Crazy World

I didn’t even know how to open a bank account until I became a rapper. When I was a kid, I knew there had to be a way to understand how to make and save money—but no one was teaching me that in my Atlanta schools. It wasn’t until I had access to resources and…

I used to think activism and organizing was something so specific. There’s this idea that you have to be noble or special to do this work. I definitely didn’t set out to become an activist. One day in 2010, I walked into a boxing club with no additional thoughts about what it could imply or…

Douglas Brooks served as the head of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy during the Obama Administration as the first openly gay, HIV-positive African American to hold the job. He focused on addressing the health needs of those at higher risk of HIV infection, and is now executive director of community engagement at…

Tyler, the Creator, and Kenya Barris both grew up in the same suburban area of Los Angeles. As an independent rapper and hip-hop agitator, Tyler has spent a decade creating music that pushes boundaries and buttons. As a writer, director and producer behind shows like Black-ish and the movie Girls Trip, Barris has won accolades…

Naomi Osaka is one of the top tennis players in the world, having won two Grand Slam titles in the past three years. Mikey Williams, a rising high school sophomore, is one of the top-ranked basketball prospects in the country and made waves recently for expressing an interest in attending a historically Black college or…

At a time when many Americans are asking whether the United States is living up to its more than 244-year-old promise, this week’s TIME cover takes another look at one of the nation’s most powerful symbols. To accompany a series of conversations and essays about creating a more equitable future for Black Americans, curated by…

When I watched them kill Elijah McClain, I couldn’t make any art for days. It had been week after week after week of gut-wrenching stories of Black lives taken from this earth too early. I wasn’t sure if I could handle another one. After seeing the way Elijah pleaded for his life while walking home…

Trans people are not new. We have always been here. As long as there’s been recorded human history, we have always existed. But we have been written out of the human story—and when you come from a community that is without a full range of possibility models, it raises the question, in yourself as well…

I am a magnet for kindness. Like the center of a black hole, my body attracts every good deed from across the universe to the foot of my wheelchair. I move through parking lots and malls, farmers’ markets and airports, bookstores and buffets, and people scramble to my aid. O.K., so there are plenty of…

Pharrell Williams and Jay-Z will release a new song on Friday, “Entrepreneur,” in conjunction with Williams’ new TIME cover package, “The New American Revolution.” This issue of TIME features conversations with Angela Davis, Tyler the Creator, Naomi Osaka, Geoffrey Canada and more about the systemic inequalities that Black people have faced throughout United States’ history,…