I cannot even begin to express how hurt I am as an African American in this country. I cannot express how hurt I am for the families of Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and anyone else who has lost a child at the hands of [...]
Over-Policed & Under-Served: How The Phrase “F*ck The Police” Was Born
Tiffanie Drayton2016-11-29T17:39:19-05:00“ You fucking stupid bitch,” a man screamed followed by the slam of a car door. Feet thumped and the passenger door swung open. The incoherent pleas of a woman could be heard. Then the loud sound of skin making contact with skin reverberated through [...]
My Vassar College Faculty ID Makes Everything OK
Kiese Laymon2016-11-29T17:39:19-05:00The fourth time a Poughkeepsie police officer told me that my Vassar College Faculty ID could make everything OK was three years ago. I was driving down Wilbur Avenue. When the white police officer, whose head was way too small for his neck, asked if [...]
The Pain of the Watermelon Joke
empathy2016-11-29T17:39:19-05:00As a child in South Carolina, I spent summers like so many children — sitting on my grandparents’ back porch with my siblings, spitting watermelon seeds into the garden or, even worse, swallowing them and trembling as my older brother and sister spoke of the [...]
Open Letter to White Poets from Danez Smith
Danez Smith2016-11-29T17:39:19-05:00WE MUST BE THE NEW GUARDS: OPEN LETTER TO WHITE POETS "But when a long train of abuses and usurpation, pursing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw [...]
My Redneck Past: A Brief Memoir of Two’s
Paul L Thomas EdD2016-11-29T17:39:19-05:00By Paul L. Thomas, Ed.D. | Originally Published at The Becoming Radical. November 13, 2014 | Photograph; Old Store Building Near Enoree, South-Carolina, by Author copyright bearden82 If you’re afraid they might discover your redneck past There are a hundred ways to cover your redneck past [...]
“He Has Aspergers” and Everything Else I Never Wanted To Hear About My Son
empathy2016-11-29T17:39:20-05:00Do you hear that? Come closer. That’s the sound of my heart breaking. My son has always loved the ocean. His eyes are the color of the sea, changing from blue to green with the swell of the tide. And my love for him is [...]
On Depression: To Anyone Else Living in a Fog
Alexander Hardy2016-11-29T17:39:20-05:00In December, while being drinky poolside with two friends under the blanket of a sticky Panama City night, I watched Twitter collectively orgasm after Beyoncé dropped. The next morning, I steered a young lady named Kitty Pryde back onto the right path, into the light. [...]
Another Mississippi Murder
empathy2016-11-29T17:39:20-05:00(For Mike Brown, Lennon Lacy, Eric Garner, Renisha McBride, and so on, and so on ...) they kilt that boy lynched him just as sho' as my name is what it is they did it cause that's what they do in kokomo Mississippi [...]