Melanin Unity

By my sixth grade year I had survived three suicide attempts, my wrist had been covered in scars that I knew would be there forever and thoughts that no child should have but I did. The thoughts of a mentally unstable black teen is often prayed upon or ignored due to lack of belief that mental illness can kill you. While I had been away in the mental institution I thought my parents would have finally understood just how hard it is for me interact with people or how hard it was for me to take another breath and be thankful.  My mother's laugh is what kept me from taking my own life but that soon changed when her laugh was directed at the black girl that thinks she's white. "I almost thought I was dealing with a white kid for a second." she exclaimed as we arrived at what used to be my favorite restaurant. The thought of her understanding my mental illness was eliminated, I'd never felt so belittled. I couldn't help but think of all the black teens we lost ...

Meet Kyoko (@kyokomatoko) a very well known model from London. He's taken the world most definitely by storm with his absolutely stunning looks and lovely personality. But wouldn't you want to know more about him personally, what he thinks about and how he feels about certain things? Now I deem that a even better read honestly.  Photos provided by Kyoko Matoko  What's your name? Does it define you and who you are as a person?:    I ' m not my name, if I had one... I wouldn't be me. A name is a weird concept, for you are forever going to be in the mist of it. My given name is John-Anthony. I was called after my uncle who passed away early, I never met him. With no disrespect to him, I hate the name John, as it does not feel to represent my inner being; the phonetics are too blunt. Taking into account that nobody calls me Anthony, just John. I prefer Johnny if so, but I recently fell in love with the name Kyoko; there's something about it that just...

We Need More Chulitos Recently, I have been reading and watching a lot of gay Latino and Afro-Latino novels and film. Of late , a novel titled Chulito . This book is centered around a young Puerto Rican boy named, Chulito and his best friend, Carlos, growing up in the Bronx. Chulito and Carlos; who grew up on the same corner as kids. S uddenly, they began taking different paths in life when Carlos enrolled in a private school upstate and “left” Chulito in the hoo d. This eventually drove Chulito to drop out of school and enter the drug game. Even though Carlos still lived directly above him, Chulito began to see less and less of Carlos and when he did see him, he noticed he was different. He began dressing different, speaking differently, and didn’t resemble the same boy from the block that he knew. One day, Carlos came to the hood holding hands with a boy that no one recognized. This infuriated Chulito, not only because “he brought that gay shit to the block” but because ...

         Looking at the title of this blog post, one might think this will be an endless barrage of insults and homophobic filth, but this is quite the opposite. This blog post is written by a “half-out” bisexual youth speaking to the rest of the LGBTQ+ community looking for solace and asking the straight community to get their shit together (once again). Recently, my family visited me at university for a “nice” family weekend to see their little boy who is growing into their ideal strapping young lad. In their opinion, this young man is growing up to be the epitome of the young, smart, black, Christian, heterosexual young man who they have raised and nurtured thus far. This couldn’t be farther from the truth! The only truth in that sentence above is the fact that I am black and smart, otherwise they are in the wrong ballpark if that’s who they think I am. You may also be confused by the term above; “half-out”. This is referring to any of...

Such a strong and emotional topic, being black myself. I used to fear a lot for my life, my black life in America. Nowadays I don't fear as much as I used to, but the reoccurring deaths of black  cis men, women, black transmen/women, black LGBT, black nb, femmes, etc on a daily basis has made me think about it more and more. It's horrid to think that one day that I could possibly be pulled over by the police, shot, and even killed. Simply because of it skin color, simply because of the color of my skin. Yes, it does sound ridiculous. It still does, black women are the most disrespected women in America. As Malcolm X had once said before. So it frightens me even more, because police officers feel women as a whole are weak, so they'll definitely target us if given the chance to. That frightens a whole lot of me, leaves you shaking and sometimes staying up late at night just thinking of all the possibilities. The different case scenarios, overthinking. We as black pe...

#WhiteGirlsEvolving2k16             Yes! It is true! White girls are finally evolving. They finally have rhythm and are stealing all the black men because of it. All while doing this, they are making black girls seethe with rage because they have taken their spot.                  Wow. I almost made it two whole minutes without laughing at the absurdity above. Happily, white girls are not evolving. And no, they are not snatching up all the black men. Most importantly, black girls could honestly give a shit about what a white girl is doing. But my question is, “What is it that white girls are evolving from and what are they hoping to become?”                 Another more pressing issue that I have noticed on social media is the absurd fascination of bla...

Blackness On Campus Recently, I attended a black student union meeting at my PWI's campus. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement.  Privileged black people seem to have a disconnect when it comes to issues of race. They buy into their own dehumanization and believe that something about them is innately criminal so acting 'non threatening' or not 'loud' is the best course of action. But I ask, where is the humanity in that? Where is the freedom in being accommodating or servile?  Words thrown around by them sounded no different than the words white people use as arguments for why black bodies deserve to be killed. Their arguments were that the actions of black people result in what happens to them, not the bias against their bodies as oppose to white people who are not disproportionately murdered by the police or incarcerated. Illogical. The 'model minority' complex has to go. But I understand, they are from a different background tha...