596 Search results for "evidence"

How the Coalition to End Money Bond is working to help reform pretrial practices in Illinois
by Jamila Dawn Mitchell Every year, 90% of the 250,000 people held in Illinois jails are incarcerated pretrial, prior to actual convictions, putting the rate of pretrial incarceration far above the national average of 67%. The percentage of pretrial detentions range county to county – with 51% of the jail population in Tazewell County and […]
The trans child in me still needs to feel wanted
by Jamila Dawn Mitchell I’m writing this because I need to feel wanted. That’s it. It may sound selfish to most. To a psychologist, though, this makes sense. Most things we do are done in spite of our desire to want to be loved. The sense of belonging is the essence of our humanity and […]
How theology based on a “one true god” cuts Black people off from necessary indigenous practices
By DJ Ferguson My mother, no stranger to emotional blackmail, had no hesitation in using it on behalf of her god in an attempt to reconvert me. “Don’t you think God (Yahweh) ever mourns?” she asked, hoping to get me to feel sorry for the possessive West Asian shepherd god whom I no longer worship. […]
Reclaiming memory as a Black father and son in the face of cultural and racial traumas
This essay contains discussions of racialized state violence and suicide attempts by Donnie Moreland I have difficulty recalling specific details of my childhood. Trauma has a way of coloring memory. Strangely, the events I sometimes beg to forget are the ones I can see with a clarity the remainder of my youth is never afforded. […]
White supremacy is where my PTSD and intrusive thoughts intersect
by Ja’Loni Amor Owens “The bus is late. Again,” I mumbled to myself. A lanky white man plopped down next to me even though there was plenty of room for him to sit further away, and not invade my space. “You waiting for the bus?” he asked. Duh. “Yeah, I am. It’s late though.” “You […]
Sometimes, I give gentrifiers the wrong directions when they get lost
Editor’s Note: This essay contains descriptions of anti-Black and anti-queer violence. Sometimes, I give white people the wrong directions when they get lost. For awhile, this was on accident. I am horrible with directions, and so I wouldn’t even know I was pointing them the wrong way. But mostly when I do this today, it […]
New social media checks for visa applicants show the dangerous transformation of surveillance in the US
Editor’s Note: This month at BYP, we will be exploring Black Liberation & Organizing, and we are interested in publishing works that address these topics. How do we hold politicians accountable to Black communities? Is that even possible? What should be our role in the electoral politics? What does abolition look like in practice? What […]
How heterosexual Black men project the psycho-sexual traumas of the plantation onto our queer brethren
This essay contains discussions of racialized sexual violence and mentions r/pe by Donnie Moreland There is this thing with us, as Black men. This war. Well, less war and more an inter-communal pogrom, wherein any Black man who shows no desire to lay with women exclusively is designated a cancer, subject to extermination. The prevention […]
Separating art from the artist debate misses the mark
by Shae De Pass Content Warning: this article contains discussions of abuse and sexual assault The “separating art from the artist” debate – which is usually mentioned in light of celebrity wrongdoing – is nothing new. However, it seems to come up more often as we are constantly exposed to the intimate life details of celebrities. […]
African Traditional Religions prepared me to grieve my mother
I’ve learned it’s best not to try to control how the memories of my mother show up, or what emotions they are wearing when they enter. This one is dressed in a rare crossbreed of inconsolable laughter and a stabbing sob, and it’s seeping out of my iphone from wherever the speaker is located on […]
Young Americans are against white supremacy even if the president isn’t
On Tuesday, September 29 at the first presidential debate of the 2020 campaign season, President Donald Trump was asked to condemn white supremacist violence at anti-police brutality protests that have been happening all over the country in recent months. He refused. Instead, Trump blamed “antifa and the left” for the violence he has seen. When […]
Guns too often become tools of intra-communal violence at the hands of cis het Black men
Trigger warning: domestic violence, gun violence, mention of suicide by Donnie Moreland On April 3rd, 1964 and at the Cory Methodist Church, Malcolm X would give one of his most quotable speeches. The speech was titled, The Ballot or the The Bullet. He began with these words, “The question tonight, as I understand it, is […]