
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...
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Tags: book review, History, Poetry, Women of color, Writing
Posted in Black Women, Book Review, Family, History, Poetry, Uncategorized, Women of Color, Writing | No Comments »

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....
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Tags: Black Women, Plan B, Reproduction, Sexuality, stereotypes
Posted in Black Women, Reproduction, Sexuality | No Comments »

By Molly Baker On April 23, University of Arizona student Dean Saxton, better known as Brother Dean, stood on a bench brandishing a sign that bluntly stated in bold, black letters “You Deserve Rape.” Saxton proceeded to verbally harass many women that walked by on their way to class, calling them “sluts” and telling them...
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Tags: Academia, rape, rape culture, sexism, sexual assault, sexual violence, University of Arizona, Violence
Posted in Academia, Activism, College Feminisms, Sexism, Violence | No Comments »

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...
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Tags: black homophobia, Chick-Fil-A, Family Research Council, Frank Ocean, GLAAD, homophobia, hop hop culture, It Gets Better, NAACP, NOH8, Prop 8, Violence against women act
Posted in Activism, Op-Ed, Racism, Sexuality, U.S. | 8 Comments »

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...
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Tags: African American, armed resistance, Assata, BLA, black community relations, Black freedom struggle, Black Liberation Army, Black Panther, Black women revolutionaries, BPP, Cuba, Dhoruba, Jena 6, jena six, maroon, police, police corruption, robert charles, rosewood, Shakur, terrorism, Tookie, Williams
Posted in Activism, Black Women, Feminism, History, Military, Politics, Racism, U.S., Violence, World | 1 Comment »

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. ...
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Tags: assata shakur, Black Women, COINTELPRO, Cuba, fbi, FBI Most Wanted Terrorists List, feminism, Politics, racism, terrorism, U.S., U.S.-Cuba relations
Posted in Activism, Black Women, Feminism, Politics, Racism, U.S. | 1 Comment »

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 unaware of next exhalation’s...
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Tags: assata shakur
Posted in Activism, Arts & Culture, Black Women, Culture, Feminism, Immigration, Poetry, Politics, Racism, Violence, Women of Color, World, Writing | 1 Comment »

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...
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Tags: Activism, assata shakur, Critical Resistance, Cuba, FBI's Most Wanted List, incarceration, Politics, racism, terrorism, U.S., U.S.-Cuba relations
Posted in Activism, Black Women, Politics, Racism, U.S. | 1 Comment »

By Sacchi Patel As I checked my Twitter feed on the morning of Tuesday, April 30, 2013, I expected to find mostly depressing news, as I follow folks who speak out about Violence Against Women. What I found was even more disturbing than I had anticipated. I read several tweets about an “Ex-Girlfriend Target”...
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Tags: A Call to Men, Activism, Masculinity, Men Can Stop Rape, Men Stopping Violence, Men Up Campaign, Men's Anti-Violence Movement, Violence, violence against women, Zombie Industries
Posted in Activism, masculinity, Violence | 9 Comments »

By Mohadesa Najumi When I think about what modesty means in today’s political, cultural and religious environment, I am inclined to believe that the concept itself does not involve choice, or any dimension of freedom or independent thought. Rather, modesty constitutes a dictatorial concept forced upon women whether they agree with it or not....
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Tags: feminism, Modesty, Style
Posted in College Feminisms, Feminism, Style | 10 Comments »