Why Race Should Matter to Pro-Choice Activists
As I progress with subsequent drafts of my book, I’ve been meeting with another writer for accountability and feedback. In a recent session, we talked—in hushed tones in a coffee shop—about my book being full of themes and situations black women don’t talk about within their own families. They may discuss these topics with [...]
The Storyteller Makes the Difference
I haven’t seen the new film, “Lincoln,” yet (and with what may be a pinched nerve making it hard to sit for long periods of time, who knows when I will). Though I know the performances are stellar and writer Tony Kushner’s fame is arguably deserved, this review by Kate Masur in the New York Times [...]
Dress Me Up Like This
While it’s fun to be someone else for a day, this Halloween, I hope you’ll join me in thinking about some women whose traits I wouldn’t mind wearing as a permanent costume. Dress me up with … Rosa Parks’ Fearlessness and Dedication Cliché, right? But Rosa Parks had a life as an activist long before [...]
Deep South sexism and racism live on in Limbaugh
I’ve been reading At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape and Resistance—A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power. The book is about the Civil Rights Movement as a response to sexualized violence against African American women, and one of the go-to defenses for [...]
Let the hate show
When I read yesterday that Gulnare Free Will Baptist Church, a church in my lovely state of Kentucky, voted to ban interracial couples from its congregation, I thought, “So much for post-racial America.” While I was appalled, shook my head, and joined in with the “And they call themselves Christians,” chorus, I felt some vindication for [...]
At school with the boss’s kids
One day at the grade school That had been ordered To desegregate only, Virginia saw the red clutch bag On my desk next to hers. She did not comment; she only Stared at the purse long enough To indicate she remembered That her mother had cheerfully put The purse in a shopping bag, piled some [...]
From Rosa Lee’s Granddaughter
I’ve invited others to share their stories about their own families, and here is the first guest blogger to take me up on it.
Notes on a dying generation
Our collective national history is nothing without the experiences of individuals, and our people are willing to share their stories. RedboneAfropuff.com asks you to listen for those stories and to share them here.
Food for the Soul
On Mothers’ Day, I went to my grandmother’s house and forgot to eat. How did I go to grandma’s house and FORGET to eat physical food? I nibbled on some food for my soul instead.
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