“Xenophobia,” which, according to, Dictionary.com is a “fear or hatred of foreigners, people from different cultures, or strangers” was Dictionary.com’s 2016 word of the year. The word can also refer ...
I was the textbook definition of an awkward twelve-year-old. I had braces, wild frizzy hair, and tended to match my eyeshadow to the color of any one my assorted array of graphic tees. This was only m...
When I looked into the eyes of the first woman I ever liked — loved, even — I felt like I finally understood the famous words attributed to Edgar Allan Poe: “the eyes are the window to the soul.” I di...
As of December 19, 2016, Texas health care facilities that perform abortions must bury fetal remains instead of putting them in a sanitary landfill, like any other type of biological medical waste. Go...
We’re all familiar with equestrian statuary, or the full-sized equestrian statues that commemorate historic figures – most frequently emperors, rulers, or military commanders. These statues have exist...
Two weeks ago, my friend Izzy accepted a Facebook friend request from a mutual friend of a friend. Let’s call him "Chris." She thought nothing of it until she read the comments his friends left on the...
Content Warning: this article contains a discussion of sexual assault.
The other day, my best friends and I were casually chatting in a group message. Between complaining about homework and our crus...
Last summer, I traveled to Paris. After exploring it with my boyfriend and his sister for four days, I spent the next four traveling around unfamiliar streets completely on my own. It was the most def...
On November 23, the Moroccan state broadcaster ‘Channel 2M’ broadcast a segment on their daily program ‘Sabahiyat’ that exhibited a smiling makeup artist demonstrating how to disguise the aftermath of...
As a black feminist who is usually conscious of how normalized our misogynistic and often racist pop culture is, I am mostly displeased by the portrayal of black women in music videos. From Taylor Swi...
For the past couple of months, I have watched with empathy and solidarity as a great number of Native Americans have been camping out on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota. They have ...
It was my sophomore year of high school. On the first day of my AP World History class, the teacher progressed down the aisles of rickety desks, asking each student to say their favorite movie as a “...
In 2012, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman. He was later acquitted of the crime. Two years later, Eric Garner was killed after being placed in a chok...
"You don’t act like a black person,” I was told in middle school.
“What’s your favorite food? Fried chicken?” I was asked in high school.
“You have good hair for a black person, what are you mixed w...
On November 9, I went to a watch party for the 2016 election. At first, it was full of hope and promise. We had spent the first half of our days giddy after filling in our very first ballots — ballots...
There’s a common myth that Asian Americans do not experience racism on as grand a level as do other people of color. While many Eastern Asians experience light skin privilege, and violations like poli...
It has been almost one hundred years since the Women’s Bureau was established in the Department of Labor. The Bureau aimed to promote the welfare of wage-earning women and for their rights to be respe...
100 years ago, a young woman named Margaret Sanger opened the first-ever birth control clinic in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Only ten days later, police raided the clinic and a...
I’ve always been an emotional person. It’s something I haven’t been able to help, although at times I may have wanted to. Anger, passion, sensitivity, tears — it all naturally flows through me. I cry ...
I love talking about sex with my girlfriends. Describing the intimate, raw, and sometimes awkward moments of our experiences with sex strengthens our bonds as women and as human beings. We talk abou...
Dear Mom,
On the eve of Election Day I was restless, unable to sleep. In an effort to find peace I wrote you a letter. Filled with nervous energy, I asked for you to be there with me, to help me stay...
*Spoilers below*
Jane the Virgin has been something of a crowd favorite since it debuted in 2014. But more than just entertaining its audience, the show has broken barriers regarding countless taboo ...
I grew up and currently live in post-9/11 New York City. I don’t remember what the city was like before the attacks. I will never remember a city in which it wasn’t standard to see assault rifles in t...
2016 was Beyoncé's year. Her album Lemonade is inarguably one of the most profound cultural expressions of black femininity produced this year (and, let’s be honest, ever). Her thought-provoking lyric...