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Black People Are Individuals – Stop Lumping Us Together
At the height of the Black Lives Matter movement last year, people of different races, countries and social identities were showing their support for the black community. Whether it was genuine, or they were just jumping on the bandwagon to not look bad, awareness was spreading about the societal issues that plague the black community due to both direct and institutional racism. This was all great, but the trendy period of addressing anti-black racism exposed some other issues when it comes to how black people are perceived by non-black people. At one point, non-black people started making pretty basic social media posts to prove that they support BLM (i.e., out…
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Listen to the Silence of Your Non-Black Friends
We’ve all heard the sayings: “Everyone wants to be Black until it’s time to be Black” or “Everybody wants to be Black, but nobody wants to be Black” …or something along those lines. In times like this, we really get to experience the meaning of these phrases. A few years ago, I made the conscious decision to dissociate myself from the white/non-black people of colour in my life who I noticed were enthusiastically down with the fun parts of black culture but who I would never hear express any sort of opinion over the injustice that is regularly suffered by the black community. You know the ones… the ones who…
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‘Hidden Figures’ and the Importance of Representation
Remember that stand up routine of Chris Rock’s where he expressed that famous quote, “Why the black man gotta fly to something that the white man can walk to?” Well, if you don’t, here’s the video for your convenience. Hidden Figures is not only a film that captures the real life stories of black mathematicians working at NASA during US segregation, it is about female black mathematicians. I had never heard of the names Katherine Goble, Dorothy Vaughn, or Mary Jackson before entering the theatre to watch this film, and that troubles me. Despite a few inaccuracies, the film did a good job of portraying the double oppression these women faced at…
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For What Would Have Been Michael’s 58th
I don’t know if there will ever be an artist that had as much of an impact on me as Michael Jackson. I can’t even tell you the first time I heard an MJ song, how old I was, or what song it was. I can’t remember because I feel like his music was always there, even though I was born in the mid-nineties. By the time I could say that I consciously remember listening to him, he was well past his prime. This definitely says something about the legacy this man was leaving even while still alive. When I first started using Youtube in 2006, I would spend hours watching…
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BLM: Critical Review of To Pimp a Butterfly
Yesterday, Tumblr acknowledged that it’s been two years since the Ferguson protests began, which had me start thinking of Black Lives Matter, a movement I stand by closely. Last semester, I wrote a critical review on my favourite album of 2015, Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly for my pop culture class in reference to the current social turmoil. Here it is. Rapper Kendrick Lamar’s third studio album, To Pimp a Butterfly, was a favourite to win Album of the Year at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards, topping many critics’ “Best Albums of 2015” lists, including Rolling Stones magazine’s (2015). Described as a “masterpiece of fiery outrage, deep jazz and ruthless self-critique” (Tate, 2015, n.p),…
