profblmkelley

Fear of a Misreading of History

Sat, 25 Aug 2012 07:50:00 -0400

Let me start by saying that I like the body of work that Ta-Nehisi Coates has produced over the past...

Teaching today

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:23:47 -0400

I’m going to talk about Katrina, Sister Citizen, the awful black face cake, and the residue of...

angryandyellow: This makes me feel old…

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:13:44 -0500

angryandyellow:

This makes me feel old…

radiochantier: Dizzy Gillespie

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 08:06:59 -0500

radiochantier:

Dizzy Gillespie

dreamhampton1: Visual Artist Glenn Ligon

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 08:01:31 -0500

dreamhampton1:

Visual Artist Glenn Ligon

dreamhampton1: I pray that all of the fear that has ever been...

Thu, 19 May 2011 02:04:31 -0400

dreamhampton1:

I pray that all of the fear that has ever been in your heart will be taken out. ~Malcolm X

"Advice for young feminists? Do something else besides feminism. I’m serious. The feminist..."

Thu, 12 May 2011 13:52:46 -0400

“Advice for young feminists? Do something else besides feminism. I’m serious. The feminist...

jsmooth995: A Brief Note About Not Feeding The Trolls.

Thu, 12 May 2011 01:11:32 -0400

jsmooth995:

A Brief Note About Not Feeding The Trolls.

I finally finished Manning Marable’s Malcolm X: A Life of...

Sat, 07 May 2011 18:17:00 -0400

I finally finished Manning Marable’s Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention. Had a great discussion about it on Twitter last week and then on Blacking It Up with Elon James White. Click on the picture to link to the podcast.

A Dred Scott moment?

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 22:19:00 -0400

I’ve always been fascinated by the case of Dred Scott v. Sanford, an 1857 Supreme Court decision. It...

So honored that my book Right to Ride is mentioned in a blog post about Obama's "declaration of birth" moment

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 19:27:00 -0400

So honored that my book Right to Ride is mentioned in a blog post about Obama's "declaration of...

In honor of my dad, who didn’t feel well today, the sassy...

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 01:07:44 -0400

In honor of my dad, who didn’t feel well today, the sassy and vain Ms. Sarah Vaughan. I always love his stories about how she would show up late, fabulous, and particular about what she would sing.

thesmithian: Let’s Move “Move Your Body” video featuring...

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 00:58:33 -0400

thesmithian:

Let’s Move “Move Your Body” video featuring Beyoncé.

So excited that Melissa Harris-Perry’s Sister Citizen will...

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 12:21:36 -0400

So excited that Melissa Harris-Perry’s Sister Citizen will be out this fall. She’s been birthing this one for a minute, but it will be a game changer for the study of black women’s politics. It makes me remember all the moments that she told me about bits and pieces of the work. The walk around my neighborhood when she talked about the concept of the crooked room, the imagining of Janie and Tea-Cake as a political story, laughing about those pink heels on BET… I can’t wait to see all those amazing ideas in one place, bound as a second book. Congrats ma! Follow @SisterCitizen on twitter.

xicanagrrrl: larebelde: Terms like ‘women of color’ are not...

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 12:09:43 -0400

xicanagrrrl:

larebelde:

Terms like ‘women of color’ are not just descriptions, but have political and ideological histories and current meanings. Here’s a clip of Loretta Ross, cofounder and national coordinator of SisterSong -Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, sharing one of the birthing moments of the term ‘women of color’.

http://www.sistersong.net
http://www.westernstatescenter.org

h/t to a.p.

The Origin of the phrase “Women of Color” (via westernstatescenter)

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“Y’all know where the term women of color came from? Who can say that? See we’re bad at transmitting history. In 1977 a group of black women from Washington D.C went to the National Women’s Conference that Jimmy Carter had given 5 million dollars to have as part of the World Decade for Women, there was a conference in Houston, TX. This group of black women carried to that conference something called Black Women’s Agenda because the organizers of the conference, Bella Abu, Elise Miller, what have you, had put together a three page Minority Women’s Plank (Laughs) and a two hundred page document that these black women thought was somewhat inadequate (group laughs). And so they actually formed a group called Black Women’s Agenda to come there in Houston with a Black Womens’ Plan of Action that they wanted the delegates to vote to substitute for the Minority Plank that was in the proposed plan of action. Well funny thing happened in Houston, when they took the Black Women’s Agenda to Houston, then all the rest of minority women of color wanted to be included to the Black Women’s Agenda. Okay? Well they agreed except that you could no longer call it the Black Women’s Agenda. And it was in those negotiations in Houston the term women of color was created. Okay? And they didn’t see it as a biological designation, you’re born Asian, you’re born Black, you’re born African-American, whatever, it is a solidarity definition, a commitment to work in collaboration with other oppressed women of color who have been minoritized. Now what’s happened in the thirty years since then is that people see it as biology now. Like okay, I’m- and and and people say “I don’t want to be defined as a woman of color, I am Black, I am Asian-American, well that’s fine, but why are you reducing a political designation to a biological destiny? That’s what white supremacy wants you to do. (Laughs.) Now, and I think it’s a setback. When we disintegrate as People of Color, you know, around primitive ethnic claiming, yes, we are Asian-American, Native American, whatever, but the point is when you choose to work with other people who are minoritized by oppression you have lifted yourself out of that basic identity into another political being, another political space. And unfortunately, so many times, people of color hear the term people of color from other White people, and think White people created it instead of understanding that, that we self-named ourselves, this is a term that has a lot of power for us. But we’ve done the poorest job of communicating that history so people understand that power.”

I’d watch a movie about her life… thesmithian: “I...

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 15:17:25 -0400

I’d watch a movie about her life…

thesmithian:

“I know I’m no glamour girl, and it’s not easy for me to get up in front of a crowd of people. It used to bother me a lot, but now I’ve got it figured out that God gave me this talent to use, so I just stand there and sing.”

—Ella Fitzgerald was born on this day in 1925

I love African American women writers and love to hear a black...

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 12:44:03 -0400

I love African American women writers and love to hear a black man sing. Marvin Gaye wrote songs that still provide a formidable critique about society today, and still speak to delicately and sometimes brutally about love and love lost. And he was such a beautiful man.

dream hampton + me: a conversation

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 11:47:35 -0400

britnidanielle: a little while ago i had the pleasure of sitting down with one of my favorite...

femalerappers: Jazzy Joyce, Peaches, MC Lyte, Michie Mee, Queen...

Sun, 24 Apr 2011 22:25:30 -0400

femalerappers:

Jazzy Joyce, Peaches, MC Lyte, Michie Mee, Queen Latifah, and Monie Love at the New Music Seminar in 1989.

Wow. They are babies. I LOVED hip hop then.

I read Beloved at 16 as my grandmother was dying. It gave me a...

Sun, 24 Apr 2011 15:15:11 -0400

I read Beloved at 16 as my grandmother was dying. It gave me a space to think and be quiet when my world was so hard. I hope to write well enough one day to provide an escape route for someone else.