Portfolio Category: Portfolio: Race

Companies are Finally Changing Racist Brand Names. But is it Enough?

From the moment we wake up until we go to sleep, it’s estimated that we are exposed to between 2,000 and 5,000 advertising messages daily. This includes ads we see on TV, hear on the radio, see on billboards, on the Internet, in magazines we pick up while waiting for a doctor’s appointment, on display…
Read more

Music, Politics and the Soundtrack of Rebellion

As long as there have been voices and instruments, people have made music to express themselves. From odes to trucks, dogs and love to songs about Jesus and Allah, no matter the emotion, if it can be felt, it can be put into words and turned into music. As many songs that have been produced…
Read more

A Legacy Denied: The Murder of Fred Hampton, 50 Years Later

Fred Hampton
On December 4, 1969, one of the country’s most promising young revolutionaries was murdered by police, in a joint operation fully supported by the FBI. That revolutionary’s name was Fred Hampton, and 50 years later his brief time in the spotlight still evokes admiration and deep regret over the events that took his life. Hampton…
Read more

Overview of the Civil Rights Movement

An image of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr with a caption reading "Overview of Civil Rights Movement"
There is a history of racial inequality in America and out of this the hunger for African Americans to be able to equally express their citizenship rights took a nationally tangible shape. Sixty years before Black Lives Matter, there was the civil rights movement. For people just coming of age, it might seem from current…
Read more

Pondering My Racial Identity Post-Hurricane Maria

I have been writing from the Biracial and Multiracial perspective since I co-authored the book, Being Biracial: Where Our Secret Worlds Collide in 2015. Being Biracial is an anthology of essays from either Multiracial people or parents of mixed race kids. My parents raised my brothers and me to self-identify as Black, and yes, I…
Read more

Procter and Gamble Commercial: Let’s Talk About the Talk

If you haven’t heard about the Procter and Gamble commercial, The Talk, let me please be the one to introduce it to you. It’s raw, it’s historical and it’s spot on! Anyone claiming it’s race baiting, racist or that they’re going to boycott Procter and Gable because of it, I say this: ask yourself why…
Read more

Was Charles M. Schulz a Racist? All Depends on Your Perspective

An image of Charlie Brown and friends around a Thanksgiving table and a caption reading "Was Charles M. Schulz a Racist? All Depends on Your Perspective"
Was Charles Schulz a racist? Well, it all depends on your perspective. Yesterday my cousin Jason asked if I’d seen this meme, which was created from using a still from The Peanuts Thanksgiving television special that originally aired in 1968. We got into a discussion about the Peanuts creator, the late Charles M. Schulz. I…
Read more

Cultural Appropriation, Assimilation or Appreciation

Ever since Jenn M. Jackson accused Bruno Mars of cultural appropriation on her Twitter page, everyone and their cousins have been weighing on what’s cultural appropriation. Somebody wrote an article suggesting that White people with dreadlocs is another example of cultural appropriation. We even took sides when two in the infamous Kardashian / Jenner clan…
Read more