The roots of name discrimination are an extension of the harms caused by slavery and colonialism — For the Urhobo people of southern Nigeria, like many Africans across the continent, names are a serious matter. Traditionally, an Urhobo child is given a name according to their family’s desire for who they might become, the hope being that a child will live up to the likeness of what…

A look at the crises impacting people of color in Miami, Oakland, and Brooklyn, where residents fight to protect their communities — Kerbie Joseph has lived in the same Crown Heights apartment her entire life. A first-generation American of Haitian descent, she has also watched the historically Caribbean and Hasidic New York City neighborhood become engulfed in recent years by mostly, but certainly not only, the White, professional yuppie class.

She has often said she became Black in the United States, but what does this really mean? — In a recent interview about identity and feminism with the Economist, Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie remarked on how she began to identify as Black only when she came to the United States for university. It’s a story she’s told many times before, referring to how “Blackness” becomes a marker…

Note: You can listen to an audio of this piece here: Survival and Other Important Matters. It has been a year of poetry. By that I mean I have probably read more poetry this year than any year prior. (I have also written some, though that remains a private undergoing.)…

I initally just wrote this on my Facebook as a way to answer the question, “What can we do?” when disaster strikes in a place. I thought I might post it here too. 1.) Learn about Haitian history to understand the factors that contribute to the country’s seemingly endless economic…

Yesterday afternoon, I attempted to use an app to delete a majority of my tweets, hoping to keep my “Twitter memory” within one year. It’s something I’ve considered doing for a while now, and yesterday seemed as good a day as any to finally say goodbye to thousands of tweets…

It is always such a disappointment when we discover that people we admire — both those in the present as well as the past — held or hold problematic beliefs, committed unjustifiable acts, and lived their lives in such a way that it taints the way we approach and engage…

When you consider the heightened ethno-nationalism sweeping the West currently, Brexit isn’t surprising. On a personal level however, I must admit I am disappointed in the UK. …

Privileging Loudness at the Expense of Moderation — Our culture — that is the dominant culture that exists in the United States and that is exported to all corners of the globe — is one that is loud. We love loud things and loud people. People who take absolute and almost vulgarly strong positions on things, are the…