Journals

Since opening up about my struggles, I have received more support and strength and prayers than I could have ever imagined, and I am incredibly thankful. I am blessed to have such a strong support system in my life. However, not everyone is as accepting [...]

That’s the question a lot of folks have been asking about the latest viral video of a sweaty hulking father who punished his son for walking out of class by lacing up a pair of boxing gloves and repeatedly punching him in the chest and [...]

I want my black American daughter to be president of the United States when she grows up – and to evade, at all costs, the question of whether a president of the United States of America can be morally just. I want her to wear [...]

Nobody called me a nigga to my face But behind backs and closed doors I am sure I have been called every kind of n-word Especially when I excelled in systems designed for me to fail nigga Or called out bigotry and privilege in classrooms [...]

This week’s events at the University of Missouri don’t surprise me one bit. As a graduate student in Mizzou’s journalism school with a Japanese and Jewish background, I know what it’s like to be a minority. There, I am regularly reminded that I am different. Without [...]

Food and housing insecurity do not disappear from people’s lives when they go to college. There is this damaging misconception that once you get to college – once you’re on an upwardly mobile, higher-education track – you magically have the same resources and opportunities as everyone [...]

By Tiffany Rose Smith | Originally Published at Rose With Words. October 27, 2015 dear (future) school official: my son will be absent because in our house we teach him to respect others, but also stand up for himself and those in need. we do not want [...]

I grew up in a house where 'I Love you' sounded a lot like broken glass and bodies crashing into one another way too hard. A house where Love was too loud and too angry for pillow talk. Love's beauty was invisible to the eye [...]

My father is listed as white on his birth certificate. His great-grandfather was the founder of America’s first black daily newspaper. But when I tell the story of my family, inextricably linked to the narrative of New Orleans and, in fact, to the country, I [...]