The hidden history of Mardi Gras, from a Black perspective — After attending two Mardi Gras balls this carnival season, I realized that not many people outside of New Orleans understand the history of the carnival season or the social significance of such events for Black people. From the outside looking in, Mardi Gras is just a big egalitarian party where…

When it comes to confrontations with the police, Black people are asked to do something strange — Fight or flight is an “automatic physiological reaction” to a stressful or fearful situation. You will start to breathe faster, and your blood pressure and heart rate will rise, preparing your body for a possible fight. According to Professor Karin Roelofs, people and animals have various defensive modes that trigger…

We’ve all been there. Here’s how to get to the other side — “Hello, hello, is anyone there?” We’ve all been there — you work hard on a draft of something, post it, and then…no one seems to be reading your work. But don’t take it personally — you are not necessarily being ignored. Readers don’t know your writing from a can of…

To communicate effectively, you have to control your tone. Here’s how to do that. — A couple of months ago, I read a story about blackface. Initially, I felt relieved that someone was bringing attention to this issue. Then, sentence after sentence, I realized my initial assumptions, based on the title, fell short. To my surprise, this article supported blackface. As a Black writer, I…

Social structures created and maintained a racial hierarchy — Race is a social construct, but we rarely discuss its construction. Biologically speaking, all people belong to the same species, homo sapiens. So, when we talk about race, we're discussing the idea that groups of people share unique physical and cultural characteristics, but there's nothing benign about the concept. For…

To justify their opposition, they're ignoring racial discrimination — If creating bad-faith talking points about the civil rights movement was a sport, conservatives would have taken home the gold by now. From their attempts to hide historical facts, like the reason why Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus, to their cruscade against critical…

An essay about the consequences of whitewashed history — The history of the world is a whitewashed history, where great many facts are distorted to maintain white supremacy — such as Columbus discovering America or Gandhi liberating India — Gandhi didn’t liberate India, Subhas Chandra Bose did and Columbus never even set foot on America.― Abhijit Naskar Rosa Parks…

What women wear shouldn't be up for debate — Black women's freedom is a source of frustration for some men who feel they have the right to control what a woman wears, who she dates, and where she spends her time. For instance, when Grammy-award-winning singer Ciara wore a sheer Dundas gown with elbow-lengthed black gloves to the Vanity…

Advice about conducting a genealogical search — When the chattel slavery system ended, Black Americans began the daunting task of searching for their family, friends, and loved ones, often unsuccessfully. Many published advertisements in newspapers describing their last known whereabouts and, at times, physical descriptions. According to The Last Seen Project, these “ads serve as testaments to…