#BlackLivesMatter and its Clash with #RespectabilityPolitics

Last updated on: September 27, 2015 at 10:45 pm By Guest Contributor

Our editor, Dr. Andre E. Johnson, was the guest on The Agenda with Christian Kirk. In response to his earlier post, “Dear Black People: “Our Respectability Will Not Save Us!” When Police and Respectability Collide,” the topic of the show was the “Politics of Respectability.” Dr. Johnson offered a history of the term and examined the way that respectability has functioned within the African American community. Moreover, he reiterated that respectability politics, the constant self policing of African Americans bodies to... Read more

Inside the Prison Industrial Complex

Last updated on: September 24, 2015 at 6:10 am By Guest Contributor

First published at By Their Strange Fruit In the United States, the land of the free, we incarcerate more of our citizens per capita than any other country in the world. What may have at some point been intended to maintain safety and security for our citizens has resulted in an abusive system that perpetuates itself for its own sake. There has been a 500% increase in our prison population over the last 30 years. Though only 5% of the earth’s population lives in the... Read more

#Patriarchy Has a Uterus

Last updated on: January 16, 2016 at 12:00 pm By Guest Contributor

For the past three days, I’ve been bombarded with attacks on Twitter from Black Muslim women who rushed to Louis Farrakhan’s defense after I called him out on his slut-shaming comments when he said that Jay-Z should put clothes on his wife. They repeatedly told me that Farrakhan changed them from “sluts” to women, and that they are completely safe now that they clothe from head to toe. They rolled harder than the men when it came to defending Farrakhan. ... Read more

Being Black and Dealing with the Trauma of #PoliceBrutality

Last updated on: September 16, 2015 at 10:12 am By Andre E. Johnson

I recently wrote a post that detailed the arrest and humiliation of Dr. Marcia Bowden and her husband Ira Marche. In the post, I talked about how African Americans have this type of frustrated agency. I said For many of us, this is discouraging because it is what I have called before a frustrated agency—that no matter who you are, no matter what you drive, no matter where you live, no matter how much you support police; no matter your profession,... Read more

Dear Black People: “Our Respectability Will Not Save Us!” When Police and Respectability Collide

Last updated on: September 17, 2015 at 7:50 am By Andre E. Johnson

The Tri-State Defender in Memphis is reporting a story of well-known Memphis physician Dr. Marcia Bowden and her husband, Ira Marche and their recent arrest at the hands of the Southaven, Mississippi police department. According to an email sent to the TSD from Dr. Bowden, the incident happened Monday September 7 around 4:00pm on Church Road in Southaven, Mississippi—a town just across the state line from Memphis. According to Dr. Bowden My husband and I were in his Jaguar with... Read more

Sharing and the Continued Struggle of Being Open

Last updated on: September 8, 2015 at 11:07 am By Guest Contributor

I’m trying to get used to sharing. Trying to get used to what it means to let people inside the front door of my feelings and have ‘em sit for a spell. If I’m my most honest, it’s not very comfortable. Sharing doesn’t always feel good, but I feel the growth. I figure if I am to do my best work, then I have to become vulnerable. This is something I was never taught as a child. Little black girls... Read more

My Black Faith and the Faith of #KimDavis

Last updated on: September 6, 2015 at 8:25 pm By Guest Contributor

First Published at Ten Speaks I am unashamedly black and unapologetically Christian. I love my black skin and I love Jesus Christ. Together with being a woman, those two identities are the absolute core of who I am and inform my thoughts and perspectives. But being a black, female Christian is a hard space to live in today. I am constantly examining and re-examining the intersection of these parts of me. Because I’m black, I understand all too well the... Read more

Dear White People Who Proclaim “#AllLivesMatter” or “#PoliceLivesMatter”

Last updated on: September 18, 2015 at 5:45 am By Guest Contributor

Dear White People, I understand (as a fellow white person) where you’re coming from. We white folks prefer universal and abstract moral claims that relieve us of any responsibility for social change and keep us on the moral high ground. We also prefer to ignore historical particularity in our theologies/philosophies (we just cannot help ourselves, we love the “pure” rationality of the Enlightenment) and so “All Lives Matter” appeals to our sense of universality. As a white theologian, I even agree... Read more

The Church, The Poor, and Lessons from Katrina

Last updated on: August 31, 2015 at 8:09 am By Guest Contributor

Published at KineticsLive.com By R. Drew Smith, Ph.D. In 1995, the first of the Left Behind series was published—a hugely successful franchise that dealt in fictionalized enactments of Christian endtimes scenarios. Based upon a Biblical eschatological view that gained popularity by the mid-20th century, these novels depict a radical transformation of society that ensues after the Christian faithful are supernaturally taken out of the world (“raptured”), clearing the way for the rule of the antichrist and the inevitable descent toward apocalypse. Within... Read more

A Hidden Gem: “Good Cops” Serving Black Communities

Last updated on: August 30, 2015 at 9:28 am By Andre E. Johnson

Earlier, I wrote a piece that asked “Where are the good cops when we need them?” It was in response to the shooting of yet another unarmed black person Sam Dubose in Cincinnati. What made this shooting more atrocious was the fact that officer Tensing lied to investigators in an attempt to cover up what actually happened. The officers, who knew what actually happened supported Tensings version of events until investigators saw footage from the body cam that Tensing wore... Read more