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October 2017 New Book Release

Now or Never!: Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Infantry’s War to End Slavery

-Ray Shepard

Here is the riveting dual biography of two little-known but extraordinary men in Civil War history―George E. Stephens and James Henry Gooding. These Union soldiers not only served in the Massachusetts 54th Infantry, the well-known black regiment, but were also war correspondents who published eyewitness reports of the battlefields. Their dispatches told the truth of their lives at camp, their intense training, and the dangers and tragedies on the battlefield. Like the other thousands of black soldiers in the regiment, they not only fought against the Confederacy and the inhumanity of slavery, but also against injustice in their own army. The regiment’s protest against unfair pay resulted in America’s first major civil rights victory―equal pay for African American soldiers. This fresh perspective on the Civil War includes an author’s note, timeline, bibliography, index and source notes.

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Black Liberation at HBCUs, or An Ex-Howard Student’s Reflections on Normative Thought at Work

Black Lives Matter. We say it, wear it on a t-shirt, draw it, and write about it. But what does it actually mean? To some, it’s all about race first identity and nationalism. To others, it’s about recognizing the multiplicity in Blackness and our lack of equity across the globe. Howard University, one of the Black Ivy League schools and the #1 co-educational HBCU, is home to a very diverse student body economically, geographically, and even ethnically. It doesn’t take but five steps on the yard before you see hundreds of students donning t-shirts with messages that honor Black history and culture. However, if you speak to some of these same students, the amount of times you will hear something like “my parents only let me apply to Black Ivy Leagues” or “the only HBCU I’d ever go to is Howard” is troubling. If we say Black Lives Matter, we have to understand that mean ALL Black Lives Matter. Insinuating that only specific Black institutions deserve our attention has exhibits forms of anti-blackness. Howard is a seemingly impenetrable bubble of “pro-black” students until a car rides by blasting gogo music on a Wednesday and you just know that person doesn’t go here. Then it becomes an entire rant about locals and gogo music and how horrible D.C. is only to contradict the discussion in class a few minutes ago that we need to keep D.C.’s status as a Chocolate City.

It’s not out of the ordinary to see HBCU students telling high school students to only apply to Black Ivies because the others are “ghetto” even though these same students say Howard is in the hood. We cannot celebrate the fact that we have 106 HBCUs but only promote 10. We should not be putting down other HBCUs to lift ours up and then wonder why HBCUs have so little funding and enrollment. As HBCU students we should want every black student to go to some HBCU even if it isn’t the best of the best by U.S. News standards. Shouldn’t we know that everything in our community can’t be measured by white standards? Isn’t it troubling in itself to categorize top HBCUs as Ivy Leagues but then get mad when others say Howard is the Black Harvard? How can we call ourselves pro-black if we are not giving back to our communities or telling fellow students and even professors to stop speaking African? It is imperative that we understand our place in this world and try our hardest to make our communities better.

It is not enough to have a race-first ideology. It is our obligation to do better than generations before us. We simply can’t afford to analyze our communities through narrow definitions of acceptable blackness. Blackness is more than Black cishet men. Blackness is also Black women, Black LGBTQ, Black poor, Black disabled, and the list goes on. If we are not fighting for the liberation of everyone, what are we doing?

#hbcu #black and bougie #liberation #random thoughts #community #black history

superheroesincolor

How to Find a Fox (2016)

“Equipped with a camera and determination, a little girl sets out to track down an elusive red fox. But foxes are sneaky, and it proves more difficult than she thought.

Nilah Magruder’s debut picture book charmingly tells the story of what it means to not give up and how sometimes what you’re looking for is closer than you think.”

By Nilah Magruder

Get it now here

Nilah Magruder is an award-winning writer, illustrator, and storyboard artist. She has received the inaugural Dwayne McDuffie Award for diversity, in recognition for her web comic M.F.K. In addition to comics, she has illustrated for children’s books, film, and commercial television as well as Disney and DreamWorks.

[Follow SuperheroesInColor faceb / instag / twitter / tumblr / pinterest]

nmaahc

#SlaveWrecks Preserves First Known Artifacts from a Slave Ship

“I think all Americans need to recognize that, as tragic and horrible as slavery was, as big an economic shadow as it cast, the one thing it didn’t do was strip people of their humanity. And I wish that all of us were as strong as the people that walked down those steps and got on those boats.” - Lonnie Bunch

Director Lonnie Bunch takes CBS’ Scott Pelley on a journey to Mozambique Island to discuss the ruins of the Sao Jose, a ship carrying cargo manifest records of 1,500 iron bars for ballast and more than 400 slaves bound for Brazil.

Read more on 60 Minutes.

About the Slave Wrecks Project (SWP)

The Slave Wrecks Project (SWP) is a long-term collaboration between six core partners, including the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), the U.S. National Park Service Submerged Resources Center (NPS SRC) and its Southeast Archaeological Center (NPS SEAC), the George Washington University Capitol Archaeological Institute (GWU CAI), IZIKO Museums of South Africa, the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA), and Diving With a Purpose (DWP). The project integrates research, training and education in the pursuit of new scholarship on the global slave trade, utilizing the lens of slave shipwrecks as its unique point of entry.

Lanae S., Social Media Specialist, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

nprfreshair

A Former Speechwriter Looks Back On His ‘Hopey, Changey’ Years With Obama

David Litt was 24 years old and just a few years out of college when he landed a job writing speeches for President Barack Obama — an experience he calls “surreal and completely terrifying.”

Though he was initially assigned the speeches no one else wanted to write, Litt eventually became a special assistant to the president and senior presidential speechwriter. His duties included writing jokes for the short comedy routine Obama performed annually at the White House Correspondents Association dinners.

Litt says a lot of those jokes worked because they were coming from the president. “As I re-tell them, I often am reminded of this, because people give me a look like, Really? That was funny? And I’m like, Yeah, you have to hear the president tell it.”

Other speeches led to unintentional political controversy. When Litt wrote Obama a Thanksgiving address that neglected to mention God, conservative media criticized the president for the omission. The blowback taught Litt a valuable lesson. “Your job as a speech writer is not just to write good speeches,” he says. “Your job is to keep in the back of your mind the fact that there’s a whole industry of people trying to take your words out of context — and that’s politics.”

Litt’s new memoir is Thanks, Obama: My Hopey, Changey White House Years.

blackourstory

Thesis Topic

Kind of struggling with the wording of my senior thesis topic so I’m just going to throw phrases out here...

Black queer love as resistance

Marlon Riggs and Black queer media

Black masculinity

Possible questions:

How do Marlon Riggs’ documentaries illustrate Black queer love as resistance? How does Black queer love combat ideas of Black masculinity during the AIDS epidemic?

Senior Thesis

So I finally decided on my topic... mostly.

I’ll be looking at Marlon Riggs’ films “Black is... Black ain’t” and “Tongues Untied”, public perception, and its impact on Black popular culture

Some questions I have:

- How did Riggs’ films disrupt the dominant narrative of Black gay men?

- How were the films received by the general public, the queer population, and the Black population?

- What were some other sources of Black queerness in popular culture?

Now I’m trying to find scholarly sources - which is my usual issue.

mrlifeisrich

Marlon Riggs on the set of Tongues Untied.

iwriteaboutfeminism

African-American women’s experiences as mothers have been shaped by the dominant group’s efforts to harness Black women’s sexuality and fertility to a system of capitalist exploitation.

Patricia Hill Collins: Black Feminist Thought (via iwriteaboutfeminism)

theproblackgirl

Lol + smfh

indighostintheshell

The “Angry Dark Skin Friend”

There’s a common pattern in many forms of black media where there are 2 black female characters who are friends or sisters, one being lighter in skintone, while the other is darker. Even though darkskin and lightskin women form friendships all the time, the way they’re commonly depicted in Black Media is what stands out and perpetuates certain stereotypes:

1. in the film/show/etc, the main character/focus of the 2 is typical the lighter skin woman

2. this makes the darker skin woman the “sidekick”

3. the lighter skin woman is portrayed as prettier, nicer, “classier”, more reserved, and/or overall more likeable and desirable

4. the darker skin woman is portrayed as shady, mean, loud, desperate, abrasive, aggressive, and/or overall less attractive (many would say “ghetto”)

These photos show just a few examples that came to mind…

Coming to America (1988) - The darker skin sister was more desperate for a man, chasing after Prince Akeem, Simi, and even her sister’s ex-fiancé. In the frame of society’s norms, this would be seen as “fast”, “tacky” or lacking in morals, which would therefore, make her less fitting to be a wife.

House Party (1990) - The darker skin friend (AJ Johnson) was the louder, more outgoing friend who was ready to date both Kid & Play, whereas Tisha Campbell’s character was more timid, and ended up being Kid’s “better suited” love interest.

Martin (1992-1997) - Once again, Tisha Campbell is playing the main female character, Gina Waters, and love interest to the main character, Martin Payne. While Gina is depicted as a kinder, classier, professional, “wifey” type, her best friend/assistant Pamela James, played by Tichina Arnold, is depicted as a loud, angry, man-less, berating black woman with “buckshots” and “beedeebees” in her “horse” hair, who was constantly butting heads with Martin.

Proud Family (2001-2005) - Penny, the lighter skin girl, was the main character with Dijonay, the darker skin girl, as the friend/sidekick. Dijonay had a less “traditional” name, as did her many siblings, was portrayed as louder, having more attitude, and was constantly chasing after Sticky, a boy who not only didn’t want her, but preferred the lighter skin friend, Penny.

Rick Ross’ Music Video for “Aston Martin Music” (2010) - In the early portion of the video, we see a young Ricky out on the block with other neighborhood kids, dreaming about owning a luxury car one day. Among the kids there’s 2 young girls, one darker skin and the other lighter skin. While the darker skin girl is quick to berate him and tear down his dreams of ever being that successful, raising her voice and waving her finger in his face, the lighter skin girl is quick to reassure him and support his dream. Once again, this display reaffirms the stereotype of darker skin women being mean, bitter, and angry, while lighter skin women are kinder, sweeter, and happier.

africant

lostinhistorypics

Protestor at gay rights demonstration in 1970. Photograph by Diana Davies

The Cycle

Didn’t summer just start? Or at least summer part two? I was so excited to have this summer break after the Quarles program and I feel like it ended so quickly. Although I was happy to get back to Morgan, I feel like I’ve been bombarded with questions about after graduation.

“Hello, how are you? How was your summer? What are your plans after graduation? When are you taking the GRE? What are your research interests?”

They didn’t even ask me about what I researched over the summer smh. But here I am again, starting the research cycle all over again.

Possible topics:

Women in the Negro Baseball League

Black queer thought on Black nationalism

1968 teachers’ strike in NYC

I know they all seem very different but I’m trying to decide what I’m exactly interested in because in truth, they all interest me. By next week I think I’ll have a list of questions and that’s how I’ll make a decision.

masonjar9-blog

Legit badass. This woman played in the Negro Leagues in the early 1950’s. Mamie “Peanut” Johnson

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