KOLUMN - KOLUMN Magazine

The ‘Ground’ in ‘Stand Your Ground’ Means Any Place a White Person Is Nervous

August 17, 2016September 4, 2016African American Politics, Black Crime ...

[two_fifth padding=”0 25px 0 10px”]BY Patricia J. Williams | PUB The Nation He looked dangerous. He looked like a suspect. He looked like he was reaching for a weapon. The officer feared for his life.[/two_fifth][three_fifth_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] This familiar litany was recited on the news more than once in this vexed summer—a time weighted […]

Will Simone Manuel Inspire More Black Children to Swim?

August 17, 2016March 26, 2017African American Athletes, KOLUMN ...

Gretchen Reynolds/ | The New York Times “I don’t think any of them knew how to swim,” Ms. Williams said. “And they were afraid of the water and afraid for their kids.” Ms. Williams, 45, and her daughter are African-American, as were most of the other families at the swimming class. While Bailey, now almost […]

The Fight In Claressa Shields

August 17, 2016September 4, 2016KOLUMN, KOLUMN Magazine ...

During the 2012 London Olympics, Claressa Shields stood in the ring, stone-faced and focused.

A ‘Sex and the City’ for African Viewers

August 16, 2016September 4, 2016African Art, African Cinema ...

Let’s get this out of the way up front: “An African City,” the steamy Ghanaian web series about five young women looking for love in Accra, is an unabashed rip-off of “Sex and the City.”

Grandparents or parents? Coverage of Simone Biles shows that we still don’t know how to talk about adoption

August 16, 2016September 4, 2016African American History, KOLUMN ...

A commentator said Biles’s parents were “NOT her parents;” Twitter revealed that adoption is still cloaked in shame.

The Night That Obama and Hillary Founded ISIS

August 16, 2016September 4, 2016Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton ...

It was late one night in the White House when Obama first came up with the idea for ISIS.

Debate flares after black college students seek a non-white roommate

August 15, 2016September 4, 2016African American Education, Education ...

Three students at the Claremont colleges in Southern California were looking for a fourth this summer to join them in an off-campus house. They added a caveat in parentheses: “POC only,” they said, using a common abbreviation for people of color.

A Generation Is Protesting’ in Ethiopia, Long a U.S. Ally

August 15, 2016September 4, 2016Africa, African Economics ...

Is Ethiopia about to crack? For the last decade, it has been one of Africa’s most stable nations, a solid Western ally with a fast-growing economy. But in recent months, antigovernment protests have convulsed the country, spreading into more and more areas.