Culture
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What the Fashion World’s Minstrel Shows Mean for Real African Designers
By Tanwi Nandini Islam Every Halloween season, a new crop of blackface horror stories appears in the news. Word of Saturday night’s annual Hallowood “Disco...
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Dig Deep: Beyond Lean In
By bell hooks Editors’ Note: Though some of the fanfare surrounding Sheryl Sandberg (of Facebook and Lean In fame) has died down, Sandberg is back...
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COLLEGE FEMINISMS: Dismissed Feminist Revision or: How I Learned to Stop Trolling and Love Lady Gaga’s “Applause”
By Andrew Emitt Recently, I was banned from the Popjustice forum after posting my opinion of Lady Gaga’s newest single “Applause” in the “Lady Gaga ‘Artpop’”...
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Pageantry: There is Another Story
By Takiyah Amin Sometimes a piece writes itself. In the last few weeks feelings have swirled in my body as I have read and listened to others...
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Talkback: In Defense of Rihanna
By Muna Mire The hugely delayed video for Rihanna’s single ‘Pour It Up’ has received undue amounts of negative attention since it dropped a couple...
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Miss America is Indian-American: Yay, I think. Or not.
By Archana A. Pathak Two weeks ago, an Indian-American woman won Miss America, and the ensuing days elicited varying commentaries on this “historic moment.” It...
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“Calling All Stars”: Janelle Monae’s Black Feminist Futures
By Emily J. Lordi I will let others explain why The Electric Lady, released earlier this month, is Janelle Monae’s most beautiful, expertly pop and...
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What Ralph Ellison Can Teach Us about Trayvon Martin
By Dennis Tyler Jr. In light of the recent decision by the school board of education in Randolph County, North Carolina, to ban Ralph Ellison’s...
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The Cape May Cross Culture Ferry
By Angela Dicks On July 6th, I traveled with my new wife, Kelly, from Washington D.C. to Cape May, N.J., for a short honeymoon. It...
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Feminist Cage Fight
By Darlena Cunha Welcome to the UFC’s (Unified Feminists Championship) main event tonight, folks. Refereeing this good match is the esteemed bell hooks, known for...
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COLLEGE FEMINISMS: Blonde Success: Fact or Myth?
By Ravon Ruffin and James “JP” Miller Do gentlemen really prefer blondes or has a history of fetishization of “the blonde” by media made it more...
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Fallen Angels & Failures to Love: Gendered Violence in Songs About Bad Girls
By Annita Lucchesi Every year a few songs like this come out (semi-recent examples include Lil Wayne’s “How to Love,” J.Cole’s “Daddy’s Little Girl,” and...
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Miley’s Big Foam Finger Is Pointing At You: Stereotypes Plus Objectification Equals $$$
By Hope Wabuke I swore I wasn’t going to write about Miley Cyrus. Enough people have already done it. Enough good ink has been spilled...
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Finding Her Mother’s Gardens: A Review of Pratibha Parmar’s “Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth”
Black women have tended to incredible, secluded gardens within the expansive wasteland of this dysfunctional democracy.–Joy James, from “Resting in the Gardens, Battling in the...
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Lee Daniels’ Double Consciousness
By Frank Roberts In a formative scene that occurs about midway through Lee Daniels’ The Butler, audiences are presented with imagery from two widely divergent events...
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Op-Ed: Black Elders Need to Stop Demonizing Black Youth
By Aaron Talley Sometimes, I shudder to think that many of the Black elders fighting against Trayvon Martin’s death might have actually held the same...
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Hip-Hop as Performance Art: Jay Z, Appropriation, and Critiques of Whiteness
By Janell Hobson At first, I wasn’t sure what to make of Jay Z’s performance of “Picasso Baby,” featured on his new album Magna Carter...
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Fruitvale Station: Some Reactions
OMAR RICKS I feel helpless after watching Fruitvale Station (2013, dir. Ryan Coogler). I feel like this hits too close to home. Literally. The nursery...
