The Years That Ask Questions: Epistemologies of Liberation and the Post-Charlottesville Imperative
White supremacy is deadly. A black sign emblazoned with four bleak words in white block script perched atop a protestor’s shoulder played a dual role: it communicated the urgency of the spectacle to preoccupied shoppers and passing motorists on this busy avenue in the Bronx at the same time that it shielded her dark brown […]
Black Muslim Qur’an Reflections: Juz 13 Ramadan 2016
We sent not a messenger except (to teach) in the language of his own people, in order to make (things) clear to them. —Surah Ibrahim: 4 Every race of people since time began who have attempted to describe God by words or painting, or by carvings, have conveyed their idea that the God […]
Black Muslim Qur’an Reflections: Juz 15 Ramadan 2017
From the day of its birth, the anomaly of slavery plagued a nation which asserted the equality of all men, and sought to derive powers of government from the consent of the governed. Within sound of the voices of those who said this lived more than half a million black slaves, forming nearly one-fifth of […]
Black Muslim Qur’an Reflections: Juz 27 Ramadan 2018
If our vaunted rule of the people does not breed nobler men and women than monarchies have done, it must and will inevitably give place to something better. – Anna Julia Cooper During the month of Ramadan, many Muslims understand that the heavens are open — that through increased worship and adherence to a set […]
Finding Black Death on a Quiet Hilltop: Reflections on Death, Dying, and Fieldwork in the Era of Black Lives Matter
I pulled my car up to a parking spot on a steep hill, deployed my emergency brake and made to step out of the car. As I did so, I noticed out of the corner of my eye a picture of a young black man printed on a sheet of white paper. The photograph was […]
