Social Movements and Neoliberalism
By Alejandra Pretel • Originally published on Afroféminas •
Black Futurity in the Aftermath of Ahmaud Arbery Case
By Kevin A. Blanks • Finally, in the aftermath of Ahmaud Arbery’s trial, I am able to exhale. I didn’t even realize I was holding my breath until the verdict came in and the jury declared Arbery’s killers guilty for his murder. It should feel like a victory, but it doesn’t.
The Movement Fighting for LGBTQ+ Liberation in Ghana
By Stephanie Younger • Last week, we spoke with Fatima Derby, a Ghanaian feminist thinker, writer and organizer, who stands for freedom, justice and equality. During our conversation via Instagram Live, we discussed the violence LGBTQ+ people in Ghana are experiencing, what influences homophobic and transphobic violence against queer and trans Ghanaians, and the fight for their liberation.
No One Should ‘Enjoy Things’ at the Expense of Black Lives
By Stephanie Younger • We said abolish the police and abolish the prison industrial complex, not “representation” of Black women who maintain those systems.
Demonizing Human Movement: Criminalizing Immigrants in the United States
By Kayla Alexandria Dorancy • Immigration is a universal practice by people that’s survived countless generations. The United States is known universally as a “melting pot” of culture and nationality.
Colleges Pretend to Care about Black People
By James A. Perry Jr. • The presence of elitism, capitalism, racism, and sexism are still ubiquitous within the apparatus of higher education. Higher education leaders need to move beyond rhetoric involving diversity, equity, and justice. In their quest for absolution, these sentiments have increasingly become cliché and disingenuous.
A Letter of Urgency
By Alexandra Brown • Originally published on Conversations With • I wish to begin by sharing a prose I wrote in response to the murder of George Floyd. Institutional, systematic and structural racism, feels like I am dying a slow and painful death. When I learnt of the murder of George Floyd, it was like trauma to the soul. I fell silent, as I screamed. I am filled, consumed and embroidered with rage.
The Pain Of Anger
By Ryan Edward Perry • Originally published on The Backlight Blog • I was talking with one of my best friends today. She has recently, to my delightful surprise, become quite outspoken and engaging regarding social justice and the current state of American culture and the movements that have risen in that space. My friend, who is of Afro-Latinx descent, is married to a Black man who is also a very good friend.
The Fight For Black Lives will not be Palatable: On Liberal Co-Optation of Anti-Racism
By Stephanie Younger • 10 days ago, I climbed up the Robert E. Lee Statue at a protest in Richmond, Virginia—the former capital of the Confederacy— and I was asked to speak in front of a large crowd of protestors. This was unplanned, and I have been grieving so heavily these past few weeks that I had no idea what to speak about at first.
The Movement that Cancelled R. Kelly
By Stephanie Younger • Content warning: This article has mentions of sexual violence. By Stephanie Younger • Could a hashtag topple the career of a popular artist?
The Backlash Against “Karen” Memes is Peak White Feminism
By Stephanie Younger • In late January, I was scrolling through my Facebook news feed during my break in between college lectures when I came across a blog post, in which the author claims that referring to a white woman as a “Karen” is “misogynistic,” make white women feel “invisible” …
The Long Legacy of Anti-Blackness within the Feminist Movement
By Stephanie Younger • This year, a Black Lives Matter chapter in Los Angeles, California was excluded by the Women’s March in LA. In an article for LA Progressive, Melina Abdullah, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter LA, wrote an article detailing the harm caused by the Women’s March.
Why I am not “Voting Blue No Matter Who”
By Stephanie Younger • When I learned that 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden won 10 states on Super Tuesday on March 3rd, I couldn’t help but think of his political legacy of fighting for segregation, and the criminalization of Black youth.
Analysis: The Impact of Policing on Black and Brown Mothers and Children
By Stephanie Younger • Are all people in America served and protected by the law?
How The School System is Failing Black Students
By Sharayah Alkire • Throughout American History systems have been built up to bring down Black people in many ways. Some of these systems have been legal and widespread, being used across the nation. One of these being the school’s systems.
Botham Jean: When Your Politics Present a Challenge
By Joshua Redd • Amber Guyger was sentenced to 10 years in prison on October 1st, 2019 for the murder of Botham Jean on September 6th, 2018. The murder of Black folks by the hands of officers is nothing new. What made this case extremely peculiar was that he was murdered in his own home.
Crown Her With Many Crowns
By Ryan Edward Perry • Originally published on The Backlight Blog •
Mother Nature Does Not Discriminate. America Does
By Kayla Austin • The aftermath of the natural disaster that was Hurricane Katrina is a display of the effects of environmental racism, redlining, and the neglection of people of color and those facing poverty. Katrina is one of the worst natural disasters to occur in the history of the United States.
Continue Reading
Uterus Support: A Letter to Some of My Dudes
By Mia Birdsong • Originally published on Medium • I sent this to many of the cis-het men I know. One of them (thanks, Mordecai!) … Continue reading Uterus Support: A Letter to Some of My Dudes
Black Mama’s Bail Out Day Is Freeing Incarcerated Black Women In Richmond, Virginia For Mother’s Day
By Taneasha White, Brooke Taylor, Sarmistha Talukdar and Rebecca Wooden Keel of Southerners on New Ground • Mother’s Day inspires images of family, bonding and care. May 12 is right around the corner, and many of us will be spending the day with our family. However, we forget that many Black women will spend this day in cages, just because they don’t have enough money to pay bail.
Our Liberation Must Be Centered In the Climate Justice Movement
By Stephanie Younger • Even though Black youth and youth of color – especially Indigenous youth – are the most affected communities by climate change, and have been combating this issue for a very long time, our voices are always excluded and left out of the conversation and action surrounding climate change.
Reflecting on Intersectionality in the Gun Violence Prevention Movement
By Mei-Ling Ho-Shing • According to the Oxford Dictionaries, Intersectionality means, “the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.”
Black Youth Have Been Combating Gun Violence for Generations
By Stephanie Younger • March 24th marks the first anniversary of the March For Our Lives movement, whose mission is to “end gun violence, elect morally just leaders into office and remind the world that young people have the power to drive real change.”
Masculinity Over Everything
By Chelsea Higgs Wise • It’s been a few days since the Women’s March RVA, and as motivated as I am to build; my passion is to amplify narratives of persistence for Black women. I understand that dismantling the patriarchy will take bulldozers of disruption as well as barriers of sustainable resistance.
What Armed Teachers and Police Presence Mean for Black Youth
By Mei-Ling Ho-Shing • On February 14, 2018, my school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, came face-to-face with gun violence. On that day I was on the 2nd floor of the Freshman building, the same building we lost 17 of our MSD Eagles. I hid behind my teacher’s desk holding my classmate’s hand, in prayer and in fright.
#FreeCyntoiaBrown: Black Women Must be Centered in Conversations and Actions to End Slavery
By Stephanie Younger • When she was 16, Cyntoia Brown lived in a hotel with an adult …
Black Girls Must Matter at School
In 2006, my family moved out of Charlottesville so I can attend school in Henrico County, Virginia. Throughout the past 12 years that I’ve lived here, I spent most of elementary school in HCPS, spent 3 years in private school, and returned to HCPS for part of middle school. My experiences in Henrico County have influenced why I stand for the abolition of youth prisons is influenced by my experiences in school.
Black Youth Standing for the Closure of Youth Prisons in Virginia
By Stephanie Younger • On Saturday, November 3, the Richmond community joined RISE For Youth, Art 180, and Performing Statistics, to “honor the voices, dreams and demands of youth affected by the school-to-prison pipeline.”
“Lift Us Up, Don’t Push Us Out:” Art 180 Opens Exhibition About School Push-Out
By Stephanie Younger • Art 180 is an RVA-based organization that gives marginalized young people the opportunity to create change by expressing themselves through music, poetry, dance, and more.
Richmond Protestors March for Marcus-David Peters
By Stephanie Younger • Edited and re-published on the ACLU of Virginia on July 24, 2018 • Virginia, we have a problem. We need to … Continue reading Richmond Protestors March for Marcus-David Peters
Marching For Juvenile Justice with Art 180, Rise For Youth and Performing Statistics
By Stephanie Younger • On the evening of Friday, November 3, hundreds in Richmond, Virginia attended the Juvenile Justice Parade, organized by RISE For Youth, Art 180 and Performing Statistics calling for the closure of youth prisons in Virginia.
Black Youth Deserve to be Safe at School
By Stephanie Younger • White students at Short Pump Middle School students posted a video on Snapchat shouting racial slurs at Black students…
Richmond Marches for Racial Justice
By Stephanie Younger • On August 11-12, Klansmen, and Neo-Nazis attended the Unite the Right Rally, a demonstration against the removal of the Confederate monument.
Black Feminist Collective 