Category: Lori L. Tharps

  • Ch-ch-ch-changes are happening to the US population, and time is changing us. The results from the Census Bureau’s 2020 head count are in: the country is growing more urban and more racially and ethnically diverse! And more citizens are identifying as mixed race. Put another way, the population is growing less white. By 2042, White…

  • By Lori L. Tharps | In 2016 my book about colorism, “Same Family, Different Colors: Confronting Colorism in America’s Diverse Families” was released. In that book, I wrote about how colorism manifests in Asian American, African American, Latino, and Mixed-Race Families. While I have been tangentially writing and talking about colorism as long as I…

  • By Lori L. Tharps | I feel like celebrating! More than five years ago, I wrote a post that then led to an opinion piece in the New York Times, advocating for journalists and publishers to capitalize the B in Black when referring to Black people. On Friday—yes, Juneteenth Day—the Associated Press officially announced that they would be…

  • By Lori L. Tharps | I’m coming at you live and in-person from the sunny south of Spain. It is absolutely gorgeous her—clear blue skies, radiant sun, palm trees, flowers flaunting every color from the deepest purple to the sharpest pinks. We’re currently staying with el esposo’s family and they live in a beautiful home that…

  • By Lori L. Tharps: I’m not mad. Not mad at all that executive producer, Peter Saji, covered the same ground regarding colorism and family dynamics in a twenty-two-minute Black-ish episode that I covered in my 200-page heavily researched 2016 book, Same Family, Different Colors: Confronting Colorism in America’s Diverse Families.

  • By Lori L. Tharps: On April 12, two Black men were arrested at a Starbucks in Philadelphia for sitting at a table and waiting for their business associate to arrive. Initially, the police said the two men, Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson, were arrested because they were trespassing since they hadn’t ordered anything, but after…

  • By Lori L. Tharps: Last week the Internet went crazy because in a revealing interview with Ebony magazine, Beyoncé’s daddy, Mathew Knowles, admitted he was attracted to his wife, Tina Knowles, because she was so light-skinned, he thought she was White. While this may turn the stomachs of many a Black woman, it should not…

  • 2017 has been ragged and turbulent, charged with a fraught political climate spawned by a divisive presidential election. 2017 witnessed assaults on progress in racial justice, backlashes against environmental protections, and more. When we needed perspective and lucid social critique on the latest attacks on our civil liberties, our authors were there. We couldn’t be…

  • By Lori L. Tharps By now you’ve probably seen the video. The one of White American South Korean expert Robert Kelly being interrupted by his two children while he was in the middle of a live interview on the BBC. The video immediately went viral because it was just so funny seeing not one, but…

  • By Lori L. Tharps: February is Black History Month. Personally, I’ve always felt conflicted about a month being set aside to celebrate the achievements of African Americans in the United States, because it seems to suggest that once February is over, we can fall back into ignoring Black people’s contributions to American history.