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.

The Next Stop for Personhood Mania

by Akiba Solomon on November 22 2011, 2:45PM

Picking up the pieces after their Mississippi failure, zygote rights activists are taking their sideshow to Virginia

Topics: Akiba Solomon

U.S. Teen Birth Rate Hits an All-Time Low

by Akiba Solomon on November 18 2011, 2:14PM

Forget “16 and Pregnant.” Fewer teens of all races are having babies, according to a new CDC report. The birth rate is also lower for unmarried women and those in their 20s and 30s.

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What You Need to Know About Childhood Sexual Abuse

by Akiba Solomon on November 17 2011, 10:00AM

It’s one of those unspeakable crimes, until a high-profile case like the one at Penn State makes it inescapable. Here, some basic-but-vital facts about its victims and impact.

Topics: Akiba Solomon, Schools & Youth

What Do Herman Cain and Joe Paterno Have in Common?

by Akiba Solomon on November 10 2011, 11:19PM

The scandals engulfing the Republican presidential candidate and the deposed Penn State football coach are fruit from the same poisoned tree.

Topics: Akiba Solomon

Mississippi Votes No on Initiative 26, but Zygote-Rights Zealots Press On

by Akiba Solomon on November 9 2011, 3:18PM

Like the Energizer Bunny, the eggs-as-people movement plans to keep going and going and going. Thankfully, so do the folks who continually defeat them.

Topics: Akiba Solomon, Health, Personhood

Mississippi Ballot Initiative Fights for the Rights of Fertilized Eggs

by Akiba Solomon on November 4 2011, 2:32PM

If the state votes yes on Amendment 26, fertilized eggs will be deemed people. Abortion will be illegal, even in cases of rape, incest and pregnancies that could kill the mother.

Topics: Akiba Solomon, Personhood

SlutWalk Toronto Releases An Anti-Racism Statement—And It’s Good!

by Akiba Solomon on November 3 2011, 9:30AM

The founding SlutWalk crew offers thoughtful words on the decentralized movement’s race fails and shares next steps.

Topics: Akiba Solomon

ABC to Turn Tracy McMillan’s Single Ladies-Hating Manifesto Into Sitcom

by Akiba Solomon on October 27 2011, 9:01AM

The biracial TV writer’s HuffPo editorial “Why You’re Not Married” will also become a book. Both should be a big hit for folks who believe that a wedding band is more important than a woman’s self-worth.

Topics: Akiba Solomon, Gender & Sexuality

FBI Gets Closer to Calling Rape What It Is

by Akiba Solomon on October 21 2011, 9:53AM

The new working definition of rape may become official in December. Thankfully, it doesn’t include the words “carnal” or “forcible,” and it doesn’t exclude victims who aren’t female.

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What I Learned from Anita Hill at 20

by Akiba Solomon on October 18 2011, 11:15AM

At a major conference commemorating the 20th anniversary of Anita Hill’s groundbreaking testimony, the intersection between race and gender came through loud and clear.

Topics: Akiba Solomon, Gender & Sexuality

Score! A Transgender People’s Victory in the State of California

by Akiba Solomon on October 12 2011, 12:22PM

New laws make it easier to get ID and clarify what should be a basic truth: You can’t discriminate against somebody because they’re transgender.

Topics: Akiba Solomon, Gender & Sexuality

More Thoughts on SlutWalk: No Attention is Better Than Bad Attention

by Akiba Solomon on October 6 2011, 3:09PM

I was ambivalent about SlutWalk—until I saw this picture.

Topics: Akiba Solomon, Gender & Sexuality

Show Some Love for the Hip-Hop Mama Who Birthed ‘Rappers Delight’

by Akiba Solomon on September 30 2011, 5:49PM

Sugarhill Records’ Sylvia Robinson was nice with the pen, easy on the ears and a visionary hitmaker.

Topics: Celebrate Love

FBI to Revise Hopelessly Narrow Definition of Rape

by Akiba Solomon on September 29 2011, 10:05AM

It only took 80 years for the federal agency to acknowledge that “carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will” excludes a whole lot of victims.

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William Jelani Cobb Reports from the Prison Gates

by Akiba Solomon on September 22 2011, 2:00PM

The historian and author spent seven hours outside of the prison where Troy Davis was executed last night. Here, he describes the mood of the crowd, the police reaction and he weighs in on why Obama didn’t step in.

Topics: Akiba Solomon, Criminal Justice, Troy Davis

Where Does the Racialized Pro-Life Movement Stand on Troy Davis?

by Akiba Solomon on September 21 2011, 11:40AM

The abortion-as-black-genocide lobby is conspicuously silent in the life-or-death case of an acutal person outside of the womb.

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DSK and Satoshi Kanazawa Are Sorry They Hurt Our Feelings

by Akiba Solomon on September 19 2011, 9:29AM

My 19-month-old nephew is better at apologizing than the former IMF chief and the former Psychology Today blogger.

Topics: Akiba Solomon

Baltimore Woman Caught Beating a Transwoman at McDonald’s Learns Fate

by Akiba Solomon on September 14 2011, 10:16AM

Teonna Brown says she’s sorry. For Chrissy Polis, it’s too little, too late.

Topics: Akiba Solomon

How Personhood Mississippi Perverts Black History to Fight Abortion

by Akiba Solomon on September 9 2011, 12:15PM

Personhood Mississippi, the group behind the anti-choice ballot initiative Amendment 26, is the latest group to hijack racial justice history for a profoundly unjust cause. This sleaze has got to stop.

Topics: Akiba Solomon, Personhood

My Dark, Twisted Jay-Z and Lil’ Wayne Fantasy

by Akiba Solomon on September 2 2011, 11:00AM

On the heels of the so-called beef over who’s richer, I dream of a world where these two monster MCs use their ample powers for the good of everybody—including women.

Topics: Akiba Solomon

Akiba Solomon

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