Voices

There's been a lot of drama around Kim Kardashian's nude selfie. She got a bit of smack down from some big stars such as Bette Midler and Pink who didn’t see Kardashian’s nudity as all that empowering for women. At first, I wasn't sure that I disagreed with them. I’d love to see women be both fully clothed and empowered. But my 18 year-old daughter left me with a thought I hadn't yet considered: Maybe the Kardashian beat-down is NOT the way to build our daughter’s spirit or confidence.

Faced by the extreme pressure to conform to impossible beauty ideals, I followed my instincts (and my budding feminism) and rejected them wholesale. I wasn’t going to play like that; I wasn’t going to let my gender require that I wear makeup or perform a certain way.

As a journalist and outspoken feminist, I always knew the risks of being online. I’ve read stories of extreme harassment and doxing, such as when a troll pretended to be writer Lindy West's deceased father or when game developer Brianna Wu received death threats and had to flee her home.

Names are important because they reflect unique cultures, histories, religions, and lineages. Taking someone’s given name and changing it is one of the many ways that people (namely people of color) are whitewashed. The anglicization of “foreign” names — the practice of taking names and turning them into something English — is a slow and sinister form of identity erasure.

You may have heard the term "bromance" and tried to wash your ears out with bleach (bad idea). Sadly, scientist types heard the word too.

“You’ll need to avoid splashing and kicking near the surface,” he said, warning that we’d only have 10 minutes in the water. Two of the guides would wait by the ladder to remove the snorkeling fins from our feet.

As a black female academic, I know only too well what it feels like to have people look right though you. Let me give one instance — from just a few weeks ago, when I felt unrecognized for who I am.

I approached the podium of the lecture hall at the university at which I am a tenured professor. It was the first day of class and the instructor of the previous course was still around, talking informally with her students. Looking around the podium, I noticed that the classroom was not equipped with a computer.

I asked my colleague, whom I did not know, if there was a computer hidden in the cabinet. She proceeded to instruct me: “Faculty are provided computers, they bring their computers, and use a dongle to project on the screen.”

Her words told me she didn’t recognize me as faculty; she did not see me as professor.

Here’s what it means to be unapologetically Black: full lips, natural curves, kinky curly coils, shaded brown skin, and thus relentless criticism for being what was once believed to be despicable and unworthy of many people (particularly white).

Yes, once upon a time, our skin complexion was too grungy for pools, our juicy lips weren't allowed to share water fountains, and our round bottoms weren't welcome to sit any and everywhere.

At some point, Black became “in” amongst the white race (or maybe it always was, secretly, of course), beginning with the tanning and plastic surgery, and now our overall style, thanks to celebrities like Miley Cyrus and Kylie Jenner, who have blatantly stole what was once ours and made it theirs. Or so the rest of the world would have you believe.