5 Ways We Can Stop Erasing Undocumented Black Folks from Conversations on Immigration July 1, 2018 by Tiffany Lee Leave a Comment “Stay away from Bobby’s department store over in Brooklyn. There are ICE agents over there rounding Caribbean people up.” Messages like this began circulating in my social media sphere around February of 2018. Legislators and police disproved those specific reports. However, the fear and anxiety that enabled these Facebook rumors to spread are very real. As the daughter of … [Read more...]
10 Depictions of Asian Culture That Uphold Racist Sexual Violence June 26, 2018 by Aiko Fukuchi Leave a Comment Last week, I published an article, Not Your ‘Geisha Doll:’ We Need to Talk About & Not Around Racist Sexual Violence, describing my experience with racist sexual violence. Today, I'd like to explain how stereotypes we commonly see of Asian cultures and people perpetuate this type of violence and uphold white supremacy. By the time I was twenty years old, I lost count of … [Read more...]
Stop Using Mixed-Race People as Symbols of Interracial Unity To Ease Your White Guilt June 17, 2018 by Sophie Buzak-Achiam, Guest Author Leave a Comment Editor's Note: This piece was first published in Danish magazine Friktion and is republished with permission. Dutch beer company Heineken has recently faced backlash for its “lighter is better” ad, where a light-skinned Brown bartender slides a beer past three dark-skinned Black people towards a Eurasian woman. The bartender shares a wink with her before the slogan “Sometimes … [Read more...]
When White People are Silent in the Situations of Injustice, They Have Chosen the Side of the Oppressor June 15, 2018 by Louisa Leontiades Leave a Comment Right now there's a narrative sweeping the activist psyche: white people as a segment of society are oppressive and if we are not directly abusive or oppressive ourselves, our ignorance and silence means we are enablers of abuse and oppression. As a white woman and a mother, I along with many others, have resisted such a narrative. Not only because to be defined as abusive … [Read more...]
The (Anti) Black A** Roots of America’s Islamophobia May 19, 2018 by Nessa, Guest Writer Leave a Comment The Body Is Not an Apology’s goal is to share the myriad ways human bodies unshackle the box of “beauty” and fling it wide open for all of us to access. Our goal is to redefine the unapologetic, radically amazing magnificence of EVERY BODY on this planet. When we do, we change the world! Join the movement and become a subscriber … [Read more...]
Across a Sea of Whiteness: 3 Ways I Connect with Black Women in White Spaces May 15, 2018 by Samaa Abdurraqib Leave a Comment I’ve been living in a mostly white New England state for over seven years now. Prior to moving here, I spent eight years living in a less-white, but still white-as-hell Midwestern state. I moved to these places for school, and then for a job. For the past four years, I’ve made a conscious choice to stay in this white New England state – even took on a career change to … [Read more...]
Are You Culturally Appreciating or Culturally Appropriating? 3 Ways for White Folks to Self-Reflect April 30, 2018 by Lin Kaatz Chary Leave a Comment Not long ago I had lunch with an 82-year-old friend of mine who has been a social justice activist all her life. We are both white. My friend is a poet who has been published in several small literary journals. She listens to a broad range of podcasts regularly, reads widely, and continues to take a keen interest in the world around her. Her poetry focuses on the lives of … [Read more...]
The Difficulty of Portraying Softness While Existing in a Brown Body April 30, 2018 by Erika_Ruiz Leave a Comment It is almost close to impossible to portray genuine softness within a cisheteropatriarchal capitalistic society without it becoming a commodity or lifestyle that can be marketed and sold to us. We are taught from an early age that our emotions hinder us. This is because our society as a whole thrives on an unrealistic portrayal of intimacy and love. We are taught that to be … [Read more...]
5 Ways Racist Fetishes Put Asian Women in Serious Danger April 16, 2018 by Rachel Kuo 3 Comments Originally posted in Everyday Feminism as 5 Ways "Asian Woman Fetishes" Put Asian Women in Serious Danger and republished with permission. Recently, a friend and I were talking about growing up Asian American in predominantly white neighborhoods and schools, and she told me that when she was in fifth grade, boys teased her on the playground by saying that she had a “sideways … [Read more...]
Never Enough: Growing Up Mixed-Race with a Mix of Friends April 7, 2018 by Philippe Leonard Fradet Leave a Comment I identify as mixed-race. My father is white, and my mother was black and Native American. I have medium-light-toned skin, I have curly hair when it’s not buzzed, and I do not really look like either of my parents. When I was growing up, it was always hard to explain my background to people. Plenty of people, kids and adults alike, would ask me, “What are you?” as though I were … [Read more...]
We Been Here: Black Muslims in America March 28, 2018 by Samaa Abdurraqib Leave a Comment The Body Is Not an Apology’s goal is to share the myriad ways human bodies unshackle the box of “beauty” and fling it wide open for all of us to access. Our goal is to redefine the unapologetic, radically amazing magnificence of EVERY BODY on this planet. When we do, we change the world! Join the movement and become a subscriber today! bit.ly/NoBodiesInvisible. When I … [Read more...]
6 Ways White Folks Can Support Black Lives Matter, Even If You Can’t Leave Your House March 7, 2018 by Katie Tastrom Leave a Comment The Body Is Not an Apology’s goal is to share the myriad ways human bodies unshackle the box of “beauty” and fling it wide open for all of us to access. Our goal is to redefine the unapologetic, radically amazing magnificence of EVERY BODY on this planet. When we do, we change the world! Join the movement and become a subscriber today! bit.ly/NoBodiesInvisible. As someone … [Read more...]
A 1-On-1 With BLM: Is Black Lives Matter a Radical Self love Movement? February 3, 2018 by Jaime Grant Leave a Comment By: Jaime Grant Jaime M. Grant, a white lesbian organizer who grew up in Boston in the 60s, interviews Daunasia Yancey a Black queer, femme leader of Black Lives Matter Boston as their conversion reveals the unapologetic work we all strive to do within ourselves and our community. Jaime: One of the things that’s striking about BLM is the emphasis on love and the body and … [Read more...]
Mudbound: Uncovering The Parts Of Ourselves We Sacrifice In Order To Survive December 14, 2017 by Cody Charles Leave a Comment Dee Rees’ tale of two southern families, one white (McAllan) and the other Black (Jackson), living on the same land is masterfully translated to film. At first, I wanted to describe the film as a tale of survival, but after some thought -- that’s not exactly true. This is the tale of a poor Black southern family trying to survive, and an average white family trying to build … [Read more...]
Black Women’s Safety: Why Accountability Is ProBlack October 19, 2017 by Candice Iloh Leave a Comment I am my father’s first daughter. For a large part of my first 16 years on this earth, my father raised me by himself. Oftentimes this meant my daddy had to do for me many of the things mamas are resigned to doing because they are the female parent and, therefore, usually expected to know what’s best for the wellbeing of a little black girl. This meant if someone was going … [Read more...]
For White Friends Using Social Media and Not Responding to Charlottesville September 9, 2017 by Beth Godbee Leave a Comment The Body Is Not an Apology’s goal is to share the myriad ways human bodies unshackle the box of “beauty” and fling it wide open for all of us to access. Our goal is to redefine the unapologetic, radically amazing magnificence of EVERY BODY on this planet. When we do, we change the world! Join the movement and become a subscriber today! bit.ly/NoBodiesInvisible. This article … [Read more...]
