Trick-or-treat without slave-candy this Halloween

Source: Read This and Hack! A decade ago I screened the documentary, The Dark Side of Chocolate, which marked what I call my "official" entry into intentional activism and scholarship for social justice. The documentary was a follow up to the chocolate industry's fight against a "slave free" label requirement, promising instead to regulate itself...

The intersections of systemic violence in the US

  The intersection of environmental injustice and policing can be seen on Rikers Island, New York City’s most notorious jail complex, which is built on a landfill and surrounded by polluting infrastructure. Roughly 90 percent of those behind bars in Rikers are people of color, and they have long suffered extreme summer heat, flooding, and...

Truths, Knowledge Keepers, and ways of knowing

This past Wednesday marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, a day described as the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. I'll save the story of how particularly localized efforts in the U.S. became representative of a global movement for another day. Looking at the state of the earth, so much and yet...

Informed Voting: Official Voter Guides and VOTE411

It seems like the clarion call to "go out and vote" is shriller than ever this year. But the fact remains that merely showing up to the polls and casting a ballot on election day (which, in truth, is becoming intentionally harder for non-rich, non-white voters across the U.S.) is not enough: the power of...

Call for Submissions: “Native Liberation and Abolition,” a Blog Series

Below is a summary call for submissions from Abolition: A Journal of Insurgent Politics.This is a great opportunity to contribute to the scholarship of abolition, especially for Native/Indigenous scholars! Submissions are due December 1, 2018, though they say they will continue to accept submissions after that time. Abolition: A Journal of Insurgent Politics invites submissions for...

Fighting the (Q)arceral State: 10/19-20 Lambda 2018 Political Conference

I'll be speaking this weekend at Harvard Law School on the impact of policing and caging transgender people of color for the Lambda 2018 Political Conference. It promises to be a great conference and much needed conversation. It's a free event with refreshments provided. Please come out if you're local! Facebook event details here. Registration...