‘Can You Really Be a Queer Muslim?’: Intersectionality and the Complexity of Identity
‘Black Because She is not White’: Navigating the Complexity of a Mixed-Race Identity
She grew up in a mostly white town. Her mother, who moved them there when she was six, wanted a ‘better’ life. At school her White friends would laugh when she ‘axed’ questions, so now she makes sure to ‘ask’ them. To this day, she corrects herself. As she adopts the ‘White’ behaviours of her friends it alienates her from her family. Why do you act like you’re white? I can’t believe you listen to rock music. You’re such a Malteser: White on the inside, Black on the outside…
‘Consider What Decolonising Gender Can Look Like’: Non-Binary Ways of Being as Anti-Colonial and Abundant
I began questioning the gender roles so many of us abide by and so much of society is shaped around. Who is served vs. subdued by the gender binary? In a time when so many champions of intersectional justice and liberation are calling for decolonisation, I urge us to consider what decolonising gender can look like, not just in terms of how we dress or present, but in our interpersonal relationships, expectations and ways of being…
‘I’ve Always Loved Period Pieces, but Never Felt I Had a Place in Them’: How Queen Charlotte’s Bridgerton Spin-Off Has Broken Down Barriers for Black Viewers
Everything it offered and all of the unsaid promises meant a great deal to me, and I am glad to say that it did not disappoint. In fact, I have a flatmate who has already begun rewatching it! I am sure you will love the series; and after reading this, hopefully you will have a better understanding of the barriers that are being torn down, the narratives that are changing, and why the show means so much to black women globally…
‘Our Liberation Is Mutual’: Examining the Limitations of White Privilege in Protecting the Female Body and Why Our Feminism Must be Intersectional
So many exclusionary powers have been systemically fused together, so the fight for equality must address them all. It bears self-examining our own failures at inclusion and considering who benefits from that exclusion. Do the powers and privileges we trust actually have our best interest at heart? With whom does our solidarity lie, and will they reciprocate?
Black and White: How Race Impacts Our Queer Experience
There’s a phrase commonly used, particularly among gay men: ‘No Fats, No Femmes, and No Blacks or Asians’. Originating from the ‘dating’ app Grindr, it was (and is) frequently used by white members to deter people who didn’t fit their ‘preference’ from messaging them…
‘I Didn’t Know I was Black Until Fourth Grade’: Growing Into My Blackness After a Blurred Sense of Racial Identity
I learned that I was black during recess. Kids told me that ‘I was the whitest black person they’d ever met’ and that ‘I talked so white’. This was extremely confusing at first. Where I grew up was the hub of any and every race that you could think of, and everybody was friends. So, when I became labelled as a white-black person, it didn’t make sense to me…