“There was so much diverse black masculinity in the world of our childhood that it would have been impossible for any of us to have a one-dimensional understanding of black life. We knew from experience that some black males were kind and gentle, others cruel and indifferent, that some fathers were present, and some fathers […]
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on the author’s Substack. On September 2, 2022, under the bright lights of Arthur Ashe Stadium, Serena Williams lost at the U.S. Open for what is likely the final time. At 40 years old, after only playing in six previous matches the whole year and beating the world No. […]
Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from Truth’s Table: Black Women’s Musings on Life, Love, and Liberation. Preorder your copy today! From the chapter, “DECOLONIZED DISCIPLESHIP” by Ekemini Uwan The irony of all ironies is that I originally wrote this essay, “Decolonized Discipleship,” years ago because an “urban” white evangelical organization reached out and […]
“When somebody hurts you, they take power over you; if you don’t forgive them, then they keeps the power.” -Cicely Tyson (as Myrtle in Diary of a Mad Black Woman) Age 7 I was walking to class when I heard, “You act so white.” I froze. My heart sank. At seven years old, I felt […]
As I’ve walked the streets of places like San Juan, Havana, the Bahamas, I have become aware of a Black culture that I reside just outside of. There is a dash or dollop of Africa that you can hear in the music, see in the radiant colors of the people’s skin, and taste in the […]
Here it goes again. I opened my email to read the results of my lease-to-purchase application. I have settled for a lease option at this time because there is an urgent need to move. I share a bedroom with my two daughters, aged six and twelve. Let me tell you: the twelve-year-old drives me crazy […]
About ten years ago, I went through a period of grief following the deaths of two friends. Grieving is never an easy process, but what made it even harder for me was that all of my closest friends were also grieving these same losses. The people I normally turned to for support were struggling too. […]
Let me keep it buck: church hurt sucks. And when you #LeaveLOUD, church hurt often comes with a side of racial trauma. A lot of us who have left toxic white churches have attempted to put on a brave front. We have mustered what was left of our dignity and worked to distance ourselves from […]
Dignity. I remember the first time that I encountered the concept of retaining, maintaining, and protecting my dignity in majority culture (read: white Evangelical) churches. It was either during a Pass the Mic or Truth’s Table podcast. I felt this new idea on a level so deep that it scared me. I knew that even […]
The morning of January 7, 2021, was a relief. I know that relief isn’t what many people felt after witnessing the terrorizing display of white supremacy twenty-four hours earlier, but I was relieved. I was relieved because I knew that it would make it through the day confident that my faith community would see me, […]
“Being black is exhausting.” A common refrain heard from the voices of disconsolate Black people whenever we are dealing with an onslaught of white terrorism on Black souls and bodies. We say it instinctually. After we’ve engaged in all the scholarly discussions and intellectual gymnastics about racism, we get to the point where the pain […]
Have you ever attended a Black Baptist church in rural Alabama for Resurrection Sunday (Easter) before? Since I was a little boy, my mother and I would travel from the Birmingham suburbia and go “back home,” where my grandparents live, joining relatives at a little country church for Resurrection Sunday. Home sits along Alabama’s Black […]
You learn a lot by feeding a child. They are creatures of habit with sensitive yet non-discriminatory palates. Yesterday’s breakfast is easily today’s breakfast . . . and lunch . . . and dinner—if the temperature is right. A young child has little control over what they are fed. Even more true is that a […]
“I knew who I was this morning, but I’ve changed a few times since then.” Alice, “Through the Looking Glass” Amidst the sound of ice falling as it hit my window sill and the chilly breeze from a not-so-sealed front door, I took a sip of my once piping hot coffee, which had reached room […]
Widely known as the African American National Anthem, “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” started as a poem by James Weldon Johnson. His brother, John Rosamund Johnson, set it to music in 1899. Anthems matter. A national anthem is a symbol that represents the history, beliefs, and traditions of a people. “Lift Ev’ry Voice…” is more […]
2021. The year of reclamation. Like many others, I have encountered more ebbs than flows this season, which has hurled me into the realms of uncertainty. And I know that I’m not alone. The nature of our times has Black people across the African Diaspora (re)questioning whether their Blackness is at odds with their faith. […]
In the summer of 2017, I had the privilege of touring Washington, D.C. and Virginia. As I imagine happens to many travelers from the West Coast, I was taken aback by the richness of history found as one approaches the epicenter of our nation’s birth. On one of our excursions, my family and I took […]
“Do you trust me enough to let me vindicate you?” Did you vindicate my people when they died fighting for their freedom from the most brutalized form of slavery? Did you vindicate them when the French kidnapped and killed their leader? When white Americans sided with their oppressors and imposed fines on them that lead […]
Black un-dignity is a gift from God because it’s a stumbling block to the indignity of racism. God has given Black people the beauty of our culture for the ashes of oppression.
In the time leading up to the 2016 election, I noticed how a conservative Republican Party rallied around a man who did not reflect the principles that their party supposedly stood on. I would even go as far as to say that he was–and still is–the antithesis of the “Christian values” many Republicans claim to […]
