If Black people could’ve remedied the problem single-handedly, we would have. A long time ago.
Summer 2020, people the world over learned the United States’ ugly secret known by Black people in this country for 400 years: Black lives are regarded as having little to no value. And for any Black person who dares challenge this worldview, retribution can be sure, swift, and deadly.
In 1919, fifty-four years after the abolition of the enslavement of Black Americans and thirty-nine years after Black men were granted the right to vote, July Perry led a voter registration campaign for the Black residents of Ocoee, Florida. In response, white residents lynched him, ran all of the Black residents…
Not with my wallet
Cooking. I enjoy it almost as much as I enjoy eating. For me, food, cooking, and breaking bread with friends and family are not the endgame, together they’re a means to an end: bringing people together to explore or deepen relationships through a shared experience. For me, food, cooking, and breaking bread with friends and family are not the endgame, together they’re a means to an end: bringing people together to explore or deepen relationships through a shared experience.
Most families have food traditions for holidays. Barbecued chicken and ribs, baked beans, coleslaw, and potato salad are staples for our…
Subverting readers and potential earnings away from Medium writers and pubs
I’ve been thinking about the events mentioned in my first essay. If the purpose of the condensed bully-published version of this article was to give it exposure, I’m not buying that. The article was doing just fine in the Our Human Family publication. Cocoa Griot’s original Underground Railroad article garnered upward of 4,000 claps. Kelli María Korducki, senior Medium editor and writer of the truncated and hijacked version, failed to include a link to the publication and more important to the writer. That’s a major oversight if the purpose of absconding with the article was to “give it exposure.”
Subverting readers and potential earnings away from Medium writers and pubs
I’m seeing a disturbing trend on Medium. Hardworking Medium writers and pubs are basically having their stories hijacked by other writers. What’s most disturbing is that top tier Medium publications and editors are the offenders.
Take for instance this February 7 story in my publication, Our Human Family.
And now a Cliff’s Notes version of the same story now appears in Momentum by Kelli Maria Korducki, a senior editor at Medium. What Korducki has done is essentially summarized a curated (distributed) story and then disguised it as a new piece that is then redistributed and earns her income.
This is…
An antiracist-Black History-Valentine’s Day writing prompt
The Call
For Valentine’s Day, we’ve got a different kind of writing prompt — a double triple — one topic involving three elements, but inspired by the following three words.
Love one another.
If you’ve been reading our articles for a while now, you know those three words are not only the closing for my communiques, they also form one of the founding principles of Our Human Family. But now the question is: what does that phrase mean to you?
Is it an outdated call to action? How does it relate to racism? Can it even exist in a conversation about racism…
Prophetic then, relevant now
James Baldwin, one of America’s foremost authors, activists, and playwrights, who addressed the themes of race, the political promise and peril of America, and the human condition, is the muse of the latest issue of OHF Magazine. We planned that Baldwin would be the muse for this issue back in fall/winter 2019 when we published our inaugural issue, unaware of how prescient his words would be or the challenges we would face in 2021.
Production of OHF Magazine Issue 2 began mid-March with a delivery in early summer 2020. That same week, the 2019 novel coronavirus, more commonly known as…
Volume 3 Number 2
New This Week
“White Supremacy, An America Love Story”
by Clay Rivers
Where exactly to begin? I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve started this essay. Volumes will be written about the failed coup and botched response (if not by design) by law enforcement for years to come. Anything I write here will only scratch the surface. With that in mind, I’m going to focus on a point I made a week ago: There is no depth to some people’s hatred of Black people and loyalty to white supremacy.
Need proof? Complete the following sentence.
If the domestic terrorists/insurrectionists who stormed…
The hypocrisy and hate continue
Where exactly to begin? I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve started this essay. Volumes will be written about the failed coup and botched response (if not by design) by law enforcement for years to come. Anything I write here will only scratch the surface. With that in mind, I’m going to focus on a point I made a week ago: There is no depth to some people’s hatred of Black people and loyalty to white supremacy.
Need proof? Complete the following sentence.
If the domestic terrorists/insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2020, had been Black…
Gleaning meaning from 2020's 366 days of chaos and hatred
Some folks call 2020 a waste. Not so. Like twenty pounds of manure packed in a five-pound bag, last year overflowed with ruin, crazy, and hate.
As someone who tries to glean meaning from situations and people, I see everything as an opportunity to learn. To me, time is wasted only when, in retrospect, I feel I haven’t learned something. Like you, I was blessed enough to survive 2020, but what was it all about? Where is the meaning? What is the takeaway from all the hate and crazy?
To survive the dumpster fire of the past 365 days without…
The editors’ picks
What a year. From the pandemic to the protests to the partisanship, volumes will be written about the 366 days that comprised 2020. Our writers have chronicled this year through the lofty lens of equality in their stories: the highs, the lows, and the crazy range of stuff in-between.
The editors of Our Human Family (OHF) culled this year’s articles for our favorites: the works that best reflect the ideals to which we aspire. While we adore all our writers and their ability to bring the fullness of their humanity to their writing, the twenty writers and their works listed…
