Photographer: Randolph Garrett Wardrobe stylist: Jermaine Mason Creative Director: Shayla Smith Makeup artist: Mo Gregory

melaninaires unite

Please check out “State Pen”, my latest spoken word video regarding the prison industrial complex and America’s injustice system as they relate to minorities. 

"I am not African because I was born in Africa but because Africa was born in me.” Kwame Nkrumah

So much of the diaspora runs from it’s Africanness. We claim these adopted lands and reject what was once home. We forsake the place from which we were stolen, allowing Eurocentrism and stereotypes to skew our view of the motherland. We shun her melanin, straighten her kinks, reject her culture. I am American by birth. I am Jamaican by culture. But I am undeniably African by blood. She was stripped of me, but I refuse to be stripped of her.  

IG: daley_dose Twitter: spokenELLE Youtube: spokenELLE

"@ShaunKing: I’m sharing these horrific cases to press into your mind that a legal & practical precedent is being created for the ease of black death."

The Ferguson decision didn’t happen in a vacuum. This isn’t just about getting to “the truth” in this specific moment. When black life after black life is forcibly taken with no indictment or conviction time and time again it is a fucking pattern. People don’t care about us. Don’t fucking forget that.

2yungkings

I have never had baby fever so much until this moment

Protesters upset about the smearing of Mike Brown converged at CNN headquarters.

Phillip Agnew of The Dream Defenders. The Dream Defenders is a human rights organization that’s building leadership and power among young people of colour to challenge racism in their communities. | Phillip Agnew on All In

http://www.gofundme.com/d7ptk8

“Two months ago I had a nice apartment in Chicago. I had a good job. I had a son. When something happened to the Negroes in the South I said, ‘That’s their business, not mine.’ Now I know how wrong I was. The murder of my son has shown me that what happens to any of us, anywhere in the world, had better be the business of us all!” –Mamie Till, mother of Emmett Till (1955)

On August 9th 2014, 18 year old Michael Brown was murdered by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. Michael was unarmed and suffered multiple gun shot wounds even after complying to Wilson’s demands, kneeling in the street with his hands up, no longer posing a justifiable threat. Mainstream media has not only attempted to taint Michael’s character and downplay the aggressive tactics employed by police in the wake of his death, but they are also skewing the public’s perception of protestors on the ground. The fact that protestors are standing outside of small businesses each night in an attempt to deter others from looting isn’t a story worth telling! I intend to go to Ferguson with several like-minded friends and I ask that you will aid me in doing so. We plan to conduct several seminars for members of the community including writing/poetry workshops to provide an emotional outlet to deal with their trauma and confusion, along with “Know Your Rights” workshops to inform individuals on their constitutional rights and how they apply to their interactions with police. I hope to work specifically with youth in both processing their feelings on Michael Brown’s death and equipping them with the tools necessary to prepare them for what they may encounter in the years to come. I will also be working directly with community organizers in their efforts to communicate with local government officials to ensure that justice is served.

Your donation will assist with transportation, lodging, food, first aid supplies, and printing workshop materials.

Michael Brown’s name is yet another added to the ever-growing list of Black men killed in this country at the hands of law enforcement, merely armed with melanin and shrouded in stereotypical notions of their gender and race. Enough is enough. Please contribute what you can.

http://www.gofundme.com/d7ptk8

Watching bestman holiday and...

Im still pissed off that all these dark skin people have these biracial children lol Can’t even get an accurate representation in our own dang movies sheesh! Two dark skin children in the whole dang movie smh

my brother and his baby’s mom are both dark. They had twins one is dark and one is light. sometimes it’s genetics

And sometimes it's Hollywood

Born on this day…July 16, 1862

Ida B. Wells: Journalist, Newspaper Editor, Anti-Lynching Activist

Book:

Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells

Ida B. Wells was one of the foremost crusaders against black oppression. This engaging memoir tells of her private life as mother of a growing family as well as her public activities as teacher, lecturer, and journalist in her fight against attitudes and laws oppressing blacks.

Quotes from Ida B. Wells:

“The people must know before they can act, and there is no educator to compare with the press.”

“I had an instinctive feeling that the people who have little or no intelligence or no school training should have something coming into their homes weekly which dealt with their problems in a simple, helpful way…so I wrote in a plain, common-sense way on the things that concerned our people.”

“The mob spirit has grown with the increasing intelligence of the Afro-American.”

“The city of Memphis has demonstrated that neither character nor standing avails the Negro if he dares to protect himself against the white man or become his rival.”

“The nineteenth century lynching mob cuts off ears, toes, and fingers, strips off flesh, and distributes portions of the body as souvenirs among the crowd.”

“The white man’s victory soon became complete by fraud, violence, intimidation and murder.”

“If it were possible, I would gather the race in my arms and fly away with them.”

On April 16th, 276 girls aged 16 to 18 were kidnapped from their school in Chibok, Nigeria by the terrorist group Boko Haram. Many have criticized both the Nigerian government for their feeble response and international media outlets for their lack of adequate news coverage. I have partnered with Bilphena Yahwon of africaisdonesuffering.com to share her poem “When the Enemy Comes” to bring further awareness to this atrocity. Sign the petition at change.org to affirm your solidarity with the girls, show support to their loved ones, and demand those in power to do all that they can to ensure their safe return. #BringBackOurGirls —Danielle LJ Daley

Petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/over-200-girls-are-missing-in-nigeria-please-help-find-them-bringbackourgirls

Twitter: spokenELLE

Instagram: daley_dose

Email: spokenELLE@gmail.com

A woman’s father need not be “absent” for her to potentially miss out on important lessons…Maintaining the fallacy of a flawless father figure won’t help your daughters develop the strengths they’ll need to manage relationships #FatherYourDaughters

Full sequence: http://storify.com/spokenELLE/father-your-daughters

Follow me: @spokenELLE

My Janelle Monae costume(s)…couldn’t decide on just one look

IG: daley_dose

A Dark Skinned Girl’s Response to Lupita’s Oscar Win

"And I don’t think I realized how much I still hurt until Lupita won tonight…”

Twitter: @spokenelle 

Instagram: @daley_dose