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Clifton Kinnie
Clifton Kinnie wasnât planning to be an activist. It wasnât until he saw a picture of slain teen Michael Brown on his Twitter timeline that he decided he had to make a change in his St. Louis communityâand beyond. âIt was a time in which it truly radicalized me in a way in which I…
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Shemar CoombsÂ
Shemar Coombs wants to add a few minutes to your day. After getting tired of untangling his headphones, he decided to figure out how to solve the problem. Enter Rap-It-Up, Shemarâs solution to making sure you never have to wrestle with another knot in your earbuds. Rap-It-Up is a 3D-printed phone case that keeps your…
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Grace Dolan-Sandrino
At 16, Grace Dolan-Sandrino is already leading the charge among young people in resisting Donald Trumpâs agenda. In November, she and thousands of other students in Washington, D.C., walked out of their classrooms to protest the then-president elect. âWe are trying to get our voices heard,â she said. âWe were not able to vote. We…
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Tech Needs to Do the Work to Find Black Excellence, but You Can Do Your Part, Too
The Uber fallout of recent weeks makes something my grandmother used to tell me more important than ever now: âTo get something you donât have, youâll have to do something you havenât done. Youâre a black woman. So, to do that, youâll have to work twice as hard to get half as far.â However, the…
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7 Times Harriet Tubman Was a Badass Superhero
Harriet Tubman is having a moment. Right now she is the âitâ girl of history. No longer relegated to the pages of schoolbooks during Black History Month, the freedom-fighting, self-liberating she-warrior and âconductorâ on the Underground Railroad is getting the recognition she so richly deserves. Last year the Treasury Department announced that Tubman would replace…
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Watch: SNLâs Skit About Drugs That Sound Like Black Names Is Just Dumb, Racist Trash
Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer made her debut as host of Saturday Night Live last night. Iâll confess I missed it because I had better things to do on a Saturday night. But then this dumb-ass skit of Spencer playing a woman whoâs suing a drug company because they stole the names of her family…
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The Black Viewerâs Guide to the Grammys
Stuck between the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards, the Grammys have always seemed like the red-headed stepchild of the awards season. But I always look forward to the Grammys because the show always seems less uptight than awards shows that focus on movies and TV, and itâs also a chance to see some of…
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The Day My Mother Asked About My HIV Status Changed My Life
I will never forget the day my mother asked me, âIs there something you want me to know about you?â Mom wanted to know if I had HIV. She had just attended her first HIV educational program. She learned about the virus and how important being in care is to ensure that a person with…
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My Black History: When Magic Johnson Announced That He Had HIV, It Was a Wake-Up Call
Editorâs note: During Black History Month, the focus is usually on historical figures who loomed larger than life, paving the way for the progress we experience today. But black history isnât just about telling stories of our past. History is being made every day and has been made throughout our lives; itâs not just in…
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#OscarsSoBlack: Finally, Some Melanin-Proficient People Receive Nominations
After two straight years of #OscarsSoWhite, in which black actors were shut out of all the acting categories, this yearâs Academy Awards nominations featured so much blackness, some racist trolls on Twitter might just start calling the Oscars the BET Awards. Moonlight, director Barry Jenkinsâ stunning coming-of-age tale, received a total of eight nominations (the…
