There is an amazingly sad example of a program aired on the IMDB network called “Diary of a Tired Black Man.” Part fiction, part documentary (street interviews with people), full insanity, this effort illustrated in clear terms Kwame Ture’s statement that any analysis that doesn’t include our enemies is a worthless analysis. What he meant by that is any oppressed people who attempt to explain the conditions of their people who leave out the system causing their oppression will always come up with a confused conclusion. We wish to add our own attempt at a logical statement to Kwame’s spot . . .
mental health
To Save Black Mental Health, Destroy Racial Capitalism
“Amerika trips me and proceeds to ask me how I fell; whips me, then asks me how to stop the bleeding.” There is no conversation about the state of mental health in Amerika’s Black communities without discussing the violence wrought on them by racial capitalism—a term coined by Cedric Robinson. Robinson, a pioneer in the study of the Black Radical Tradition, argued that the “development, organization and expansion of capitalist society pursued essentially racial directions.”1 It is this pursuit that has helped shape many of today’s societal ills, including poor rates of Black mental health. Historical oppression, including slavery, sharecropping, . . .
Let Go of the Idea of the ‘Strong Black Woman’
I have seen too many of us who wanted to be a “strong Black woman” so badly that we denied ourselves the pleasure of emotional acknowledgment, refusing to accept we needed help in the name of such “strength.” This fallacy of strength attached to Blackness diminishes our well-being and hurts us more than it empowers us. . . .
Motherhood in Movement Spaces: The Material Reality of the Front Lines.
Most recently, an article published on Moyers For Democracy entitled Resistance For Real: The Moment Has Come by Jim Sleeper. In the piece, Sleeper says, “Portland’s #WallofMoms and its emulators have stood up. They’ve set an example that we’ll need to follow, not merely by “liking,” tweeting, and signing petitions or otherwise scribbling our thoughts and sentiments online, as I’m doing right now, but by engaging personally, at some risk to our bodies, in strategically coordinated civil disobedience.” There has been a lot of discussions around the actions in Portland, Oregan brought on by President Trump’s and Attorney General William . . .