diversifiedminds

Thank you sir. On behalf of people everywhere who have had to live in shame and secrecy because of who they are and who they love. Thank you on behalf of heterosexual people like myself and countless others who support the rights of those who may not be heterosexual to live as freely as they deserve. Thank you for showing another way to be black and masculine in a society often expecting black and masculine to be defined by the most nefarious of traits known to man. Thank you on behalf of people everywhere who believe in the creed we say with arms over our hearts in our American Pledge of Allegiance "with liberty and justice for all." Simply thank you. Yesterday, on a day that we celebrated our American Independence, you celebrated your own. You decided that at a time when the public's views on same sex relationships are beginning to shift, that it was your time to stand up. I can't imagine how hard it must have been to make that choice. Being entrenched in the hi...

This past weekend New York's Hot 97 radio station held their annual Summer Jam concert in New Jersey (yes there is clearly some irony in throwing a concert for a radio station based in NYC in the neighboring state, but I digress). Entertainer and hip hop star Nicki Minaj, herself a Queens native by way of Trinidad (big ups) was supposed to be the headline act. It was going to be Nicki's first chance at headlining one of the most iconic, (though of late dwindling in national prominence) concerts in her own home town. Hours before Nicki was to take stage with her Young Money label mates, one of the morning radio hosts of Hot 97, Peter Rosenberg, better known as simply Rosenberg, made the commentary that Nicki's music wasn't "real hip hop" (the irony of this white Jewish man questioning the authenticity of a music form created by black and brown youth in the streets of the Bronx in the 1970's isn't lost on this writer, but again I digress). Nicki upon hea...

I cried last week. One of those cries that you lock your room, get on your knees, pray to the heavens and ask the God you pray to why this happened...again. One of the cries that you hope no one walks in on because you won't be able to adequately put into words why you hurt. I hurt for Trayvon Martin, Ramarley Graham and all of the brothers and sisters who have been killed at the hands of white men and never receive justice. Call me racially incendiary right now. Frankly I don't care. The fact remains the same. A white man, followed a black boy who had no weapon, after being told by dispatchers to stand down. At the end of the confrontation, young Trayvon was dead, and a white man walked away without barely a slap on the wrist. Again... Some may say that Zimmerman is Hispanic. It is imperative to remember that one can be a white Hispanic as well as a black one. But frankly the race of the assailant has less to do in this story than the race of the victim. Furthermore what truly...