I’m from Benton Harbor, MI, a predominantly Black town in the Southwest region of the state's lower peninsula. I was actually born in St. Joseph, just across the river that conveniently separated the two towns creating a physical city-line. Benton Harbor is a residential and somewhat rural town, barely 4.5 square miles in size. St. Joe, as we call it, is a segregated white suburb where the only good hospital was located. Although our family lived in Michigan, we carry deep So

I didn’t know what to expect when I arrived. I just thought I was passing through. Sometimes, though, we’re led to transformative experiences without even searching for them. I had about 8 hours before my connecting flight was scheduled to board. Just barely enough time to explore. Despite the language barrier, I clumsily navigated the airport as best as I could when the EgyptianAir Boeing 777 landed. The kind man at the customer accommodations desk was looking out because te

When solidarity is prioritized transformation emerges, like the Reconstruction-era efforts to build Black-controlled political and economic institutions, the cooperative economics championed by the Nation of Islam and the Black Panthers, and the mutual aid networks established in response to systemic neglect in Black communities. These movements remind us that unity does not require sameness; rather, it demands a shared radical commitment to dismantling oppression and achievi

For centuries Black Americans have been refused the freedom, access, and opportunity needed to achieve the American Dream. And yet, we faithfully supply an economy we neither own nor fully benefit from with our skilled labor and cultural influence.  Meanwhile Black communities continue to face disproportionate systemic inequalities while our culture is violently policed and vilified, only to then be appropriated, co-opted, and commodified.   If anti-Blackness is the foundatio