Thought

Where Black Moms Matter

May 13, 2013

Black Children and Education: Early Schooling, Family Support Is Key To Closing Gap, Says Steve Perry

By HEATHER HOPSON The Call “She’s in!” That’s what the director of a nationally recognized preschool told me over the telephone last week. Those two words triggered tears of joy—joy that my daughter will receive a top-notch education, and tears of pain—pain that my bank account will take a huge ...

May 10, 2013

A Mother’s Love: A Love Letter To The Woman Who Gave Me Away {Diggin In the MBB Crates}

Editor’s Note: This will be the 10th Mother’s Day I’ll have without her, and though I’m sure it will nowhere near as painful as the first, Sunday won’t be easy. A decade doesn’t change that I still wish I could hear her voice again, or see her smile, or wrap ...

May 8, 2013

Absentee Black Fathers: A Black Dad Says It’s Time More Brothers Take Care Of Their Children

By SHAWN TAYLOR When my daughter was born, I didn’t experience the love at first sight that so many parents talk about. In fact, I felt nothing. As I cut her cord, I descended into thinking that it was this absence of feeling that caused my father to leave me when ...

May 6, 2013

Morehouse Students Charged With Raping Spelman Student: Melissa Harris-Perry Weighs In From Our Perspective

I was so moved by Melissa Harris-Perry‘s discussion yesterday about rape culture on college campuses. Yes, I know: it’s been a popular discussion of late, what with the convictions in the Steubenville, Ohio rape and sexual assault case and the rapey lyrics in Rick Ross’ “U.O.E.N.O.,” a song so perverse ...

May 3, 2013

A village answers ‘What does it mean to raise a Black child in the 21st century?’

By SHAWN TAYLOR I’ll get right down to it. I asked several people the following question: What does it mean to raise a Black child in the 21st century? And here are their answers. F. (36, female, nurse): “It’s about instilling values of integrity, pride, hard work. You have to show ...

May 2, 2013

Teen Charged For School Science Project Gone Bad: Where’s the Justice In Zero-Tolerance?

This right here is why America’s public schools stay failing black children: A 16-year-old Florida student with a rep for being one of the smart, good girls in her classes was taken away from her high school in handcuffs and arrested and charged with a felony for conducting a science ...

April 30, 2013

As Our 10-Year-Old Cheers the End of State Tests, We Wish They Would Go Away

By NICK CHILES When our 10-year-old tumbled off the schoolbus today, the relief on her face tucked all up in that broad smile, it signaled the end of the five-day torture chamber that is our state’s annual standardized test. Her feet hadn’t even touched the ground good before she and ...

April 25, 2013

Fatherhood Fitness: How One Black Dad Took Control Of His Health—For His Daughter’s Sake

By SHAWN TAYLOR The invincibility of youth is amazing, but it fades: the reality of my body’s limits now hit in my knees, the small of my back, my rotator cuff. All the soccer/martial arts/being a bouncer injuries that used to take me a mere week or two to spring back ...

April 25, 2013

Obama Family Tattoo: President Tells Sasha & Malia If They Get Inked, He and Michelle Will, Too

My President and First Lady are so gangsta, particularly when it comes to Sasha and Malia and any ideas the First Daughters may have had about getting tattoos: apparently, the two have been informed that if they’re looking to get a little body ink, it’ll totally be a family affair, replete ...

April 23, 2013

Steubenville Coach Gets A Two-Year Contract Extension—and the Students Lose

Clearly, something ain’t right in the community well out in Steubenville, Ohio. It is there where teen girls get drugged. And raped while unconscious. And dragged all around town like a side of beef for teen boys to gawk and laugh at while they train their cell phones on her ...