By Chase Breimeier In the first part of this two-part blog series for Black History Month, we explored the personal lives and mental health challenges of two historical Black activists—Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Maya Angelou—in order to highlight their character, courage, and honor them beyond their accomplishments. As the second part of this series, we hope to accomplish …

How do people who have been made to feel that they must defend the value of their lives to others truly feel about themselves? I would expect that living under these circumstances would have some kind of impact on self-esteem. Wouldn’t you?

By Jason Frederick I grew up the youngest of three sons. I’m guessing that by the time I was 12 years old, both of my big brothers had told me on separate occasions that they didn’t see any point in emotions or that emotions make you weak. My dad characterized taking actions based on your emotions rather than logic and …

By Chase Breimeier During Black History Month, we have the opportunity and privilege to celebrate and honor the Black and African Americans who have worked courageously to push our nation toward a brighter future. In remembering these individuals, however, our society tends to focus primarily on their accomplishments while often neglecting to understand their personal stories. In other words, we …

By Melissa Douglass A simple, yet impactful line from J. Cole’s 2013 hit “Crooked Smile” had to be one of the most quoted lines from a song that year. Why? “Love yourself, girl, or nobody will” in a single line advocated for self-love and self-acceptance through hip-hop which historically has perpetuated the expectation of perfectionism; while subjecting women to limited …