NAREISSA SMITH

My eighth-grade history teacher back in Grand Rapids, Michigan, began our Civil War unit with a movie. We spent nearly a week of class time watching "Gone with the Wind." The person responsible for providing us with a true depiction of history showed us a film that elides the true reasons for the war and portrays enslaved persons as dumb, happy, and servile. He gave us fiction rather than fact. GOP-controlled state legislatures and school boards across the South are perpetuating a fiction of th

Sending such horrible messages to adults is bad enough, but the fast food industry also targets children of color with their ad campaigns. The Rudd Center at the University of Connecticut found that while junk food and fast food advertising declined 4% overall from 2013 to 2015, the amount of money spent targeting African American youth increased by 50%. As a result, African American children saw 86% more food ads than white children during this period. Many of these companies also invested in S

The election of Donald Trump ushered in an era of heightened racial anxiety. His election triggered an immediate wave of violence against African-Americans and other nonwhites. The rise in racially motivated hate crimes has continued well into his first year in office.  Beyond physical violence, the past year has also included a seemingly high amount of anti-Black rhetoric, much of it coming from the White House. It’s no wonder that most Americans believe that race relations have gotten worse si

Television is experiencing a “New Golden Age.”  Television dramas and comedies are earning high praise for their daring and creativity. Though television still needs more diversity, actors and shows by African American creators have thrived. Shows like “black-ish,” “Insecure,” and “Scandal” are enjoyed by Black and white audiences alike. Slowly but surely the television landscape is becoming more diverse. Although television is becoming more diverse, there is one group of African-Americans that

The North Carolina State Fair is one of the best things about living in this state. There aren’t many places where you can buy crafts, view art, ride rides, and learn a few things, all while eating some of the most deliciously unhealthy food in the country. But I didn’t go this year. Sadly, I won’t be going for the foreseeable future. I won’t go to the state fair again until it ends its association with the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV). As an African-American woman, I simply can’t enjoy my funnel cake if it is served with a dollop of racially revisionist white supremacy

When I was a child, the phrases “Black is Beautiful” and “Say it Loud! I’m Black and I’m Proud!” were constants in my household. Though these phrases originated well before I was born, my parents did all they could to convince me that my black skin was beautiful. As a result of their efforts, I came to view my chocolate skin as a prized possession. Because of the way I was raised, I was shocked to learn that the rest of the world did not view black skin in the same way that I did. I was appalle

In 1965, the United States Department of Labor released “The Moynihan Report,” a paper that aimed to explain the causes of poverty in the Black community. Although the author, Assistant Secretary of Labor Daniel Patrick Moynihan, acknowledged that slavery, segregation, and other racial injustices had harmed Black families, he concluded that the primary cause of poverty was the “deterioration of the Negro family.” Moynihan who later became a four-term Democratic senator representing New York, con