Tag: Black Voices

Transgender identity has only entered mainstream vernacular over the past several years. As such, there’s been confusion about how to properly use this word in writing and conversation.

The term has gotten a lot of media attention of late, thanks to President Trump’s revocation of an Obama-era guidance that protects the rights of transgender kids to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity in the public school system, and the upcoming SCOTUS hearing on March 28 on the case of Gavin Grimm.

As is the case when talking about many marginalized groups, it’s best to educate yourself about proper language in order to more accurately describe their varied experiences. 

One key thing to remember is: “transgender” is an adjective ― not a noun.

Refer to people as “transgender men,” “transgender women,” “transgender individuals,” “transgender people” ― never “transgenders.” “Transgender” should be used to modify a noun ― never as a standalone. 

Don’t use transgender as a verb ― “transgendered” ― despite Lady Gaga enshrining this word into pop culture vernacular with the lyrics of her song “Born This Way.” This just simply isn’t correct.

Many people also use “trans” as a shortened version of “transgender” ― though the distinction between these two can mean different things for different people. 

As a rule of thumb when using “trans,” follow the same adjective-based rules that you would for transgender: “trans man,” trans woman” and “trans people.” Trans is also oftentimes use to describe a spectrum of gender identities under the umbrella term “transgender.” 

Use of the word “transgender” gained widespread popularity in the 1990s as a way to describe people who “cross over” traditional notions of the male/female gender binary. The history of the word’s evolution is certainly complex.

Language can be confusing, but it is so important to make an effort to get this stuff right, as this word is used to describe real human experience and real human beings. Language is also always evolving, and there could easily be new ways to talk about this realm of identity in the future.

And if it comes down to it and you find yourself confused ― just ask! It’s always better to ask about LGBTQ themes and ideas you are confused about than to assume or flat out not care.

Language always matters ― and so does your use of it, no matter how you identify.

James Michael Nichols is a queer writer and cultural critic whose work focuses heavily on the intersections of identity, art and politics. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

Alicia Keys, a coach on “The Voice,” proved Tuesday on “The Tonight Show” that she can be a student of voices as well.

In a game of random musical impressions with host Jimmy Fallon, Keys hit the right notes while impersonating Adele on “The Alphabet Song.” It isn’t to the letter, but it’s good enough to wow the house.

Props for her Janis Joplin on “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” also. 

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

Actress Lauren London was prompted to remind her 3.2 million Instagram followers on Tuesday that she remains self-loving and unbothered despite criticism of her baby weight.

Last year, the 32-year-old managed to keep an entire pregnancy under wraps until September, when she announced via Instagram that she’d recently given birth to her second son.

Since then, public appearances have been rare for London. So when she stepped out for a Lakers game with boyfriend and rapper Nipsey Hussle on Monday, a few trolls took notice, and London became a trending topic on Twitter as people criticized her post-baby weight. 

While most of Twitter defended London, she still took the time to eloquently respond to the hateration in an IG post Tuesday.

“I’ve been getting compliments on my looks for years,” she wrote on Instagram. “I never let it ‘gas me’ because I knew the enduring value in all things is internal. When I decided to have my son, I knew the Internet would be cruel.”

“I knew that my body would change, but I did not let the fear of these things effect me to the point of going against my spirit,” London continued. “This lil weight will get worked off and who I am will be uncompromised. Win-win, no?”

What made the clapback even better was that she ended the post by referring to herself as “LL The Great.” 

Go awf, LL.

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

Setting emotional boundaries is the key to a healthy relationship, but it isn’t always easy to do when you’re so focused on another person’s needs and wants. To make sure you’re still taking care of yourself, follow these essential pieces of boundary-setting advice from three “SuperSoul” guests who have learned the hard way.

1. Say “no” ― without offering explanations or excuses.

As television producer Shonda Rhimes puts it, “’No’ is a complete sentence.” Though many of us are wired to run through reasons why we can’t, won’t or don’t want to do something, Rhimes says she has learned that we are not required to defend our “nicehood.”

2. Don’t let people that don’t matter too much matter too much.

When it comes to making decisions ― large or small ― there’s always this universal fact no matter what you decide: You won’t please everyone. That’s why best-selling author Wes Moore suggests not letting people who don’t matter, matter. “The decision that you make is not going to impact them, nor [should] anything they do … impact you,” he says.

3. Don’t make someone else’s “crazy” about you.

In her childhood, life coach Iyanla Vanzant believed her grandmother’s meanness was somehow all about Iyanla herself ― and many of us have a tendency take on other people’s problems like this, she says. Don’t get swept away by someone else’s story. “You’ve got your own stuff to handle,” Iyanla says. “You don’t have to take on anybody else’s.”

Want more stories like this delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the Oprah.com Relationships Newsletter.

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

Despite her past differences with Nicki Minaj and her recent concert with Remy Ma, Lil’ Kim has made it clear that she has “nothing to do” with the pair’s current beef.

In a new interview with Billboard, Kim gave her two cents on the rap feud between the two MCs, and denied rumors about her recording a “diss track” with Remy aimed at Minaj.

“That’s their situation and I have nothing to do with that,” she said. “They have a rumor out there like, ‘Kim is gonna do a diss track with Remy.’ First of all, let me tell you this. Number one: y’all giving ol’ girl too much credit. I’m not even thinking about that. I’m not even thinking about ol’ girl! I’m so far past that. That’s never on my mind. Ever. Ol’ girl has never been on my mind for a long-ass time at all. So I hate the fact of that being in the equation.”

Since Remy Ma’s scathing, nearly seven-minute track “ShETHER” was released Saturday, a slew of fans have responded via social media mocking Minaj in a string of memes and hailing Remy as the victor. The song appeared less than 24 hours after the release of Gucci Mane’s latest track, “Make Love,” in which Minaj appears to offer a few subliminal lyrics directed at Remy’s status in the rap world. 

Kim told Billboard there’s no reason Remy Ma would need her to jump on a diss track. 

“After hearing ‘ShETHER,’ that shit is so hard, Remy don’t need no damn help,” she said. “Why would I need to come together for that? I mean, I’m into the music and I’m speaking musically wise ― the song is just hard, period. Just like [Drake’s] ‘Back To Back’ was hard ― just good hip-hop music.”

“But I got nothing to do with that,” she continued. “So if it ain’t coming my way, I ain’t got nothing to do with it. Me and Remy is cool. I hate when media do that.”

While Nicki Minaj has yet to respond to “ShETHER,” on Tuesday Remy highlighted the track landing at No. 2 on iTunes’ U.S. Hip-Hop/Rap chart.

Read more of Lil’ Kim’s Billboard interview here.

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

There were so many amazing moments to bask in this Black History Month.

We experienced 28 days of black excellence, even in the midst of a White House administration led by a man who’s constantly accused of racism. This month, black people shined brightly and proved that the resilience of our ancestors flows deep within our veins. 

 Here are 42 moments that made this Black History Month one for the culture.

1. Beyoncé kicked off BHM and blessed us with her pregnancy announcement.

2. Google honored iconic black sculptor Edmonia Lewis with a doodle. 

3. Frederick Douglass’ descendants put the president in check for his empty remarks on the abolitionist. 

4. Tiera Guinn, 22, exuded black excellence by becoming an engineer with NASA before her graduation from MIT.  

5. Viola Davis’ comments on the beauty of being a black woman after her Oscar win.

6. Savannah State University became the first HBCU team to win CheerSport Nationals. 

7. A Tribe Called Quest sent a powerful message against President Donald Trump ― and Busta Rhymes dubbed him “President Agent Orange” ― at the Grammys. 

8. English teacher Barry White Jr. was highlighted for having a personalized handshake for each student. 

 9. Iman and Halima Aden shared their Somali pride.  

10. Merriam-Webster threw “shade” into the dictionary.

11. “Get Out,” a thriller film about racism, debuted with a rare 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

12. After transforming into a literal goddess during her Grammy performance (while pregnant with twins), Beyoncé accepted her award for Best Urban Contemporary album by affirming that “Lemonade” was for black women.

13. A rare portrait of Harriet Tubman surfaced.

14. Alfre Woodard hosted her annual Oscar’s Sistahs Soiree and all of your faves attended.

15. Essence magazine honored Aja Naomi King, Yara Shahidi, Janelle Monáe and Issa Rae at its 10th Annual Black Women in Hollywood Awards.

16. College students honored black history by decorating their dorm room doors.

17. “Moonlight” won Best Picture at the Academy Awards and put on for every black person who’s been overlooked for white mediocrity.

18. Mahershala Ali won his first Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in “Moonlight.”

19. Calvin Klein featured the men of “Moonlight” for their latest men’s underwear campaign.

20. BET blessed us with “The New Edition Story.”

21. Cardi B scored a multimillion-dollar deal with Atlantic Records. 

22. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) gathered everyone’s wigs and dragged the hell out of Trump’s Cabinet.  

23. Scholastic announced that 12-year-old Marley Dias will publish an activism guide for kids and teens.

24. Langston Hughes’ home in Harlem became open to the public.

25. Seven-year-old Jaden met his idol, Lester Holt. 

26. First-grade teacher Patrick Harris showed his students how to properly tie a durag.

27. Trayvon Martin’s parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, released a book five years after his death.

28. Michaela Angela Davis and Dabo Ché launched Black Love Power.

29. Chance the Rapper won three Grammys and was the epitome of #blackboyjoy.

30. The ladies of “Hidden Figures” brought Katherine Johnson onstage during the Oscars.

31. Denzel Washington sent a powerful message to black Hollywood at the NAACP Image Awards.

32. Netflix’s “Dear White People” trailer drops and upsets racists.

33. Blac Chyna had a Black History Month photo shoot. 

34. Kiera Please had some amazing costumes in support of #28DaysOfBlackCosplay. 

35. Janelle Monáe celebrated U.S. Navy trailblazer Raye Montague on “Good Morning America.” 

36.  The U.S. Army lifted the ban on dreadlocks.

37. Raoul Peck’s James Baldwin documentary, “I Am Not Your Negro,” is released.

38. PBS released the “American Masters” documentary “Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise.”

39. AOL’s black employee resource group, BAOLers, held a panel with four black influencers from the business, media, tech and activism fields.

40. Remy Ma “shethered” Nicki Minaj with nearly seven straight minutes of bars. 

41. Google pledged more than $11 million to organizations dedicated to achieving racial equality.

42. We celebrated our heritage unapologetically. 

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

Baltimore County police are reviewing body camera footage of a teen’s violent arrest after officers responded to a fight at a local school.

Police arrived at Woodlawn High School last Wednesday after fight broke out between several teens, one of whom had a knife, the Baltimore Sun reported.

A 14-year-old girl was reportedly arguing with another girl when a 16-year-old boy intervened, allegedly grabbing the 14-year-old by the neck. She broke free and pulled a knife from her bag. When police arrived, they found the boy walking away and the girl with the knife.

Officers arrested the girl without incident, but a bystander captured video of the boy, who appears to be resisting arrest.

The video, posted Saturday on social media, shows the teen sitting on a curb while a female officer attempts to put cuffs on him. When the teen doesn’t cooperate, the female officer and another male officer begin to grab and punch him, and he begins crying.

“Why you hitting him?” a bystander can be heard shouting at the officers.

According to the boy’s father, Alonzo Cox Sr., the teen has impulse control disorder and didn’t know why he was being arrested.

“He made a bad decision, but the procedure they used was not right,” Cox told Fox Baltimore. “My son is not a bad kid. I don’t think he deserved to be beat like the way he was beat.”

The boy was charged with second-degree assault, second-degree assault on police and resisting arrest. The 14-year-old girl was charged with first and second-degree assault.

Both officers were wearing body cameras during the incident. They will continue to work while the arrest is reviewed.

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

As Elle Woods once said, “What, like it’s hard?”

The year 2017 turned itself right around when Harvard University selected Rihanna as their Humanitarian of the Year earlier this month. On Tuesday, the “Anti” singer graciously accepted the honor with a touching and hilarious speech in peak Rihanna fashion.

After a handful of guest speakers spoke to Rihanna’s cultural and philanthropic impact, the singer took the stage and addressed her public. 

“So, I made it to Harvard,” she said, opening the speech with a grin and hair flip. Rihanna then went on to explain how watching commercials as a child that encouraged viewers to donate 25 cents to save a life informed her attitudes toward charity.

“I would say to myself, ‘When I grow up, and I can get rich, I’m gonna save kids all over the world,’” Rihanna recalled. “I just didn’t know I would be in the position to do that by the time I was a teenager.”

The Harvard Foundation, which annually honors prominent public-spirited leaders, named Rihanna as the recipient of the Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Award for her charitable work promoting healthcare and education in the Caribbean. In addition to funding a state-of-the-art center for oncology and nuclear medicine in her home country of Barbados, the singer has set up the Clara Lionel Foundation Scholarship Program to help Caribbean students attending universities in the U.S. succeed. 

“All you need to do is help one person, expecting nothing in return,” Rihanna continued. “To me, that is a humanitarian. People make it seem way too hard, man. The truth is — and what the little girl watching those commercials didn’t know — is that you don’t have to be rich to be a humanitarian, to help somebody. You don’t have to be famous. You don’t have to be college-educated.”

She then went on to hint that she might return to the university one day as a student, so we’ll just be over here quietly raising funds for a “Legally Blonde” (”Legally Rihanna”?) sequel. 

Watch the entire ceremony below and catch Rihanna’s speech at 1:14:00.

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

As we celebrate the accomplishments of women during Women’s History Month, it’s essential that we also remember that there is still plenty to be fired up about.

Just over a month into the Trump administration, women saw reproductive rights be chipped at almost weekly, house speaker Paul Ryan said that he plans on defunding Planned Parenthood, and President Trump’s anti-immigration and anti-transgender legislation meant serious trouble for the nation’s most vulnerable women. 

But if there’s one thing American women know how to do, it’s resist. Just ask the millions of women who marched around the country on January 21. Or the civil rights activists who came before them. Or the suffragettes who came before that. 

To honor the revolutionary spirit of American women, we’ve rounded up 71 photos of women protesting throughout U.S. history to show just how strong that spirit is.  

This Women’s History Month, remember that we have the power to make history every day. And in 2017, that feels more urgent than ever. Follow along with HuffPost on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in March using #WeMakeHerstory.

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

Critics have described Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight” ― the stunning film awarded Best Picture at the Academy Awards on Sunday ― as a cinematic poem, in part because of its masterful score, stretches of silence, and piercing use of color. 

A ballet-infused dance inspired by the motion picture, choreographed by Robert Battle of New York’s Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, distills the movie’s poetic essence into two minutes of ecstatic movement. 

Under a blue luminosity reminiscent of the moon’s glare, dancers Jamar Roberts, Christopher Taylor and Jeremy T. Villas move to the film’s rapturous score, created by Academy Award-nominated composer Nicholas Britell. 

The three dancers represent the film’s protagonist, Chiron, at various phases of his life ― childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Their bodies communicate Chiron’s struggle to understand and accept himself, trembling back and forth between expression and suppression without saying a word.

In the video, directed by by Anna Rose Holmer of 2016’s “The Fits,” the dazzling blue light illuminates the dancing figures, their every facial expression and undulating muscle telling a unique story. Like the film, Holmer’s short revels in the sensuality and sensitivity of the dancers, qualities which are often overlooked in stereotypical depictions of black men.

Bask in the glow of “Moonlight”s excellence over and over again with the video above, courtesy of Nowness. 

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices