34 Search results for "livelihood"

by Amber Butts How many Black and Brown women have been asked to hold something so everything else can keep going? Nightmares—living ones—are why many do not come forward, especially in movements that keep the abuser’s name, knowingly or not, as part of how the work understands itself. What was done stays, and the weight […]

The Price of Presence: Notes From Atlanta’s Strip Economy Notes From An Urban Feminist A year ago I landed in Atlanta, Georgia without my three children, my husband or community. I arrived with four luggages in tow, and although I considered myself a fully realized feminist whose identity could stand alone, I felt like something […]

I don’t want to live in a world where all I have is my reputation. I don’t want my worth to be determined solely by what others say and think about me based on standards I never agreed to, but such is the nature of capitalism. In the age of The Influencer, we are being […]

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 […]

 by Cheryldean Peters Beginning in the early 1600s, my ancestors were legally forced into slavery and robbed of their freedom. They were involuntarily exploited, beaten and forced to work as servants, which primarily helped generate income for America’s economy. Their servitude drastically enhanced local and colonial economics while creating generational wealth for their oppressors. Africans […]

By Cosima Smith Audre Lorde is my personal heroine. I met her writing for the first time in my first year of university, and it has been a companion helping me work through my own internalized issues with my Blackness, my queerness, and my poorness ever since. Lorde was the first reflection of myself I […]

by Djanaïna François  Someone said to me once: “God created wolf first, then us, then white people—he warned that misunderstanding others is their default, from a cultural standpoint to an existential one, as they will continuously see the world through a lense of authority.”  An autumnal evening sky hovered above us and I held a […]

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 […]

by Kathleen Anaza In the old tale of tourism, when the needs of a city’s residents are leveraged against the wants of its visitors, it’s the residents who lose. The recent Fyre Festival scam is a prime example of unequal power in tourism interests. A con man from the United States finessed hundreds of celebrities, […]

In support of burgeoning protests against Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir’s oppressive government, some of the country’s journalists and doctors have gone on a strike.

According to the Houston Chronicle, a common practice following drunk driving arrests and convictions in Texas is the implementation of various surcharges and fees due to the Texas Driver Responsibility program. This program can charge Texas drivers up to thousands of dollars for certain driving-related violations, and on Wednesday, attorneys from the Austin Community Law […]

by Tynesha M. McCullers Ellen Pompeo talked about representation in film and television in a recent interview with Porter magazine, expressing the ways she recognizes her whiteness and uses it to be an “ally” to actors of color, particularly women of color. I watched a clip of the interview and felt nothing. Unmoved, if you […]