The police don’t need any help demonizing Black and brown children. Society and the state treat them as older than they are, dangerous, irredeemable, and disposable. CW: policing, state violence, murder of Black and brown people, racism On March 29, police chased 13-year-old Adam Toledo into an alley around 2:30 A.M. After a seconds-long interaction,...
Tag: state violence
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Black Lives Still Matter to NBA Players Even If The League Doesn’t Think So
What has been obscured by statements about NBA progressivity is the fact that players, and not the league itself, are leading the resistance. This essay discusses state-sanctioned violence and Black death By Aja Witt Positioned at the intersection of a global pandemic, a presidential election, and nationwide protests against the repeated killing of Black people...
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Ending Anti-Asian Violence Requires Eliminating Anti-Blackness and Carcerality
Much of the conversation and advocacy surrounding anti-Asian racism has failed to connect it with anti-Blackness, and has itself been mired in carceral and anti-Black thinking. By Jordana Allen-Shim Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, there has been a massive spike in documented cases of anti-Asian violence. A February 9 report from Stop AAPI Hate, “the...
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Black People Deserve More Than An Apology For The MOVE Bombing
Philadelphia has officially apologized for the 1985 MOVE bombing, but without intentions to address demands from Black organizers in the midst of racial turmoil and a global pandemic, their apology rings hollow. By Rasheed Ajamu CW: state violence and Black death On Thursday, November 12, 2020, Philadelphia Councilmember Jaime Gauthier went to Twitter to share...
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To Be Black, Suicidal, And Dedicated To Keeping Black Life Sacred
My greatest fear is dying by the hands of white supremacists and just becoming a hashtag that eventually loses steam. But, I frequently do want to die. TW: This essay discusses suicidality, mentions of Black death, inpatient stays, madness, abuse, police encounter, hopelessness, and depression. By Lennox Orion It is 2012, I am 15-years-old and...
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From Portland to New York, The United States Has Always Abducted People
Abductions and theft of people have been the sordid and foundational reality for BIPOC within the United States and across the globe. TW/CW: This article mentions and describes white supremacist abductions, cultural genocide, state violence, and chattel slavery. As pictures and videos of protests in Portland, Oregon circulated, the fascist inclinations of the United States...
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This Is Not ‘The First Purge’, But Our Reality Damn Sure Looks A Lot Like It
The Purging of the most marginalized has been happening for a very long time, and it’s been sustained through white supremacist systems. CW: genocide, Black death, state violence Here is the legal definition of genocide, according to the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide: “In the present Convention,...
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When They See Us Yesterday: The Black Imagination Beyond State Violence
I believe we can build a world where the Black Imagination no longer has to be a response to state-sanctioned violence. This article contains light spoilers for “See You Yesterday” and “When They See Us”. I sat down with my Queer Parent and one of our close friends to watch the new Netflix Original Movie,...
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We Need To Stop Hitting Our Kids, It’s Abuse
Videos of Black parents beating up on their children should not be entertaining. But I guess it’s easier to laugh at our own pain than to examine it. TW: Child abuse There was a viral video that went around last weekend, which I still haven’t watched completely, where a Black mother was hitting and screaming...
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So, Wait, the Justice System is Dysfunctional for Black People — Except When it’s Nate Parker?
Penn State alumni’s defense of Parker makes no sense in the face of Black Lives Matter’s critique of our judicial system. With each passing day, it seems the Nate Parker rape controversy grows even bigger and spirals more out-of-control, threatening to set us back some years on the already suppressed problems of sexual violence and...