Urban Thought Collective

About Me:

Jasmyne Cannick is a critic and commentator based in Los Angeles who writes about pop culture, race, class, sexuality, and politics as it relates to the African-American community. A regular contributor to NPR’s ‘News and Notes,’ she was chosen as one Essence Magazine’s 25 Women Shaping the World. She can be reached at www.jasmynecannick.com or www.myspace.com/jasmynecannick.

By now, I am sure that you are aware of the fallout over the Nov. 4 election results that passed Proposition 8, an amendment to the state constitution to make marriage legal only between one man and one woman. And I have no doubt that many of you reading this op-ed were a part […]

The right to marry does nothing to address the problems faced by both black gays and black straights.
I am a perfect example of why the fight against Proposition 8, which amends the state Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, failed to win black support.
I am black. I am a political activist who cares deeply about […]

When boxer Mike Tyson was convicted of raping Miss Black Rhode Island, Desiree Washington, in an Indianapolis hotel room and served three years in prison, we threw him a parade upon his release.
When singer R. Kelly finally went to trial for 12 counts of child pornography, after a video of what really looked like him […]

Even with the candidates unable to give to a straight answer during Thursday’s vice-presidential debate, one point was made crystal clear…the candidates are only concerned with America’s middle class, wealthy, and Corporate America.
For approximately 90 minutes while a lot of words were exchanged, they didn’t include poverty, homeless, urban, underclass, or minority. Those words […]

When I drive around “da hood” I see the parking lot kings and queens reigning supreme, malt liquor in hand hollering “nigga this” and “nigga that.” I see us pushing carts up and down street, sleeping on bus stops, cars rolling by with the booming system on 20-inch rims with tinted windows being driven […]

The bad news, I am no longer in the running to win this nation’s popularity contest. The good news, ask me if I care…I’m still going to tell it like it is.
For the record, I’m not one of those people that get overly excited over polls…at least not the ones that end in double in […]

Maybe if I didn’t know the history of how this country came to be. Maybe if I wasn’t keenly aware of how we came to be here in this country to begin with. Maybe if the first ship arriving with its precious human cargo to this country hadn’t been forced to adopt the same […]

There is a lot of pomp and circumstance going on from both sides of the aisle regarding California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s decision to fire more than 10,000 part-time and seasonal workers and reduce the salaries of 200,000 to the Federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour. Add to that dramatic and exaggerated news reports featuring […]

The image of Black women has been under attack since the first African female slave stepped off the ship and her white mistress set eyes upon on her. And through the years, whether it was the Massuh we had to contend with and his penchant for darker skin or the racist police officer, landlord, […]

Okay so let me get this right.
$4.2 million dollars is going to be used to fixed cracks in concrete that feature the names of celebrities who are either dead or they themselves are millionaires.
I don’t know about you, but something just doesn’t sound right about that, especially considering the fact that the very same slabs […]