Biden won the election, but we can’t go back to brunch

If we accept voting as the peak of our political power, we will never see change. We thought our starry-eyed optimism from the Obama administration would continue by placing another democrat into the Oval Office. We were naive to think we could go to brunch after electing Hillary into office. We would be psychotic to let down our political guard now that Biden’s been elected. We can’t brunch because no politician can fix our democracy. Only we can.

I Wish I Lived In Trump’s America

A collage of tweets from President Donald Trump, research, and personal reflections on Blackness and independence during the pandemic

Dear White People, This is What We Want You to Do

I don’t want you to feel at ease. I want you to know that you are the byproduct of a successful racist regime that has capitalized off of Black oppression and suppression for centuries. I want you to shed light on the corners of your subconscious you’ve glossed over for years. I want you to realize that being racist is more American than apple pie.

Colorism and the White Guilt in Light Skin Tears

It’s hard to talk about systems of oppression that we benefit from. Light skinned tears don’t belong in the conversation of colorism because you can’t benefit from and be a victim of the same form of oppression.

A Mother’s Love: a video essay

If a picture is worth a thousand words, than a video essay is worth about a million. 

Melanin in Milan: Finding My People Abroad

Being a Black student attending a predominantly white university, I’m used to being among a small handful of students of color within a student organization or the only Black person enrolled in a class. Within my academic specializations (Creative Writing and Opera Performance), there are even fewer Black students. Of course, I’ve been able to …

Humans

Happy Independence Day (if you celebrate any sort of liberation today). I posted this essay (originally titled “On Humans”) on July 4, 2018. I’ve updated “Humans” to reflect statistical updates, new events, and my contemporary reflections. When I first wrote this, I hoped that we had already seen the worst. A year has passed, and …

On Humans

The other day I was writing in a coffee shop, and a man in a red flannel commented on a sticker on my laptop. “‘Careful or you will end up in my novel?’” I was mid-sentence and caught off-guard. “Ah, yeah.. I’m a writer” And then the normal conversation follows: Where do you go to …