173 Search results for "surveillance"

Now is an opportunity for Black folks to reimagine what constitutes loss
by Donnie Moreland My father is a diabetic, with chronic pain and a fragile immune system due to rounds of dialysis, which cause more pain and thus tosses him into the throws of a cycle which is, observably, hell. He is also a business owner, which necessitates an urgency of decision making, that suffers when […]
Crisis makes clear who can afford to survive (and who cannot)
“That’s all anybody can do right now. Live. Hold out. Survive. I don’t know whether good times are coming back again. But I know that won’t matter if we don’t survive these times.” – Octavia E. Butler While on a hike today, I spoke with two folks about how our bodies are shaped by the […]
We need to respond to PTSD with community care
by Jamila Mitchell This article discusses suicide, r/pe, and other topics that may be triggering for some readers. For some reason, I found myself in pain on the floor of my bathroom with a closed door, empty pill bottles, and spilt bleach. Frantically, I reached out to people through my phone and Facebook contacts. All […]
Watchmen, an homage to Black memory (loss)
*This essay contains spoilers from Watchmen* “You shouldn’t have swallowed your grandfather’s pills Angela. Do you know how Nostalgia works? How they make it? You know, they insert these little chips into your brain and they harvest your memories. And then they put them in a little pill and you pop one and you get to […]
Don’t get too excited about tech advances. Many are designed to leave Black people behind
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 we failed Nigel Shelby and allowed the abuse he endured
This essay contains discussion of suicide and suicidal ideation. by Maximillian Matthews There was Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Audre Lorde, Barbara Smith, bell hooks, RuPaul, James Earl Hardy, E. Lynn Harris, Essex Hemphill, Bayard Rustin, and of course, James Baldwin. I did not know about any of them when I needed them most. I […]
Why racial disparities in U.S. maternal health are so terrible, and what you can do about it
Editor’s Note: April is Black Women’s History Month. Throughout this month, Black Youth Project is celebrating Black women. This month is also National Minority Health Month, Autism Awareness Month, Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Child Abuse Prevention Month. We are interested in publishing works that address these topics and the things surrounding them. This post is […]
Why the plan to replace Rikers, or reform any prison, is doomed to perpetuate the problem
By Ragini Srikrishna and Monica Mohapatra Before the controversy around Amazon coming to New York dominated the headlines, the mayor and city officials were quietly working on opening four new skyscraper jails within the city. Although the city’s plan to close the Rikers jails complex solicited initial excitement within criminal justice communities, it has since […]
Arizona wants to create a DNA database for care facilities and charge people for it, that’s a problem
According to Newsweek, a proposed Arizona Senate bill would require anyone who provides direct care in facilities for the intellectually disabled to provide DNA in order to apply or renew licenses or certifications. Previously they only had to be fingerprinted. The bill was met with outrage by activists who point out that this is a […]
Moving to South Africa meant my race was different, but not the realities of racism
By Kim M Reynolds “So, you’re coloured?” I get asked this question on fairly regular basis in Cape Town, and it’s no longer a jarring one.
The importance of reckoning with anti-Black bias in the white-dominated tech world
by Daniel Johnson The tech world is an incredibly white space, and there is a mountain of evidence as to why. Hiring practices fall in line with general findings that American hiring culture is still virulently anti-Black. Any cultural space that is conducive to homogeneity creates and maintains blind spots. In this case, those blind […]
Black excellence?: How a school abused Black students & got fame for sending them to Ivy Leagues
By Kevin Clay The culture of physical and emotional abuse, blackmailing, and the intellectual sabotage of students recently uncovered at the T.M. Landry school in Louisiana by the New York Times, atop what was previously a narrative of “Black student exceptionalism,” positions the school at the nexus of much larger and pervasive problems in the way […]