It’s said that fortune favors the bold, but American history suggests that it doesn’t always favor the bright. Pure boldness has little trouble finding the limelight, even when its consequences are close behind. The Virtue of Volume Take former president Donald Trump and influencer Andrew Tate for examples. Neither one of them is the sharpest …
Throughout history, several authoritarian and totalitarian governments solidified the power of their leaders by developing what is called a “cult of personality.” A cult of personality can be described as a collective positive perception of a political figure that’s built out of unwavering praise and propaganda in that figure’s favor. They are grounded in fanfare …
Being that the month of May is both Mental Health Awareness Month and the lesser-known National Teen Self-Esteem Month, there’s perhaps no better time to pay special attention to the mental health situations of ourselves, our loved ones, our friends and our youth. This May, as was the case with the last three, is an …
Mental Health Awareness Month: What’s Wrong and What We Can Do Read More »
With May saluting health, women, and mothers around the world, I wanted to interview my mom, as it’s been a bit of a difficult month for our family. As an educator and the head of her household, she’s carried the heavy weight of maintaining her responsibilities and independence for much of her life. If her …
What’s Happening Steven Eugene Washington, a Black man with autism, was only twenty-seven years old when a Los Angeles Police Department officer gunned him down in the streets of Koreatown. According to the resulting police report, the unarmed Washington was initially approached by two officers in a police vehicle in response to a loud noise …
April has been designated as Autism Awareness Month. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), is a developmental disability. Autism refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech, and nonverbal communication. According to the Centers for Disease Control, autism affects an estimated 1 in 36 children in the United States …
The “system” spoken of in the term “systemic oppression” is a devilishly intricate piece of machinery. In the American sense, it was forged from several centuries’ worth of enslaving, lynching, miseducating, litigating, suppressing, redistricting, policing, and a litany of further -ings that I haven’t the time nor the energy to list. It is the time-tested …
America’s unappreciated hero is the Black woman. Often celebrated for being the first willing to protect, care, and give, the mental wellness of Black women is frequently corrupted by a false sense of autonomy – that everything maneuvered must be done so alone. Calling attention to how far we need to continue progressing doesn’t take …
Analyzing Insecurities that Plague Black Girls Looking into the mirror is getting easier. Though I can’t say I don’t still nitpick, it used to be worse for me. From the time I became able to distinguish the difference between the childlike innocence of spotting what made me different from other kids, and the desire to …
In a 1968 episode of The Dick Cavett Show, author James Baldwin unleashed a strikingly eloquent monologue that is still celebrated today as one of his most powerful. He was responding to a claim by another guest on the show, Yale philosophy professor Paul Weiss, that some of Baldwin’s earlier comments in the episode exaggerated …
