169 Search results for "capitalism"

The Black church isn’t one-dimensional either: How Gullah-Geechee people subvert Christianity to retain Black history
By Ari Colston-Johnson To many, the Black Church calls to mind horror stories of cisheteropatriarchy and theologies shaped by colonialism, white supremacy, and respectability politics. But coming of age in the Gullah-Geechee African Methodist Episcopal (AME) tradition, the Black Church was a foundation for my radical politics, a space for community and Afrocentric syncretism, and […]
CVS and Aetna complete mega-merger, prompting fears of limiting customer choice
CVS Health agreed to acquire Aetna in what is being described as a blockbuster mega-merger earlier this week. The 69 billion dollar merger is the first between a drug store chain and an insurer, a move that, on Aetna’s part, is driven by visibility and on CVS’s is driven by competition, but the two are […]
“Prison was good for me”: How the state manipulates barely surviving its brutality into sanctuary
By Eli Day “Maybe it’ll be good for him. He’s gonna get himself killed out here.” Long before he was ever first incarcerated, some version of this softly cruel nonsense clung to my homeboy, and clings to him still. This time, it came as we both stood at the doorstep of fourteen years old, the […]
Who owns the Black experience?: Decolonizing theory & how the academy commodifies Black life
Editor’s Note: *I AIN’T THE FIRST PERSON TO EVER THINK OF THIS SHIT. To be Black is to live outside of the ways the world makes sense of itself. Outside of the gender binary, or how men and women are forced to occupy distinct roles, but Black men aren’t given the power patriarchy affords to […]
‘Thor: Ragnarok’ through a Black and Indigenous post-colonial lens
by Briana L. Ureña-Ravelo Warning: Spoilers up ahead! After months of anticipation, I finally saw Thor: Ragnarok and I was not in the least bit disappointed. Taika Waititi is the Indigenous Maori director, writer, actor, and comedian who made sure Indigenous people, jargon, humor, culture, and anti-colonial messaging was prominent throughout the movie, and who made […]
California uses imprisoned women to fight record-breaking fires
Climate change, compromised liberty interests and capitalism breed conundrums. As California confronts historic wildfires, which killed at least 40 people, wiped out some 5,700 homes and left 400 people missing, people with fewer freedoms volunteered to help fight the fires. Women who are imprisoned contribute labor, along with traditional firefighters and men who are also […]
On ‘4:44’, maleness, and the performance of the public apology
This article was originally posted at WaterCoolerConvos and has been republished with permission Recently, rapper Jay-Z released his thirteenth solo album 4:44. The album details his infidelity to his wife, mother of his three children, and perhaps the biggest superstar in the world, Beyoncé. He also covers his struggle with American capitalism and his reluctant growth beyond […]
Liberation is a 3-step process: Broadening activism’s scope in the wake of the Movement for Black Lives
Contrary to popular belief, the Movement for Black Lives is not solely about police brutality. Bigger than body cameras and electoral politics, the Movement is about Black liberation and freedom for all Black people. Liberation and freedom are unconventional in the sense that the system under which society currently operates makes those two realities impossible. […]
Yes, Black liberals commodify Black Lives Matter too and it’s a major problem
By Blake Simons The present day Movement for Black Lives, which I argue was revived by the people of Oakland after the murder of Oscar Grant, and came into fruition because of the rebellion that working class Black folks started in Ferguson after the murder of Mike Brown, has been co-opted by Black capitalistic neo-liberals.
There’s a deeper message behind that Kendall Jenner Pepsi ad
What do you get when you mix a thin, pretty, young, celebrity model (from the Kardashian brood no less) with a corporatized imaginary protest? If you guessed trash, congratulations. That’s what Pepsi gave us. You also get a glimpse of the image many white people have in their minds of corporations, consumers, and social issues. And, it’s a […]
Four Signs That You Might Subscribe to the Politics of Respectability
This article was originally posted at Water Cooler Convos and has been reposted with permission. One of the most irritating byproducts of this new era of being “woke” is the increased numbers of people who read one Martin Luther King, Jr speech or saw one thing Angela Davis said that one time or found […]
The Kalief Browder Docuseries Builds a Clear Case for Prison Abolition
State violence does not only show up as false arrests and physical harm. State violence is also the unwillingness of the State to rehabilitate those that are impacted by it’s terrorizing reach.