Dr. Kaye Whitehead (Courtesy Photo) By Dr. Kaye Whitehead This is our American story: built on disillusion and disappointment, survival and sacrifice. It is not a new story, nor is it for the faint of heart. America is a beast that prides itself on feeding off of our pain. It is a red, white and […]
Author Archives: Dr. Karsonya Wise Whitehead
Posted inOPINION
Slavery and Whiteness Tried to Erase Us
By Dr. Kaye Whitehead Do you know who you are? This is a question that has kept me up at night for the past 13 years. When my son was six, his predominantly White school did a play about Thanksgiving. They sang songs about Columbus’s greatness, the gratitude of the Native Americans, and the surprising […]
Posted inNEWS
Five Minutes Before the Klan Shows Up
By Dr. Kaye Whitehead As someone who grew up in Jim Crow South Carolina, my father likes to call himself a survivor. He looked White supremacy and racial hatred in the eye, and though he has not won, he wants to note that he has not lost, not yet. When I was in college, I […]
Posted inCommentary, OPINION
Blood On The Leaves and Blood At The Roots
By Dr. Kaye Whitehead Special to the AFRO Southern trees, Billie Holiday once sang, bear strange fruit, and when this happens, blood is on the leaves and blood is at the roots. Everything should close when an unarmed Black person gets killed in this country. All movements, in all communities, should come to a standstill […]
Posted inBaltimore News, Commentary, NEWS, OPINION
I Come From a Long Line of Angry Black Women
By Dr. Kaye Whitehead My grandmothers were brave, strong, courageous and able to withstand great force and pressure. They were Black women in America, and they learned how to turn their anger into activism and their strength into survival. I come from a long line of strong and angry Black women. My Nana used to […]
Posted inBaltimore News, Commentary, Coronavirus, NEWS, OPINION
#BlackCovidStories: A Long-Memoried People
By Dr. Kaye Whitehead Growing up, whenever something happened to me, my Nana would tell me to write it down, to record it, to get my stories on paper. She said that we are a long-memoried people, and we document our pain so that the children of our children will know that they are the […]
Posted inBaltimore News, Commentary, Coronavirus, NEWS, OPINION
#BlackCovidStories: When Tomorrow Comes
By Dr. Kaye Whitehead, Special to the AFRO When my oldest son was born, my Nana told me that raising Black boys in America requires both courage and fearlessness. She said that I needed to learn how to move forward even when everything in me is telling me that I should stand still. She said […]
Posted inCommentary, Coronavirus, OPINION
COVID Diaries: Someone I Love Will Get Coronavirus
By Dr. Kaye Whitehead, Special to the AFRO 3/24/2020 There are moments in your life that take your breath away. Moments when you have to pause for just a second because you are so overwhelmed that you cannot speak. I felt that way when I walked down the aisle to get married and when I […]
Posted inBaltimore News, Commentary, NEWS, OPINION
Conversations with Dr. Kaye: Dead Men Walking
By Dr. Kaye Wise Whitehead Special to AFRO A few days ago, a young Black man was killed in this city. I do not know which block or which neighborhood, but I do know that it happened because it always happens. These are the times that try our collective soul. We need some air. We […]
Posted inBaltimore News, Commentary, NEWS, OPINION
Black History Month 2020: You. Are. Still. Here.
By Dr. Kaye Whitehead Special to the AFRO In hindsight, Black History Month probably should have been canceled this year. From the collective grieving over the tragic deaths of Kobe and Gianna Bryant to the misogynistic attack by Snoop Dogg on Gayle King, it has indeed been the worst of times. It is a palpable […]
Posted inBaltimore News, Commentary, NEWS, OPINION
Get Total Freedom or Die Trying
Dr. Kaye Whitehead Special to AFRO He stood at the podium that day, hot, sweaty, and perhaps a little nervous, with millions of eyes upon him. This speech, he knew, had to be the greatest one that he had ever delivered. Introduced as the “moral leader of our nation,” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had […]
Posted inBaltimore Community, Baltimore News, Commentary, NEWS, OPINION
Let’s Fight Like Hell to Save Our City
By Dr. Kaye Whitehead Special to AFRO A few days before the beginning of the new year, I called my father to rant and rave about Baltimore. I was frustrated by the rising homicide numbers and the general air of malaise that had settled over the city and overwhelmed by having to facilitate ongoing conversations […]