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...

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...

I am not a liberal and hope I never become one.

"The difference between a liberal and a progressive is that a liberal is open to everyone’s views; a progressive is as narrow-minded and judgmental (more?) than any conservative." — Doug Reitsch, Pharmacist at Kamilche Pharmacy in Shelton, WA According to this myopic internet definition, being “open to everyone’s views” is good and something people should...

Police violence, Black motherhood, and Reproductive Justice

Black women live with the harsh reality of not having full control over the ability to 1) choose to parent, 2) choose to not parent, and to 3) parent the children they have in safe and well-resourced environments. These three tenets are the core of what reproductive justice must look like. The failure of politics...

Muhammad Ali and Other Black Celebrities Didn’t ‘Transcend Race’

Transcending is a perpetual one-way street for black people, yet famous white people like Antonin Scalia, David Bowie and Merle Haggard weren’t asked to transcend their whiteness for black people to recognize their importance. They didn’t have to transcend being Italian-American, British or an Okie from Muskogee. They were just accepted for being who they...