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An Open Letter to Facebook

May 21, 2013
By
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From Women, Action and Media May 21, 2013 An Open Letter to Facebook: We, the undersigned, are writing to demand swift, comprehensive and effective action addressing the representation of rape and domestic violence on Facebook. Specifically, we call on you, Facebook, to take three actions: Recognize speech that trivializes or glorifies violence against girls and women as hate speech and make a commitment that you will not tolerate this...
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To Our Sisters, Morehouse

May 21, 2013
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To Our Sisters, Morehouse

By Kalima DeSuze, Nicole Patin and Farah Tanis on behalf of the members of Black Women’s Blueprint To Our Sisters, To those who have survived sexual assault or any other form of violation along the continuum of categories of sexual violence reserved primarily for women, female body or not, we at Black Women’s Blueprint write you in solidarity, in support and in sisterhood. Many of us are survivors ourselves...
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Rhetoric We Don’t Believe In

May 21, 2013
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By Eddie Glaude, Lester Spence, Imani Perry, Josie Pickens, David Leonard, and Kiese Laymon We come together to share our various thoughts and reactions to the recent speeches from President Obama and the First Lady.  Each of us were disappointed and frustrated in the rhetoric delivered this past week, not only because of what was said but because of the impact of such words on day-to-day lives. ***** I...
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Book Review: Marci Blackman’s “Tradition”

May 21, 2013
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Tradition cover

By Quincy Scott Jones Town and Country: A Review of Marci Blackman’s Tradition (Water Street Press, 2013) In the most brilliant crimes stories, the detective must travel, and hence guide the audience, from more familiar settings to enter hidden and hostile communities.  Sherlock Holmes leaves the humdrum armchair to investigate the Red-Headed League.  Easy Rawlins leaves his middle class home to dig into the seedy streets of 1940s South Central L.A.  Even...
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Best Laid Plans

May 20, 2013
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daramathis-Prejudice_and_Best_Laid_Plans-dara_biophoto

By Dara Tafakari Mathis I am a punch line of a black woman and my pride is bruised. You will laugh later, I promise myself, but all I want to do right now is escape and cry. My six-month old baby gurgles at me, her two teeth poking from her gums like white square Chiclets. But she brings more heaviness than laughter today, of all days, when it would be...
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Op-Ed: Are Black People More Homophobic Than White People?

May 19, 2013
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By Sidney Fussell Simply put, no. Black people are not “more” homophobic than white people. That’s a myth. But here I want to unpack what purpose this myth serves for the status quo and how this myth distracts from white homophobia. White dominated LGBT organizations such as GLAAD, NOH8, and the It Gets Better campaign mobilize celebrity advocacy,  fundraise, and garner online support, their efforts consistently erase black support...
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The Universe Loves You!: Dear Universe: Letters of Affirmation and Empowerment for All of Us by Yolo Akili

May 18, 2013
By
yolo-16

Did you know that my mom is a therapist?  She is!   And at it’s very best psychology is the science of learning how to love ourselves and each other better and better and better.  (And like most fields…at its worst it is basically the opposite of that.)  I have grown up hearing my mom use a scientific term called “operational practice” which, as I see it, means things that...
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Assata the Unflinching

May 17, 2013
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assata welcome

by Gregory L. Caldwell and Omar Ricks Dear President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, At the risk of running afoul of the PATRIOT act, we declare that we still love and respect Assata Shakur no matter what you say. Black people are in a new nadir, and Assata Shakur comes out of a tradition of committed revolutionaries who have resisted the forces that got us there. Assata...
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Press Release: A Letter to Barack Obama (change.org)

May 17, 2013
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The Feminist Wire supports the petition below. To add your name, please visit change.org.  For more on Assata Shakur from us, please see forthcoming articles celebrating her birthday in July. Friday, May 10, 2013 . President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500 . . Dear President Obama: . We write to urge you to overrule the FBI’s decision to put Assata Shakur, aka Joanne Chesimard,...
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Our Sister, Assata Shakur: Life, Struggle, Justice, and Love

May 17, 2013
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RevAssata

By Lisa Brock and Beth E. Richie Feminist women of color activists and anyone who considers themselves our allies in the struggle for justice need to be outraged that our sister Assata Shakur, a 65-year-old grandmother living in political exile in Cuba, was added to the Most Wanted Terrorists List on May 3, 2013.  FBI Special Agent Aaron Ford, on behalf of the New Jersey State Police, the New...
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THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE of BLACK LAWYERS (NCBL) CONDEMNS THE FBI’S CONTINUED ATTACKS ON ACTIVIST ASSATA SHAKUR

May 16, 2013
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The Feminist Wire is committed to providing space for critical dialogue. We are reprinting NCBL’s statement in its entirety with permission from the authors with the express purpose of offering such space. The views expressed in what follows are those of NCBL. The National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL) condemns the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s recent placement of activist Assata Shakur on its Most Wanted Terrorists list, and its...
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Hands Off Assata!

May 16, 2013
By
aydavis

By Angela Y. Davis I was one of those seasoned activists who were utterly taken by surprise when Assata Shakur was recently placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Terrorists List.  Having known Assata for several decades and having been involved in many aspects of her defense over the years, my first thoughts were for her safety.  But then I also realized that while she was the specific target,...
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An Introduction to TFW’s Forum on Assata Shakur: America’s Grammar Book on Black Women and Terrorism

May 16, 2013
By
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Assata Shakur has been given many names over the past four decades. Her political allies in the 1970s struggle for black liberation knew her as a comrade and freedom fighter. Ever since her escape from a New Jersey prison and exile in Cuba, she’s become an icon to many on the radical left. Some, mostly critics, still call her by her birth name, Joanne Chesimard. Now the Federal Bureau...
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Arts & Culture

  • A is for Asylum12

    Assata do not dry like dissipated plums under castro’s bronzing sun you mural fortress you live memorial spirited artifice rouged sea salt that marinates america’s wound   Assata you like stripped bone road unaware of which exit is free birth  brown coagulated rhythm redefined reborn rumba queen Assata dusk breath [...]

  • “Affirmation” by Assata Shakur945073_361887813911202_1619329964_n

    “Affirmation” by Assata Shakur* ___ I believe in living. I believe in the spectrum of Beta days and Gamma people. I believe in sunshine. In windmills and waterfalls, tricycles and rocking chairs. And i believe that seeds grow into sprouts. And sprouts grow into trees. I believe in the magic [...]

  • Herehqdefault

    for Assata Amira Nakati Carter-Goff on her tenth birthday   call down the name freedom call up the spirit of no matter what now call your shared name liberation veins steel will fierce focus shielding sacred smile laugh your own name radiant as cuba laugh your yawning name into language [...]