By Guest Contributor Monica, originally published at TransGriot
In 1906 Kelly Miller stated, “All great people glorify their history and look back upon their early attainments with a spiritual vision.”
Because the half century of transgender history so far has been predominately written by people who don’t share my ethnic heritage, it has only covered one facet [...]

by Special Correspondent Wendi Muse
We all do it. 
We fall in love with the beautifully enchanting portrayal of the past that we  encounter in novels, historical fiction, and on the big screen. We get lost in the  dashing gentry, the voluminous hoop skirts, the lazy Sunday evenings. This fantasy past, however, is quite far from the [...]

By Guest Contributor Tami, originally published at What Tami Said

This weekend, I received the following breathless entreaty through a listserv that I subscribe to:
Ebony/Jet Magazine on The Verge of Financial Collaspse (J P)
Date: Thu, 12 Mar 2009 07:45:31 -0400
One of the most notable permanent fixtures in every [...]

by Guest Contributor Jehanzeb Dar, originally published at Broken Mystic

When Frank Miller’s “300″ film was released, I was absolutely outraged by the racist content of the film and more so at the insensitivity of movie-goers who simply argued “it’s just a movie.” Later on, I would hear these same individuals say, “The movie makes you [...]

by Guest Contributor Monica Roberts, originally published at TransGriot

One of the beauties of surfing the Net is that from time to time, you’ll stumble across a nugget of history or some photo that you weren’t even aware existed.
I’ve mentioned that JET, EBONY and the now defunct HUE magazines when they first started back in the [...]

by Latoya Peterson
Reader Elton sent in an intriguing article from The UK’s Telegraph. The headline says it all:

Charles Darwin’s research to prove evolution was motivated by his desire to end slavery.
The piece explains:
Science historians Adrian Desmond and James Moore have compiled compelling new evidence which reveals Darwin was passionately opposed to slavery and this [...]

by Latoya Peterson

Women’s Wear Daily published a “From the archives” feature on the funeral of Dr. King.
While about half of the piece documents the atmosphere and who was there, it also allows a glimpse into the bewilderment and confusion that happened after Dr. King’s assassination.
Amidst the shallow attempts to get a glimpse of [...]

by Guest Contributor SLB, originally published at PostBougie

I could never be a real militant. Because there’s no way a real militant would’ve sat through Baz Luhrmann’s latest epic, Australia, which clocks in at a superfluous 3+ hours, and dug it as much as I did. It’s a film rife with knee-jerk infuriation potential. It’s got [...]

by Special Correspondent Jessica Yee

Much of what people know about historic Native issues has to do with land on some level. Indeed, much of what we are about today has to do with our land also. Our Mother Earth is the ultimate living entity, something that sustains life and guides us as a people. They [...]

by Guest Contributor Jessica Yee
One of the best kept secrets in American health administration is the existence of Indian Health Service.
Unbeknownst to many outside the Native community, our healthcare is actually delivered by the military.
Oh sure, they call themselves the “Public Health Service Commissioned Corps” which is just a nice way of saying they don’t [...]

by Guest Contributor Cheryl Lynn, originally published at Digital Femme

Long ago, when I was much younger than I am today, my aunt purchased a VHS tape of cartoons for my cousins and I to watch. She quickly removed the plastic wrapper, slammed the cassette into the VCR, and promptly left the room in order to [...]

by Guest Contributor Plasma Rit, originally published at Girl in the Machine

Sid Meier’s Civilization series comprises of turn-based strategy games with a focus on growing a budding nation. Begun in 1991, the games take place in a variety of eras–you can build an empire as far back as 4000 BCE and nurture it long enough [...]

by Latoya Peterson

Last weekend, while channel surfing, I was flying through my channel line up when my remote paused on a program I had heard about for quite some time – Meeting David Wilson.
The MSNBC site describes the documentary:
David Wilson was a 28-year-old African-American man from Newark, New Jersey. He grew up in a tough, [...]

by Special Correspondent Fatemeh Fakhraie

Last month, I went to the Portland Opera’s production of Aïda, which is shown as part of its “Great Women of the Stage” series. I had wanted to see Rodelinda and Carmen again, but I underestimated how popular the opera is in Portland and had missed out on tickets [...]

by Guest Contributor Jen, originally published at Disgrasian
In Rwanda, from where I’m writing, it’s illegal for citizens to ask one another what they are. By “what” I mean, Hutu or Tutsi. The reason why it’s against the law to make ethnic distinctions in Rwanda these days is rooted in the genocide that took place here [...]