Cheryl Thompson

(she/her)

13

Articles

6

Comments
Sinclair Daniel plays Nella in ‘The Other Black Girl’, a horror-satire about the dangers of Black women’s hair care products — something this week’s podcast guest knows a lot about. (Wilfred Harwood/Hulu)

Detangling the roots and health risks of hair relaxers

Dannielle Piper, The Conversation and Vinita Srivastava, The Conversation

In this episode, Cheryl Thompson, author of ‘Beauty in a Box,’ untangles the roots of hair relaxers for Black women and discusses their potential health dangers and resulting hundreds of lawsuits.
There has been a public outpouring of love for the dancer and producer Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss who died this week at the age of 40. (Donald Traill/JetBlue's Soar with Reading Program via AP Images)

Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss’s death should spark real conversations about the cost of Black celebrity

Cheryl Thompson, Toronto Metropolitan University

A scholar of Black entertainment history reflects on the death of producer Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss and reflects on the history of Black male entertainers dancing or telling jokes to their deaths.
After the death of Queen Elizabeth, questions arise about whose life gets mourned and who does not. Here is the Queen with the Guards of Honour in Nigeria, Dec. 3, 2003, for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

About the Queen and the Crown’s crimes (or how to talk about the unmourned) — Podcast

Vinita Srivastava, The Conversation

In the middle of the tremendous outpouring of love and grief for the Queen and the monarchy she represented, not everyone wants to take a moment of silence. And there are a lot of reasons why.
Black women have been fighting for decades for the right to wear their natural hair. Here Jada Pinkett Smith arrives at the premiere of ‘The Matrix Resurrections’ on Dec. 18, 2021, in San Francisco. (AP/Noah Berger)

Jada Pinkett Smith and Black women’s hair: History of disrespect leads to the CROWN Act

Cheryl Thompson, Toronto Metropolitan University

Until Black women can wear their hair how they want without risk of ridicule, reprimand or termination, a joke targeting Black hair is no laughing matter.
Bill Robinson dancing with Shirley Temple in ‘The Little Colonel.’ (20th Century Fox)

How ‘Uncle Tom’ still impacts racial politics

Cheryl Thompson, Toronto Metropolitan University

‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin,’ the best seller of the 19th century, is not a relic from the past. The complex Uncle Tom figure still has a hold over Black politics.
Ancestry ad depicts a white man in 19th-century clothing standing in front of a Black woman holding a ring telling her they can leave and be together in Canada. Ancestry

Ancestry ad gets it wrong: Canada was never slave‑free

Cheryl Thompson, Toronto Metropolitan University

Canadian audiences did not object to Ancestry’s ad which romanticized Canada as “Promised land,” but they should have.
The historical depiction of ‘the mammy’ is a racist stereotype, with an enduring impact. Hattie McDaniel (right) won an Oscar for her role in ‘Gone with the Wind’ with Vivien Leigh (left). Selznick International Pictures

I am not your nice ‘Mammy’: How racist stereotypes still impact women

Cheryl Thompson, Toronto Metropolitan University

Stereotypes of Black women continue to impact how they are treated in institutions.
Detail from Mickalene Thomas’s ‘Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe: Les trois femmes noires’ which is part of a show called ‘Femmes Noires’ currently at the Art Gallery of Ontario. The Rachel and Jean-Pierre Lehmann Collection © Mickalene Thomas

Black Canadian women artists detangle the roots of Black beauty

Cheryl Thompson, Toronto Metropolitan University

A recent and powerful exhibit by New York artist Mickalene Thomas at the Art Gallery of Ontario has opened the door for some deep discussions about Black Canadian women and visual representation.

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