By Karsonya “Kaye” Wise Whitehead, Ph.D. We are short-memoried people. We move quickly from one tragedy to the next, and despite our best intentions, it has become much harder to focus on and try to fix one thing because there is just too much happening. There is too much grief. There is too much sorrow. […]
Author Archives: Dr. Karsonya Wise Whitehead
Posted inCommentary
Commentary: HBCU Graduates: We just see the world differently
By Dr. Karsonya Wise Whitehead It was twenty-five years ago this year that I stood outside of the Elmina Castle in Ghana with a small group of friends and made a joint commitment to fight to help to co-create the type of world that we believe that we needed to live in. We were all […]
Posted inOPINION
Op-ed: NWSA Statement on leaked draft of SCOTUS decision to overturn Roe v. Wade
By Dr. Karsonya Wise Whitehead for the National Women’s Studies Association As transnational, Indigenous, and intersectional feminist scholars, we are compelled to speak out about the implications of the leaked draft of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the landmark 1973 case of Roe v. Wade. If it does happen, this decision will reverse the last […]
Posted inOPINION
We don’t have to win; we just have to hold on
By Dr. Karsonya Wise Whitehead Four nights ago, I sent out a tweet praying that the people of Ukraine prevail against the relentless attack from President Putin and the Russian Army. I said that I was praying for them to win. I received a reply in just a few minutes that stopped me in my […]
Posted inCommentary
NWSA Condemns the Attack on the People of Ukraine
Dr. Karsonya Wise Whitehead, Special to the AFRO The National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) takes seriously our charge to never be silent in the face of evil. We understand that we do not have the luxury to sit by while countries are attacked, war is being waged, and women and children are being killed. One […]
Posted inOPINION
Black bodies have always mattered
By Dr. Kaye Whitehead There is a place between who we want to be and who we are. It is a difficult, sobering place because it forces you to look at what you have done and then challenges you to do better. This is that moment, and unfortunately, we have been here before. The end […]
Posted inBaltimore News
…And everybody knows about Baltimore gotdam
By Dr. Kaye Whitehead In 1967, in a speech at Barratt Junior High School in Philadelphia, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. asked the students, “What is in your life’s blueprint?” He told them that the decisions they made on that day would determine how they would go forward and how we (as a community) would […]
Posted inNEWS
Conversations with Dr. Kaye: Justice is coming, but it ain’t here yet
By Dr. Kaye Whitehead In 1959, in a Commencement Address at Morehouse College, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. told the graduating class that the great challenge facing them was to remain awake, alert and creative through this great revolution. The country, according to Dr. King, was moving toward change, and if they continued to apply […]
Posted inOPINION
Conversations with Dr. Kaye: It’s mourning in America: The incredible loss of bell hooks
By Dr. Kaye Whitehead As the president of the National Women’s Studies Association, I sent out a letter to our members mourning the passing of Dr. Gloria Jean Watkins, Ph.D./bell hooks: genius, scholar, cultural critic, author, professor, truth speaker, a lover of words and of us. She challenged us, taught us, spoke to and sometimes […]
Posted inOPINION
The Karson Institute for Race, Peace & Social Justice: a year in review
By Dr. Kaye Whitehead I shall become a collector of our stories “We are responsible,” my Nana would always say, “with leaving the world better than how we found it. It is not a burden but a blessing to be able to use your time, your talent, and your treasure to be an instrument of […]
Posted inOPINION
Conversations with Dr. Kaye: For a Black mother: Politics are always local and personal
By Dr. Kaye Whitehead As a Black mother and recent empty-nester, I am in a difficult place at this moment. Both of my sons are dealing with the challenges that come with attending a persistently White university. When they were growing up, I was the shield that protected them from the world. My back was […]
Posted inOPINION
For a Black mother, freedom is a whole word
By Dr. Kaye Whitehead As a Black mother, it is not enough to dream of a world where your children are safe and where they can be free. It is not enough to trust that the system will police itself or believe that without rigorous oversight, police officers or politicians or teachers will look at […]