Traditional Black holiday dishes carry memory, culture and meaning far beyond the dinner table. Rising grocery prices push families to find creative ways to honor tradition while stretching food budgets.
Category: Word In Black
How to support college students this holiday season
By Fajr Eutsey College is a time of significant transitions. Students are stepping out of their comfort zones, making hard decisions and learning to balance independence with responsibility. That growth can be exhilarating, but it can also be overwhelming. The holiday season, with its mix of family expectations, financial pressures and cultural traditions, often magnifies […]
How many of these Black movies have you seen?
The article highlights the importance of Black representation in movies and how Black-led films have evolved over time. It features a decade-by-decade list of must-watch Black movies that celebrate Black stories, culture and history.
From heartbreak to advocacy: Bianca Carolina’s HIV awareness journey
By Clayton Gutzmore Discovering you have HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) can be one of the most devastating pieces of news a person can receive. For Bianca Carolina, it was crushing — but she refused to remain in shambles. Today, Carolina is an HIV advocate, a wife, an expecting mother of two, and an inspiration to […]
Faith without screens? Churches reconsider livestream worship
As some churches move to end livestreamed worship in hopes of boosting in-person attendance and offerings, critics warn the shift risks shrinking membership and excluding congregants who are ill, disabled or unable to attend in person. Advocates of virtual worship argue livestreaming remains a vital tool for outreach, inclusion and growth in an increasingly digital age.
What’s in a coin?
By Dr. Frances ‘Toni’ DraperWord in Black More than metal. More than money. More than nostalgia. A coin is a declaration — of who a nation chooses to honor, what it chooses to remember and what it is willing to erase. That is why what happened at the U.S. Mint should unsettle anyone who cares […]
Opinion: I came of age at college…I fear for my grandchildren there
By Dr. France “Toni” Murphy DraperWord in Black I remember college as a place of possibility. We protested — yes — but we did so with sit-ins, with leaflets, with raised voices and locked arms. We marched and we sang “We Shall Overcome Someday.” We believed, perhaps naively, that collective courage and moral clarity could […]
Is Black America reckoning with the end of hip-hop’s ‘Diddy Era’?
Despite Sean Combs’ long status as a controversial public figure, the Netflix documentary “Sean Combs: The Reckoning” has struck a nerve across Black America, dominating conversations about power, violence, and abuse in hip-hop. The series is prompting broader soul-searching about the culture that enabled Combs’ rise and the limits of accountability in the music industry.
Education Dept. scrambles as civil rights backlog explodes
The U.S. Department of Education is urgently recalling hundreds of Office for Civil Rights employees—fired during a March reduction-in-force—to return on Dec. 15 as unresolved civil rights complaints soar past 25,000. The sudden move follows months of staffing turmoil, ongoing litigation, and a near-collapse of OCR’s capacity, leaving students and families facing long delays in discrimination investigations.
Six vaccines that can keep you safe this holiday season
By Jennifer Porter GoreWord in Black Christmas, Kwanzaa and other end-of-year holidays typically mean travel followed by close indoor contact with friends or loved ones — near-perfect conditions for nasty airborne viruses to spread. And when it comes to communicable illnesses, experts say, this holiday season is going to be a doozy. This December, public […]
A new generation of Black church leaders steps into power
Kevin Lamár Peterman, 32, has been installed as pastor of Washington, D.C.’s historic Nineteenth Street Baptist Church, signaling a broader rise of young Black clergy leading major congregations rooted in social justice. His installation reflects a national shift as millennial pastors take the reins of historic churches and adapt their ministries to a digital, turbulent era.
This Christmas, don’t let our elders be the last ones noticed
This Christmas, make sure to include and honor the elders in your family by listening to their stories, inviting them to contribute to conversations and decisions, and showing them appreciation with small gifts.

