Note: This article contains descriptions of Bridgerton that some readers might consider to be minor spoilers and links to articles that contain spoilers.Can Black folks get a moment of peace? Can we exist without always having to address our collective trauma? Since the start of the pandemic, I have found myself implementing every imaginable method […]
Last November, we collectively offered up prayer and fasting for the life of Julius Jones, a Black man wrongfully convicted of murder who was set to be executed. At the eleventh hour, Jones was granted clemency by the Governor of Oklahoma. Jones’ sentence was reduced to life without parole. It is not ideal that Jones’ […]
Comedian and actress Mo’Nique recently posted an Instagram saying she was in an airport in ATL when she saw sistas with bonnets, scarves, slippers and blankets wrapped around them. She felt that what she saw was somehow robbing us of our pride. I’m here to reshape the narrative and tell y’all this couldn’t be further […]
In November 2020, the American Psychological Association reported that depression and anxiety were at an all-time high last year because of the pandemic. I don’t know how it was for y’all, but 2020 seemed to reveal issues that had long been hidden and to resurrect problems that we thought were dead. For me, the past […]
I rest in confidence that raising and guiding my Black children is the most significant form of antiracist activism that I will ever engage in. I also rest in confidence that I have equipped my children with the tools to go into the world and treat their neighbors with genuine concern, showing particular care for […]
I think that it is very hard to know where or even what our next step is when we #LeaveLOUD. Many of us find ourselves wandering in the wilderness; the space between our previous spiritual community and our next church home. Leaving an unhealthy church and entering into the wilderness gives a sense of freedom, […]
Read the Introduction, Part Two, and Part Three. During my fifth pregnancy, I contracted a rare infectious disease that made it necessary for me to abandon my plans for giving birth with a midwife at a birthing center and to find a doctor who would take me at seven months pregnant. You would think that […]
Read the Introduction and Part 2. For my first three pregnancies, I had the luxury of receiving care from a Black OB/GYN. My family relocated toward the end of my fourth pregnancy, which resulted in a struggle to find a care provider. Most of the practices that I contacted would not take me because I […]
According to the National Institute of Health, severe maternal morbidity (SMM) rates have nearly doubled over the past decade. The incidence of SMM was 166% higher for Black women than white women from 2012 to 2015. To be clear, it is racism—not race—that impacts prenatal care and maternal outcomes. This post is part of a […]
Black Maternal Health Week is April 11-17 each year. Advocacy for Black maternal health should be a regular part of our advocacy work and not just during this designated time. The purpose of Black Maternal Health Week is to bring awareness to the systemic disparities stacked against Black women, center the voices and experience of […]
I’ve been wrestling with something that I wish I would have done better a few years ago. I was in a season where I was trying to find a church after suffering through racial trauma and spiritual abuse in a white evangelical church. The problem is that I was searching for a new church without […]
I know that Tessica’s story is fading from the headlines and that there isn’t as much discussion about her as there was a month ago, but the story of how Black women are treated in society isn’t new. The inability to treat warmly, show regard for, or show tenderness to the very Black women who […]
I’m a daughter of Virginia. Most of my ancestors migrated to Virginia from the Carolinas during the late 1800s and early 1900s to escape what they referred to as “country life,” which entailed sharecropping. In other words: economic slavery. They came to port cities like Norfolk to seek a better life than what they had. […]
