Reflection

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Why The Edmund Pettus Bridge Must Be Renamed

2016-11-29T17:39:10-05:00

The Edmund Pettus Bridge is a symbol of freedom all over the world. It is also a symbol of voting rights and democracy. However, the very name stands for the exact opposite. Symbols are powerful. Symbols enter into our conscious and subconscious without our screening them. [...]

10 Uncomfortable Truths About Being Black in America

2016-11-29T17:39:10-05:00

I talk and write about race a lot. I can’t escape being Black, even if I want to. I have always been race conscious, known who I am, and where I stand in the world. However, everything changed for me during the Trayvon Martin [...]

Five Days in the Life: Single, Minimum-Wage Fast Food Working Mom in Chicago

2016-11-29T17:39:10-05:00

Name: Adriana Alvarez, 23 City: Cicero, Illinois Child: Manuel, three Job: I’ve worked at a McDonald’s franchise for almost five years. I do everything in my store: cashier; kitchen; runner; drive-through. Wherever I’m needed, I’m there. When I’m not at work, I’m with my son — and sometimes [...]

Choosing Queer: I Was Not Born This Way, And That’s Ok.

2016-11-29T17:39:10-05:00

I don’t remember the first time I found a boy attractive. I do know that in my earliest memories, when I was 4 or 5, this attraction felt natural and innate. I know, too, that there was a first time I found a girl [...]

I Don’t Act Like An ‘Angry Black Woman’ – But I’m Read That Way If I Broach Race

2016-11-29T17:39:10-05:00

“Why are you so angry?” my mother asked me during her recent visit to Brooklyn. It’s the first time my mother has ever asked me that question, and I know that she is lovingly unaware of its ramifications as a nocuous cliche, despite its power as [...]

Race, Love, Hate, and Me: A Distinctly American Story

2016-11-29T17:39:11-05:00

Over the past 72 hours I have been attacked with lies by the conservative media, lies that have been picked up by the traditional media and spread further. I have kept silent at the advice of friends and mentors, but I will do so no longer. [...]

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