So Black People Aren’t Sex-Crazed, Baby-Making Machines?
Much has already been discussed about single African Americans’ dating desires based on findings from a poll released earlier this month that showed how black people feel about various aspects of their lives. So enough about the romantic relationship numbers. Let’s look at another shocker: 69% percent of respondents have no children under 18, and this number accounts both for children living with them [...]
The Graduation Speech I Wish I had Heard
Dr. Ruth Simmons, former president of Brown University, delivered my commencement speech. Honestly, I don’t remember a thing she said. I’m pretty sure I paid attention to her words. I remember laughing or otherwise responding in some way to some of them, and besides, she was the first black president of an Ivy League institution. [...]
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 [...]
An Open Letter to Shonda Rhimes: Bring April’s Sexy Back
Dear Ms. Rhimes: Most of the time, I love you and you make me regret not sticking it out in L.A. a little longer to become a screen- and television writer. But I need you to do something different with April Kepner. I met Dr. April Kepner on Grey’s Anatomy for the first [...]
Pretty Biblical
Sometimes I read posts written as responses to something unusual and esoteric written online and wonder how the respondent found the original elusive piece in the first place. And then in spite of myself, both pieces make me think about my own experiences and its broader applications. So went my mind as I read Britni [...]
Tis the Right Season?
The end of the year is near. I know that not just because of the change in seasons or the flip of the calendar. I know it because, once again, I’m in a total panic that time is passing by faster than I can do the right thing with it. Just like I was in [...]
Talking feminism on TV
UPDATE 8/25: Watch the full broadcast here. I’ve promoted this appearance like crazy on Facebook and Twitter, but somehow, I left it off my own blog. On Aug. 17, I was on Connections with Renee Shaw, which is broadcast on KET. The broadcast will air again tomorrow, Aug. 19, and a few more times after that. On [...]
Paying respect to The Help
I’ve grown up attending wakes and funerals for people of my grandparents’ and great-grandparents’ generations. At these sad memorials marketed as visitations, going-home celebrations and extemporaneous family reunions, I often saw white people who were somewhere around the age of my mother and her siblings. I wondered who they were and why they were [...]
The double-edged sword of religion in health care
My column below was published 8/2/2011 as “Hospital Merger is a Double-Edged Sword for Indigent Women,” in The Forum section of the Courier-Journal. I wasn’t going to re-post it here, but I after hearing this story on NPR’s All Thing’s considered today about birth control and religion in Pakistan, I thought it was worth repeating. [...]
The burden of having it all cont’d
Notice in my last post I said I’m not the only one who feels this way, not felt. I should be over this at going-on-31 (even though people keep telling me that’s young), but indecisiveness is a very present state of mind because there are still so many choices. For example, I have a business idea [...]
I NEED YOUR SUPPORT!
Click the image above to learn more about supporting writers of color.
Connect or Subscribe
Meet the Blogger
Mariam WilliamsSpecial Thanks
This blog is made possible in part by a grant from:
Promoting positive social change by supporting varied feminist expression in the artsCREDIT WHERE IT’S DUE
Redbone Afropuff & Black GRITS by Mariam Williams is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. ("Redbone Afropuff & Black GRITS" refers to all text and art work on RedboneAfropuff.com created by Mariam Williams.)
Share your thoughts