• ELIXHER
• On May 31, 2013

Brittney Griner Covers ESPN Magazine, ‘The Taboo Issue’ (PHOTO)

When it comes to the WNBA, Brittney Griner is making a name for herself on and off the court. With her coming out during the draft, Griner has been in the news talking more about her sexuality and passion for the game. Apparently, her coming out has been a big deal and speaks volumes to how we treat the process in the media.

“I am 100-percent happy,” she says. “When I was at Baylor, I wasn’t fully happy because I couldn’t be all the way out. It feels so good saying it: I am a strong, black lesbian woman. Every single time I say it, I feel so much better.”

More at MUSED Magazine.

How To Be A Victim…

As a black person, if someone kills you, you better had been a perfect student, or been nice to all your co-workers, and been obedient in every way possible, you had better not fought for your life, or stolen anything, or had children out of wedlock, or been on welfare, or been a gang member, or drug dealer. You had better not been wearing a hoodie, or Nikes, or baggy pants. If you can, please put on a suit before you get killed. You had better not have braids, if you plan on getting killed. You had better not had gotten into a fight recently. Because having had done those things means that you were worth shit. That you deserved to die. Please try to keep that in mind.

Read more on AfraFemme.

The Myth of Shared Female Experience and How It Perpetuates Inequality

I don’t feel any universal connection with all people who are born with female parts. I’m not sure I know anyone who actually does, not when you really break it down. Because, despite what mainstream (white) feminism and tampon commercials would have us believe, “shared” female experience isn’t really all that “shared” at all… Yet, the myth of shared female experience prevails. It gets used by certain groups, including Michigan Women’s Music Festival, to exclude trans* women because they presumably don’t have all the parts necessary to participate in this “universal” female experience that doesn’t actually exist anyway. The idea that cis women who attend this festival have a shared experience of womanhood-an experience that stretches like a rainbow bridge across race, sexuality, (dis)ability and economic class-that is so certain that no one without a vagina could possibly understand any of it is, frankly, absurd.

Continue reading over at Black Girl Dangerous.

Obamas to Black Grads: Good Job. Now Stop Being Such a Failure

Graduation season is upon us, and with it the time-honored ritual of big, important graduation speeches. This weekend, Barack and Michelle Obama each gave theirs at historically black colleges—the president spoke at Morehouse, the first lady at Bowie State. This is a fabulous thing on its face. And both talked explicitly about race and opportunity.

The problem is that both also continued a pattern we have too often been forced to examine—using the world’s largest bully pulpit to browbeat black people for the personal failings that the Obamas seem to believe are our largest challenge.

More on Colorlines.