Category: Uncategorized
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5 Life Lessons from Turkish Classes
The first day I walked into my Beginner Intensive Turkish class, a young man chatted with my professor. In Turkish. He joked and debated in full sentences, questions, answers. Probably tenses, too. With a quiet “excuse me” I interrupted their conversation to ask the professor if this was the beginner Turkish class. To my utter…
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Seven Poems to Celebrate the Death of the Strong Black Woman™ Trope
Get in loser — we’re reading happy, uplifting poems. Many things make me weary — politics (I studied it for four years and will continue to study it in grad school, don’t ask me why), non-negotiable moral issues (no, Brad, eugenics really isn’t a “devil’s advocate” kind of discussion), and sometimes even fantasy books (N.K.…
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Diaspora Blues isn’t Always so Blue
Interrogating the Pan-Africanism of Beyoncé’s film “Black is King” so, here you aretoo foreign for hometoo foreign for here.never enough for both. “Diaspora Blues” by Ijeoma Umebinyuo, Questions for Ada When Black Americans try to portray Africa, and reconnect with their roots, it’s not always a perfect process, even with good intent. Likewise, African depictions of…
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Jessica Was Raggedy — The Codeswitching Diaries #1
Jessica was raggedy. And no one bothered to tell her. As Jessica stumbled across the too-hot asphalt, heels scraping like talons, she wondered who decided that only some of the population could look raggedy. Dolly Parton was never described as raggedy, but Whitney Houston was fair game. Jessica was neither of those women, but she could…
Maya C. James 