Aesha Lee has heard the line countless times: “You’re pretty for a black girl.” The phrase, spoken by both black and nonblack people, evokes the racism woven into societal standards of beauty, the colorism that still persists within the black community, the often negative representation of dark-skinned women in popular culture, the scars left by …
Ask some of the fifth-grade girls at Harvard Elementary School about coding and STEM and, in between maneuvering a robot they programmed to demonstrate hydrodynamics, this is what they say: Sarah Ramos, 10: “It teaches me to problem-solve.” Hannah Horwath, 11: “It really teaches us metaphorical lessons like trial and error and how to persist.” …
Somewhere in the vast crowd, huddled with hundreds of thousands on a cold, rainy day, Elva Alvarez felt a moment of awakening, a spirit of sisterhood and surge of optimism. On the bus ride from Houston to the 2017 Women’s March in Washington D.C., Alvarez had seen fellow riders cry as they watched “Selma,” heard …
For decades, immigrants in the country illegally started businesses, bolstered the work force, bought houses and raised families in Houston with little fear of being questioned about their legal status. They helped build the city into a metropolis. Now immigrants, both those here legally and illegally, are keeping a low profile. Laws such as Texas …
To the parents of the boy who called my daughters the N-word: I don’t know who you are. Perhaps we pass each other at the local Kroger or rub elbows at open house at our children’s elementary school. Maybe we both rise before dawn to sweat at the same boot camp workout or share the …
We want to look away. Close our eyes to ugliness. Turn our backs on racism. Bolt the door against bigotry. We want to change the channel – and shut out the horrifying images from Charlotteville. A car plowing into a crowd rallying against racism. Bodies flying. Screams. Panic. Confederate flags wielded as symbols of white …
Mr. Vito, as his students call him, began class with his usual questions: “What do you want to know? What would you like to read?” The English as a Second Language instructor, whose full name is Vito Susca, sat at the head of a long conference table. By his elbow, a pile of dog-eared reference …
She sat hunched like a shivering puppy, by a sign with arrows pointed in opposite directions and the warning: “My way. The highway.” Oversized glasses slipped down the bridge of her nose, stopped by a small stud piercing. Her dark hair was pulled back in a loose bun, her expression rueful. The round-faced 17-year-old waited …
After the call to prayer and the sermon in three languages, after members of the Southwest Houston mosque hailed one another with the traditional greeting of Assalam Alaikum and the sort of warm embraces familiar to Latino gatherings, the imam beckoned to the new convert. Delmi Realegeño, a newly-arrived immigrant from El Salvador, walked to …
Be strong. Be good. Be kind. Those were my parting words to my two young daughters as I left for work this morning. I kissed them lightly on the foreheads, but really I wanted to grasp them in a tight embrace and never let go, to protect them against an onslaught of ugliness that I …
Laurenzo’s iconic restaurant credited with introducing fajitas to the restaurant world By Monica Rhor As Domenic Laurenzo sits in the shadowy morning light, his eyes scan the portraits and oversized photos lining the walls of his restaurant on Navigation Boulevard. Each contains a nugget of a family story that has become part of Houston lore. …
HUNTSVILLE – A steady rain pelted the plain, brick church, muddying the crowded parking lot and blanketing the sky in a gray gloom. Inside the RCCG Rhema International Assembly, however, the spirit was joyful. Congregants sang and swayed and lifted their voices. They praised the Lord in English and in a variety of Nigerian languages: …
“Mommy I love you.” That text chilled my soul. It came from Eddie Justice, who was hiding in a bathroom at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, trapped there by an unhinged gunman who would kill 49 people and injure 53 others. In his final moments, in the early hours of June 12, Justice — …
Inside a room drenched with sunlight and scented with the aroma of fresh coffee, the book club is discussing “Orphan Train,” a story about displacement and disruption, about being wrenched from family and suffering through hardship and hunger. A story about being beaten down only to find the strength to get back on your feet. …
By now, you’ve most likely read, heard, watched and dissected almost everything there is to read, hear, watch and dissect about “Hamilton,” the Broadway leviathan widely referred to as a “hip-hop musical.” The show about Alexander Hamilton has broken records for ticket sales, box-office revenue, cast album downloads and Tony nominations. Its creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, …
Their laughter reverberated over the clatter of cups and silverware, drifting past the lunch-hour cacophony of La Madeleine. The women were gathered round a rustic wooden table, nursing oversized blue cups of cappuccino and tall glasses of iced tea. They greeted each other all at once, words colliding and clashing, like schoolgirls at a cafeteria …