Tag: The Guardian

  • The genes that build America The Guardian 2007-07-14 Paul Harris, US Correspondent From the discovery that presidential hopeful Barack Obama is descended from white slave owners to the realisation that the majority of black Americans have European ancestors, a boom in ‘recreational genetics’ is forcing America to redefine its roots. Paul Harris pieces together the…

  • Langston Hughes showed me what it meant to be a black writer The Guardian 2013-07-31 Gary Younge, Feature Writer and Columnist His 1926 essay, The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain made clear that a black writer must write the best work they can, while refusing to be defined by other people’s racial agendas One…

  • Akala: Dynamite by any other name… The Guardian The Observer 2013-06-01 Kate Mossman Rapper, adapter of Shakespeare and brother of Ms Dynamite, Akala is on a mission to correct a few misconceptions A few weeks ago in these pages, Birmingham rapper Lady Leshurr asked why there had been no high-profile female rappers in the UK since…

  • Missing faces The Guardian 2007-03-23 Jackie Kay, Professor of Creative Writing Newcastle University As the United Kingdom marks the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade tomorrow, Jackie Kay challenges fellow Scots to acknowledge their forebears’ part in this shameful history and reflects on the ordeal suffered by her ancestors We’re perhaps over-fond…

  • Scottish people’s DNA study could ‘rewrite nation’s history’ The Guardian 2012-08-14 Charlotte Higgins, Chief Arts Writer Evidence of African, Arabian, south-east Asian and Siberian ancestry in Scotland, says author of book tracing genetic journey A large scale study of Scottish people’s DNA is threatening to “rewrite the nation’s history”, according to author Alistair Moffat. Scotland,…

  • I first met Audre in 1984, when I was 22. She told me her grandfather had been Scottish, and that I didn’t need to choose between being Scottish and being black. “You can be both. You can call yourself an Afro Scot,” she said in her New York drawl. Lorde was Whitman-like in her refusal to…

  • Ellen Gallagher: wigs, waterworlds and Wile E Coyote The Guardian 2013-05-07 Bim Adewunmi Adverts from black magazines, Plasticine, eyeballs – in the work of Ellen Gallagher, it’s all woven together into something new. Bim Adewunmi visits her chaotic Rotterdam studio Throughout our interview, Ellen Gallagher makes frequent trips to a large bookcase on the other…

  • Cornel West: ‘They say I’m un-American’ The Guardian 2013-05-12 Hugh Muir, Diary Editor The American academic and firebrand campaigner talks about Britain’s deep trouble, fighting white supremacy and where Obama is going wrong Cornel West, the firebrand of American academia for almost 30 years, is causing his hosts some problems. They are on a schedule…

  • So, why are we so loyal to a president who is not loyal to us? The Guardian 2013-05-05 Gary Younge, Feature Writer and Columnist Kevin Johnson was pilloried for suggesting Obama has not been good for African Americans. But his question was a good one Back when affirmative action was white, educational institutions were created…

  • Oona King: My family values The Guardian 2013-04-19 Roz Lewis The Labour peer talks about her parents, growing up as the only mixed-race child in her class, and being an adoptive parent I was born in Sheffield. My father, Preston King, is African American; my mother, Hazel, is a Jewish Geordie. I have a brother,…