anne-nivat's blog

Colorism in the Black Community

Melissa Rodriguez

When I think of colorism I think of my freshman year of high school. “Wow, you got tan.” “You used to be light-skinned.” “Why are you so dark?” I found myself looking in the mirror to see if the color was starting to fade yet, comparing the darkness of my arm to the lightness of my friend’s, avoiding the sun at the beach by hiding under umbrellas, with the constant fear of getting too dark and never being considered light-skinned again.

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Talking with Vieux Farka Toure

Adolf Alzuphar

I was instructed by Vieux Farka Toure’s manager to call Vieux Farka Toure sometime before 6pm EST. He would be in Bamako when I was scheduled to speak to him, the capital city he had lived in all his adult life since moving there from a small village in Mali, Niafunke, to become a professional musician.  If he considered himself a Bamakoian, a poetic guitarist from a major metropolis, how was this reflected, if at all, in the music he made, I wondered.  

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Rio Olympics evictions echo the 2014 World Cup

Annabelle Orlando

The displacement of locals to make way for major sporting events is becoming routine in Rio de Janeiro.

To make way for renovations, new stadiums, hotels and residences for the 2014 FIFA World Cup that was held in Brazil, about 170,000 people were evicted, forcibly or otherwise.

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