COLORLINES - Akiba Solomon

Akiba Solomon

Managing Editor
Brooklyn, NY

Akiba Solomon is the Managing Editor of Colorlines.com and an NABJ-Award winning journalist, editor and essayist from West Philadelphia. Online, she has written about the intersection between gender and race for Colorlines.com and culture for Ebony.com. As Colorlines.com’s inaugural reporting fellow, Solomon reported on reproductive health access for women of color during and immediately after President Barack Obama's re-election campaign. A graduate of Howard University, the Brooklyn resident co-edited Naked: Black Women Bare All About Their Skin, Hair, Hips, Lips, and Other Parts (Perigee, 2005), an anthology of original essays and oral memoirs about Black women and body image. Solomon has also been a researcher for Glamour, a health editor for Essence and a senior editor for the print versions of Vibe Vixen and The Source. She has also written for a range of publications on a freelance basis, including Redbook, Vibe and Heart & Soul. As a panelist, she has spoken about women’s and social justice issues through the lens of hip-hop culture at a range of institutions including The Schomburg Center for the Research in Black Culture, Stanford University, Yale University, Harvard University and The University of Chicago. Check out Akiba's media appearances here.

Follow Akiba at @akibasolomon.

A Texas-Style War on Women Guts Basic Care to Jab Planned Parenthood

by Akiba Solomon on March 15 2012, 9:34AM

Black, single, childless and back in college, Delia Henry represents a population rarely visible in the so-called war on women. And she’s about to lose her health care because Rick Perry is gutting a Women’s Health Program just to hurt Planned Parenthood.

Topics: Akiba Solomon, Gender & Sexuality, Health, Planned Parenthood

How Can We Help Kids Define What Is and Isn’t Healthy Sexuality?

by Akiba Solomon on March 5 2012, 9:52AM

In an age of free porn, rape-promoting video games and stupid advice videos from grown men, childhood sexual exploration is trickier than ever. There are no easy answers. Herewith, a few starting points.

Topics: Akiba Solomon, Gender & Sexuality, Too $hort

The New-Old Southern Strategy Mixes Racism and Sexism for Nasty Results

by Akiba Solomon on February 28 2012, 10:19AM

GOP presidential candidates have thrown gender dog-whistle politics into the race pot. It’s looking an awful lot like the odious 1960s Southern strategy.

Topics: 2012 Election, Akiba Solomon, GOP Primary, Gender & Sexuality, Health

Too $hort Calls XXL Video Debacle a Blessing in Disguise

by Akiba Solomon on February 23 2012, 2:20PM

Bad publicity, an enlightening conversation with activist dream hampton and “karma” produce an a-ha! moment for the rapper who instructed middle school boys to “turn out” their female classmates.

Topics: Akiba Solomon, Gender & Sexuality, /NOW

5 Things Too $hort & Hip-Hop Media Can Learn About Sexual Violence

by Akiba Solomon on February 23 2012, 11:33AM

Ways to regroup and do better after the debacle of Too $hort’s violent, rape-celebrating XXL.com video.

Topics: Akiba Solomon, Arts & Culture, Gender & Sexuality, Too $hort

Whitney Houston’s Gift to the World

by Akiba Solomon on February 13 2012, 10:09AM

When the pop superstar hit the charts, black music was in a precarious place. Ms. Houston showed us how to marry real singing with pop melodies without losing every inch of soul.

Topics: Akiba Solomon, Arts & Culture, Whitney Houston

Komen Is Just the Latest Round in the Anti-Choice Game of Chess

by Akiba Solomon on February 9 2012, 10:43AM

And poor women and women of color remain the pawns who get sacrificed.

Topics: Akiba Solomon, Gender & Sexuality, Health, Planned Parenthood

The Tragic, Craven Undoing of Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s Noble Mission

by Akiba Solomon on February 1 2012, 10:01AM

Whether they like it or not, defunding Planned Parenthood’s breast health programs makes Susan G. Komen Foundation look anti-choice. And of course, poor women of color will suffer most.

Topics: Akiba Solomon, Gender & Sexuality, Health, Planned Parenthood

News Flash: Black Women Do Stuff Like Worry About Bills and Pray

by Akiba Solomon on January 25 2012, 8:48AM

Why The Washington Post’s well-meaning, but reductive survey about black women’s lives misses the mark.

Topics: Akiba Solomon

Bad and Good News on Women’s Right to Reproductive Health

by Akiba Solomon on January 23 2012, 9:21AM

The bad news: According to a new report, anti-choice laws hit a near-record high in 2011. The good news: The Obama administration didn’t buckle to conscience clause bullies hoping to deny women copay-free birth control.

Topics: Akiba Solomon, Health, Personhood

On Baby Blue Ivy Carter and the Alleged Ugliness of Blackness

by Akiba Solomon on January 13 2012, 9:58AM

Of all the madness surrounding Beyonce and Jay Z’s newborn, the self-hating attacks on black beauty were the most disturbing. But even in a time when calling babies ugly in print is OK, we can still find solace. In good books.

Topics: Akiba Solomon, Arts & Culture, Blue Ivy

Racist Jabs at Michelle Obama—and the Apologies That Make Them Worse

by Akiba Solomon on January 10 2012, 10:02AM

Racially coded digs at the First Lady are a dime a dozen. So why do they still make me so angry?

Topics: Akiba Solomon, Gender & Sexuality

FBI Finally Calls Rape What It Is

by Akiba Solomon on January 6 2012, 11:16AM

Thanks to the consistent work of a range of activists, the FBI has finally replaced its ridiculously narrow, 85-year-old definition of rape.

Topics: Gender & Sexuality, /NOW

The Personhood Movement Is Flexing on the GOP. We Should All Be Afraid

by Akiba Solomon on January 6 2012, 9:17AM

Between the Iowa caucuses and the resurgence of Personhood Mississippi, the reproductive health rights terrain has gotten rougher. Are we ready to navigate it?

Topics: Akiba Solomon, Gender & Sexuality, Politics

The 2012 Attack on Reproductive Rights Will Trade on Women of Color

by Akiba Solomon on December 20 2011, 9:57AM

2011 has featured a string of hard-fought, local battles to protect poor women’s access to reproductive health care. That won’t change next year, and poor women of color will again be in the crossfire.

Topics: 2012: What's Ahead?, Akiba Solomon, Gender & Sexuality, Health

If I Were A White, Male Middle Aged Forbes Columnist…

by Akiba Solomon on December 14 2011, 10:11AM

The lesson of Gene Marks’s “If I Were a Poor Black Kid” column: If you don’t have firsthand knowledge of structural inequality, you have to put in time and rigorous research to write about it. Or you could just stay in your lane.

Topics: Akiba Solomon, Media, Schools & Youth

Four Ways Obama’s Birth Control Fail Hurts Young Women of Color

by Akiba Solomon on December 9 2011, 10:00AM

With president Obama’s cosign, U.S. health secretary Kathleen Sebelius just made it harder for women of color to prevent unintended pregnancies. Is this the thanks we get?

Topics: Akiba Solomon, Gender & Sexuality, Health

Black Website Shows Us the Right and Wrong Ways to Talk HIV

by Akiba Solomon on December 6 2011, 10:04AM

Loop21.com gave HIV/AIDS lots of play on World AIDS day. Two of its stories show how far we’ve come and where we still need to go.

Topics: Akiba Solomon, HIV/AIDS, Health

Pass the Mic: Transgender Women in Chocolate City Tell Their Stories

by Akiba Solomon on December 2 2011, 10:51AM

Transgender women in the nation’s capitol are catching hell. But violence and bais isn’t the sum of people’s lives, so Akiba Solomon asked trans women of color in D.C. to tell their own stories. “I’m proud of my experiences,” says Danielle King. “Most importantly, I love myself.”

Topics: Akiba Solomon, Gender & Sexuality

It’s World AIDS Day. What Are You Gonna Do to Stop This Madness?

by Akiba Solomon on December 1 2011, 11:10AM

Thirty years later, we know a great deal about HIV/AIDS and have significant tools for stopping it from killing us. Now, we just gotta use them. Here’s a list for getting started.

Topics: Akiba Solomon, HIV/AIDS at 30, Health

Akiba Solomon

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