Summer M.

My first name is ironic.

Posts by Summer M.

Featured Post

October 1, 2012 at 8:22am

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Topics: NFL, Officials, Strike, Unions

Yellow Flag: What the NFL Reminded Me About Strikes

Last week, NFL referees came to a tentative agreement with the league after several months of negotiations. The end to the months long strike was more than likely compelled by a particularly horrific call, one so bad the league had to issue a “Yeah, they really got that one wrong” mea culpa. Although game officiating over the [...]

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Featured Post

September 24, 2012 at 8:05am

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Topics: 2012, barack obama, mitt romney, Mother Jones

Candid Camera: The Truth About Political Campaigns

Mitt Romney had a tough week. He spent most of last week responding to the Mother Jones video of him talking to a crowd at a $50,000 a plate dinner about how nearly half of Americans are dependent on the government, among other things. A couple of days later, Romney was charged with dying his face [...]

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Featured Post

September 17, 2012 at 8:00am

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Topics: CPS, Karen Lewis, Michelle Obama, Rahm Emanuel, Teachers' strike

On Revolutionary Black Womanhood

It’s an odd experience when two seemingly unrelated stories subtly and symbolically collide. In one corner, Michelle Obama wowed audiences with her speech at the Democratic National Convention two weeks ago. In the other, Karen Lewis, head of the Chicago Teachers’ Union, led Chicago Public Schools teachers into a fight with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, when [...]

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Featured Post

September 10, 2012 at 10:48am

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Topics: Chicago, education, gun violence, Guns, hip-hop, Inequality, Poverty, prison industrial complex, R.I.P., Violence

The Cruelest of Summers

Something has gone terribly wrong. Or, perhaps in some cruel way, something has gone right. Last week, while most of the black internet was deep in an oil sheen-induced haze caused by appearances and speeches by the Obamas, our favorite celebrities, another black youth was murdered. This wasn’t your typical, anonymous shooting, though. Nor was [...]

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Featured Post

August 27, 2012 at 8:06am

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Playing “Political” Hoops

Recently, celebrity couple Jay-Z and Beyonce–who often traipse around awards ceremonies and other events as if they are the emperor and empress of a nation to which all young rappers and other wannabes are begging for citizenship–were criticized by civil rights leader and entertainer Harry Belafonte for their lack of political involvement. Beyonce’s camp. who [...]

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Featured Post

August 20, 2012 at 8:00am

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Topics: missouri, sexual assault, todd akin, whoopi goldberg, Women, women's bodies

OxyMORONS: On the Absurd Idea of ‘Legitimate Rape’

Yesterday, Rep. Todd Akin (Mo.) made the internet nearly explode when, in response to a question about why he oposes abortion even in cases of rape during an interview, he said that “legitimate rape” doesn’t result in pregnancy. According to Akin, also the GOP’s senatorial candidate in Missouri, a woman’s body has some sort of [...]

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Featured Post

August 13, 2012 at 8:21am

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Topics: BYP Action, education, incarceration, Mississippi, Youth

Mississippi Learning

Late last week, the federal government asserted that a school district in Mississippi had been violating the constitutional rights of students by imprisoning them for “violations” as minor as “defiance.” From CNN: Officials in Lauderdale County, Mississippi, have operated “a school-to-prison pipeline” that violates the constitutional rights of juveniles by incarcerating them for alleged school [...]

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Featured Post

August 7, 2012 at 11:16am

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Topics: action, Black Youth, Criminal Justice, education, Inequality, police brutality, racism, trayvon

The Summer of BYP ACTION

The BYP Action Pledge is a step we all can take. We not only articulate our concern about black youth, but symbolically unite our voices with others who will work to confront this crisis. Take the pledge TODAY!

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Featured Post

August 6, 2012 at 8:23am

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Topics: chick fil a, Gabby Douglas, whitney houston

Two for One Monday: Gabby Douglas and Chick-Fil-A

Morning, folks. As the end of last week approached, it became very clear that I’d have to address two very different stories: the all-around awesomeness of Gabby Douglas and this Chick-Fil-A poor excuse of a protest. There’s no clever way to introduce either topic or merge them together, so just check out what I have [...]

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Featured Post

July 30, 2012 at 8:24am

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Topics: Elections, The Olympics

An Olympic Kind of Election

We interrupt our regularly scheduled blog to consider the following thoroughly silly inquiry: What if the presidential election were more like the Olympics? For reasons I may or may not share in a later blog, I very likely voted for the last time in 2008. I cannot, however, quit watching the Olympics with such ease. [...]

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