race

Very Online: Influencers of Color Are Starting a Quiet Revolution about Pay Disparities

A Black woman with natural hair and a dress steps into a doorway. A text overlay reads, "there has to be room."
by Rachel Charlene Lewis
January 17, 2020 at 2:59pm
Brands are not being inclusive or diverse at all, and, when they are, they’re doing the bare minimum.
Peggy Orenstein, a white woman with short, blond, curly hair, poses for the camera

“Boys & Sex” is Groundbreaking, But Leaves Gaps for Queer Boys

by Rachel Charlene Lewis
January 10, 2020 at 8:51am
Boys & Sex is a timely and relevant read in our current political and cultural context. Read more »
Summer walker, a young Black woman, sings on stage. Her hair is in a long blond ponytail and she wears a t-shirt.

Over It: Is There Room for Anxious Black Girls in Music?

by Mary Retta
January 8, 2020 at 1:16pm
We owe Black women musicians the space to take care of themselves. Read more »
Mark-Paul Gosselaar plays Paul, a white man wearing a burgundy flowy shirt, and Tika Sumpter plays Alicia, a Black woman in a jean shirt and a curly afro, in mixed-ish

Yay, Us?: In the World of “mixed-ish,” Colorblindness Is the Same as Anti-Racism

by Dr. Shantel Gabrieal Buggs
December 12, 2019 at 5:26pm
There’s still a dearth of pop culture with multiracial characters who contend with what that multiraciality means socially and politically. Read more »
a Black man and a Black woman pose in front an old-school Chevy in Queen & Slim

Unpoetic Injustice: “Queen & Slim” Treats Its Outlaws as Misguided Political Symbols

by Jourdain Searles
December 9, 2019 at 3:44pm
It treats its strangers–turned–outlaws as political symbols rather than fleshed-out characters with interests and flaws. Read more »
A black woman poses holding a large green leaf with her eyes closed in front of a yellow background.

Very Online: Black-Run Plant Instagram Accounts Are Connecting Black People to Their Roots

by Rachel Charlene Lewis
November 15, 2019 at 2:26pm
Digital plant communities aren’t as accessible—or welcoming—for those who aren’t white. Read more »
Digital collage of white women wearing colorful locs

The Devil Wears Cornrows: Could Appropriation Lead to the End of Fashion?

by Lauren Michele Jackson
November 12, 2019 at 10:28am
A true reckoning of fashion’s debt might mean the end of houses, the end of fashion week, the end of “high” and “low,” the end of trend forecasts written by anyone who isn’t a 15-year-old brown girl from Chicago’s West Side. Read more »
Princess Carolyn a pink cat stands and looks into the camera. She is in an art gallery.

The Case for a Black Princess Carolyn

by Mary Retta
October 25, 2019 at 9:00am
For Princess Carolyn, the case for her identity as a Black woman offers a more nuanced lens through which to view her character. Read more »
Harriet A. Washington, a Black woman with long, black hair, stands in portrait

(Mis)measuring Intelligence: Environmental Racism Is Assaulting the Minds of People of Color

by Bani Amor
October 23, 2019 at 3:02pm
Harriet A. Washington argues that intelligence is malleable rather than fixed or inherited, and that it’s possible to solve the problem of poisons and pathogens attacking the nervous systems of people of color. Read more »
Author Morgan Parker, who is a Black woman, wears a black blazer, white shirt, and an orange scarf. She leans on her hand and looks at the camera.

A Depressed Black Teen Takes Center Stage in Morgan Parker’s YA Debut

by Rachel Charlene Lewis
October 21, 2019 at 4:45pm
“It’s unfair to make a book that is only the dark because we know that that’s just not how life happens.” Read more »
A woman of color in a sky blue blazer, pantsuit, and bunny slippers sits with her legs up on a desk.

“A Little Late with Lilly Singh” Has a Code-switching Problem

by Sezin Koehler
October 21, 2019 at 12:50pm
Lilly Singh is trailblazing as a South Asian woman on late night TV while also dismantling that good work by continuing to perform a Blackness that isn’t hers. Read more »

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Best of Bitch

Sojourner Truth, Unveiled

by Deesha Philyaw
April 29, 2009 at 2:58pm

The leaders of the [women's suffrage] movement trembled on seeing a tall, gaunt black woman in a gray dress and white turban,...

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No Disrespect: Black women and the burden of respectability

by Tamara Winfrey Harris
Summer 2012 • Fame + Fortune
In February 2012, PBS host Tavis Smiley interviewed Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer about their Oscar nominations for their roles as Aibileen and... Read more »

Sister Soldiers: On Black Women, Police Brutality, and the True Meaning of Black Liberation

a blue and white illustration of police brutality
by Tasha Fierce
Spring 2015 • Law & Order
Unless you’re looking for their names, you won’t find the stories of all Black women shot and killed by police officers in the past five years in the discourse surrounding police reform. Read more »

"Moonlight" is an Essential Work of Art for the Current Political Moment

by Nijla Mu'min
December 5, 2016 at 8:15am
Moonlight displays the kind of empathy and humanity that we desperately need right now. Read more »