenomenal) movie is about three Black women who worked at the Langley Research Center as scientists and mathematicians who helped launch NASA’s first successful space missions in 1962. It starred my …