485 Search results for "wear my hat"

What We Carry: A Coming-of-Age Tale of Grief, Therapy, and Reckoning
by Christian M. Ivey “What We Carry” is a powerful coming-of-age story that follows Drew, a young Black college student grappling with grief, anxiety, and the long shadow of racial trauma. Get yo ass up, Drew! My alarm rang, a nasty, raggedy rang, almost soundin’ like it was yellin’ at me. Get yo ass up, […]
How my experience as a Black man working with children was tainted by racism
Editor’s Note: This month at BYP, we will be exploring Education & Schooling, and we are interested in publishing works that address these topics. What are the implications of charter and private schools in communities of color? How do we counteract anti-Black textbooks and teachers in our childrens’ education? How did you heal from bullying […]
I’m wearing my fat and juicy parts out forever
by Alanah Nichole Davis When I was five years old my mother brought home a box of mangoes from a co-worker. The box was unsuspecting as was the pile of peculiarly shaped fruits with thick skin and a sun-kissed orange tone. I was told by my mother to wait until after dinner to have one, […]
African Traditional Religions prepared me to grieve my mother
I’ve learned it’s best not to try to control how the memories of my mother show up, or what emotions they are wearing when they enter. This one is dressed in a rare crossbreed of inconsolable laughter and a stabbing sob, and it’s seeping out of my iphone from wherever the speaker is located on […]
My grandmother shows me what’s possible as a survivor of sexual violence
by J.A.O. Trigger and Content Warnings: This piece contains themes and descriptions of sexual and gender-based violence/r*pe, child abuse, death, and suicide. The most isolating of the identities I claim is my status as a survivor of both childhood sex abuse and of repeated rape in my adulthood. Sometimes, I find an incredible amount of […]
My daughter saves me from my anxieties with the embrace of her little arms
by Donnie Moreland It’s the eve of what folks are calling the “most important presidential election of our lives.” I’m being told to prepare. I’m being told to panic. I strap both ends of my cloth mask around my ears to drop my ballot at a county library. This is the second time I’m having […]
Apologies that never were and probably never will be
My mom apologizes to me and I’m glad she does. Mostly for small things, but sometimes for big things too. Recently, she apologized for her fatphobia towards me and how damaging it was to me growing up. I was appreciative. I thanked her. Not long after that apology, she made no less than three fatphobic […]
We must fight for a Black liberation that exists outside of AntiBlack Systems
by Gloria Oladipo I watch the moment’s protests through bitter tears of joy. I hate that change is paved with the blood of Black sisters, brothers, and siblings. I hate how freedom never seems to be found when we’re alive. I hate cops. I hate oppression and injustice and anything that keeps Black and Brown […]
Sex is not what makes us human
“Sex is what makes us human.” This, of course, is an absurd claim. And yet, it’s a lie that many believe. A lie that I have heard many times, in one form or another. I continually find myself having to argue that sex and sexuality are not and never will be factors in whether or […]
My refusal to grant white people space is petty and satisfying
A friend and I were attending the first WakandaCon in Chicago. We stepped onto the hotel elevator on our way back to our shared room, deep in excited conversation about Black Panther and what had been discussed at the panel we had just left. Our discussion turned to how some non-Black people try their best […]
Violating stay-at-home orders directly harms Disabled folks, but what else is new?
Content Warning: Ableism, Car Accident, Death and Discrimination by Dominique Alexander McPhearson I’m in my room watching old NBA highlights, since the NBA, along with the rest of the country, is on lockdown. Quarantine doesn’t bother me as much as it seems to bother other people. After an accident left me paralyzed from the chest […]
Now is an opportunity for Black folks to reimagine what constitutes loss
by Donnie Moreland My father is a diabetic, with chronic pain and a fragile immune system due to rounds of dialysis, which cause more pain and thus tosses him into the throws of a cycle which is, observably, hell. He is also a business owner, which necessitates an urgency of decision making, that suffers when […]