Almost every Black person has heard or repeated the saying “Black don’t crack” in a declaration of how good we look throughout the aging process. But what constitutes looking good? Minimal wrinkles, fit bodies, and the absence of grays? Or full booties, softly rounded tummies, and the friendly crinkle of crow’s feet?

As I stare 40 in the eye, contemplating these questions, growing older is not nearly as scary as I thought it would be. A younger me expected to feel beat down by my late thirties or that I would be wearing muumuus and slides. But I’m still as…

I’m Learning

“I should be better than this by now.”

This is a thought that I said out loud during a recent therapy session. I felt like I was talking about the same problems and anxieties that I always talk about. I felt like I’d done so much work over the years to unlearn past trauma and learn new coping mechanisms that I should have evolved past my regular struggles. And I felt really down about myself. Like I must not be doing things right, like I must not be right. …

Nikole Hannah-Jones is an award-winning investigative journalist known for her coverage of civil rights and racial injustice for the New York Times Magazine. Hannah-Jones also co-founded the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting, a training and mentorship organization dedicated to increasing the ranks of investigative reporters of color. In 2017, she was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship (colloquially known as the “Genius Grant”), and in 2020, she won a Pulitzer Prize for her work on “The 1619 Project.”

“I see my work as forcing us to confront our hypocrisy, forcing us to confront the truth we would rather ignore,” Jones…

In GEN’s ongoing series, How I Got Radicalized, writers share that pivotal turning point when they had their “aha” moment. I found Dr. Furaha Asani’s take on Disney’s The Princess…

ZORASCOPE

Word for the week

The details of our fantasies tell the truth about our deepest desires.

Three things

• What are the things/people you engage with when you want to escape?
• How do fantasy and illusion play a role in your life?
• What comes up when you hear the word “dream”?

Moons of the week

Don’t forget to record how you feel as the moon changes signs. In a month or two, you will see a pattern. Take note!

• Moon enters Capricorn — Since March 6 at 8:20 p.m. CT
• Moon enters Aquarius — March 9 at 1:41 a.m. CT
• Moon enters Pisces — March 11 at 8:44 a.m. CT
• Moon…

I’ll never forget the time a former manager, an older White woman, remarked how I wasn’t my usual “peppy self” and hadn’t been smiling as much. Now mind you, this was shortly after the 2016 presidential election, so there wasn’t exactly much to smile about.

It didn’t take long (16 months from my hire date, to be exact) for me to go from “office pet” to “office threat.” My work exceeded expectations, but my temperament apparently didn’t satisfy my manager’s “perky” criteria. Given the mostly White work environment and the cultural climate of the times, I was maintaining the best…

I’m Learning

My morning routine is the same almost every day. I typically wake every morning between 6 and 7 a.m. I don’t use an alarm clock, preferring to let myself rise naturally with the sun. I stretch. Sit up. Take a sip of water. Say a little prayer of gratitude. Get out of bed and open the curtains to let the sunshine in.

And then… I panic. The countdown has begun.

Starting from the moment I open my eyes, I have T-minus 2.5 hours before I need to start work. That’s 2.5 hours to become fully awake, do some yoga, walk…

“Bitter Black bitch!”

In a heated discussion about something I can’t even remember now, the three words pierced through my ears as they slipped from my Uncle Ron’s lips.

I realized this wasn’t the first time someone tried to silence me while I was simply trying to express myself. It was a gut punch that many women, especially Black women, have felt. It’s almost like the word bitch is a package deal with womanhood.

But this time was different; it was more personal.

Bitterness is often attributed to anger or resentment — an emotion not usually extended to women —…