Today is Self-Injury Awareness Day. It’ll hardly get a passing mention across most African-American media platforms because it’s not a “black issue.” On the contrary, it is. I’m the mother of a loveable 15-year-old daughter. She’s bubbly and funny. She wears me out reenacting scenes from High School Musical and Twilight. She’s astute for her…

Blogging at Essence, Janelle Harris writes that she believes as Oprah Winfrey does, that “you can only be what you were meant to be.” You just have to work hard to determine what that is. Not everything we’re doing right now is what we’d prefer to be doing. I’d venture most of us—including me with…

Janelle Harris shares at Ebony why, as a single mom, she doesn’t need recognition on Father’s Day. Her piece reflects on the fact that while, yes, single mothers take on the responsibilities of both mother and father, in no way can they fill the actual role that a man has in a child’s life. In…

Essence‘s Janelle Harris makes the case that corporal punishment that leaves welts and open sores is going to exacerbate the problems that exist and create some new ones, too. … Black folks believe in spankings. It’s a cultural norm, accented with funny anecdotes about picking your own switches and being mollywhopped with mama’s backhand from hell.…

In a reflection on the recent flap about India.Arie’s alleged skin bleaching, Essence‘s Janelle Harris says that complexion craziness is tough on everyone but especially painful for darker black women — and it’s our collective responsibility to put a stop to it.  … We also have an often undertapped power as Black women to call out…

(The Root) — There are few places where we can watch the spirit of liberation and the scourge of oppression coexist naturally, even harmoniously. One of them is hip-hop. Another is dance. But perhaps the most notable, the one that touches the most lives, is the church. And in the middle of that circle of…

Reflecting on the online infamy of 10-year-old rapper “Lil Poopy,” Clutch magazine‘s Janelle Harris wishes we’d encourage boys to respect their bodies and sexuality the way we do girls. There’s no valid reason why a 10-year-old boy should have his hands, or any other part of his tiny little person, on the rear end of…

Essence‘s Janelle Harris takes her turn slamming the all-too-common male armchair relationship expert — and his advice to black women. I can’t sit through one more sermon, debate or call-in radio show. I can’t read another statistic-littered blog post, magazine article or self-help book jacket. I can’t — and never will — pay good money…

Clutch magazine‘s Janelle Harris admits that she’s at least partly guilty of “pandering to the social convention that dismisses the way black folks speak as sounding uneducated.” I don’t have anything personal against The Pine-Sol Lady. She’s probably a very nice person who has made valuable contributions to society, her community, maybe even her industry…

Contemplating her own history in the church and reports on the increasing number of young people without religious affiliations, Essence‘s Janelle Harris says she’s going to hold on to her beliefs, even if they don’t make sense in the eyes of others. … NPR just ran a story about the growing number of “nones,” the…