Otherworldly Videos: White House, Black President

With the next presidential election only a few months away, let us look back on the symbolism of a black president through speculative film and think about the new considerations we must think about now that we have one. In a 1961 speech at the Liberation Committee for Africa, James Baldwin offered a critical response […]

The My-Stery: Problematic Historical Revision

With the release of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and the upcoming Django Unchained, it is important that we discuss the practice of historical revision, given the political climate we live in today. First, nothing is inherently wrong with historical revision. As we learn more about the past, we revise history. Sometimes we do it as […]

“NO FAIRYTALE: Why We Must Teach Kids About Prison”

Dr. R. L’Heureux Lewis-McCoy wrote an article about the increasing need to teach young children and adults about surviving the prison industrial system: Recently, a picture has been floating around the Internet of a children’s book called “The Night Dad Went to Jail: What to expect when someone you love goes to jail” by Melissa […]

The My-Stery: Frank Ocean, Sexuality, and Otherness

For the past few days, hip-hop and r&b singer Frank Ocean had tongues wagging with rumors of his sexuality. Yesterday, he officially decided to come out and speak about the love he had for another man. In his poetic and honest letter, the singer expressed, “…I’m starting to think we’re a lot alike. Human beings […]

The My-Stery: Some Thoughts on the 4th of July…

As I get older and learn more about the world, I am increasingly less impressed or ecstatic about holidays, Independence Day included. Can I really celebrate completely and wholeheartedly a country that was built off the enslavement and imprisonment of others and a country where I do not fully feel free and independent? That freedom […]

Behind the Mask: Is Willow Smith Too Young?

Tamar-Kali – Boot Willow Smith, the daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, is known for her eccentric fashion sense, which I love. Yet lately she has been turning heads with her hairstyling and a possible tongue piercing. The Daily News has reported that her piercing is fake, but many are still questioning Will […]

The My-Stery: The Gaze in 2012

Rockwell- Somebody’s Watching Me With the recent death of Rodney King, I wanted to reflect on the gaze or surveillance in our society and how it has manifested itself during this year so far. The gaze has implied that the bodies of others, like Black bodies, should always be under scrupulous examination because we are […]

The My-Stery: Musing About Native Steampunk

I was going to do a post on how all our creations are technology (and even we are in a sense technology), and how that applies to definitions of afrofuturism, but I will probably do later. First, I will like to reblog a post I read on tumblr from Moniquilliloquies about Indigenous American cultures and […]

The Fear of the Hood

Trayvon Martin’s death, which eerily reminds me of Emmett Till, has sparked a national outcry as well as a reminder that we still have a long way to go when it comes to race. For example, there is a tumblr page exposing the racist backlash of the black character Rue in Hunger Games, the racial […]