The Revolution Will Go Viral

On the morning of April 12, 2015, Freddie Gray was walking in his Gilmor Homes neighborhood when his eyes met briefly with those of a white police officer’s. He ran. Since Gray was black, and Gilmor Homes is a housing project located within the city of Baltimore, the cop took this as probable cause to… Continue reading The Revolution Will Go Viral

Campaign Zero

“We can live in a world where the police don’t kill people by limiting police interventions, improving community interactions, and ensuring accountability.” So reads the hopeful, matter-of-fact vision statement of Campaign Zero, a momentous, sweeping initiative focused intently on ending police violence in the United States. Organized by four social justice leaders from around the country… Continue reading Campaign Zero

Why Black Lives Matter on TV, Too

This article originally appeared on tananarivedue.blogspot.com on 9/1/15. As a lifelong horror lover who has co-written and co-produced a short zombie film, I’ve often pondered why zombies have so taken hold of the public imagination. An uncomfortable revelation dawned on me in 2014 as I watched the police army amass in reaction to protesters in… Continue reading Why Black Lives Matter on TV, Too

Misogynoir and Me

On Thanksgiving night five years ago, my uncle, a guest in my parents’ home, insisted that we watch a two-hour Beyoncé special airing that night. I wanted to slap the shit out of him. “I don’t wanna see that black bitch.” I’m not proud of it, but that was my first thought. An offense punishable by… Continue reading Misogynoir and Me

Blood Brothers: Haitians in the Dominican Republic

One could say that the whole mess started in 2013, when the Constitutional Court, the supreme judicial body of the Dominican Republic, immediately rendered some 200,000 of its citizens stateless. “The ruling retroactively stripped Dominicans of Haitian descent of citizenship back to 1929,” says France François, spokesperson for the Washington, D.C.-based Association of Haitian Professionals… Continue reading Blood Brothers: Haitians in the Dominican Republic