100 Search results for "surveillance state"

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 Donnie Moreland As a boy, I remember learning about firefighters. I found their work as spectacular as the graphic novels, and Saturday morning superheroes, which crowded my daydreams. There was no difference between the cape and their fire helmet. And there were enough Black men, dawning the garb and colors of the local fire […]

Throughout the country, prisons are acquiring technology to translate incarcerated people’s voices into specific biometric signatures to create mass computer databases.

By Lamont Lilly During the height of the Ferguson Rebellion in late summer 2014, youth organizer, Joshua Williams quickly rose to the call of duty. In the aftermath of Officer Darren Wilson’s brutal murder of unarmed Black teenager, Mike Brown, 19-year-old Williams, stepped forward in the most dedicated and courageous way possible – on the front […]

By: Brandon Patterson In August, 22-year-old John Crawford was gunned down by Ohio police in a Walmart in Beavercreek, Ohio, outside of Dayton.  Police were responding to a call reporting a man waving a rifle in the store. 

  The following piece is from The Guardian. It was written by Angela Davis. By: Angela Davis Although racist state violence has been a consistent theme in the history of people of African descent in North America, it has become especially noteworthy during the administration of the first African-American president, whose very election was widely […]

  A few days ago I aired my frustration towards Florida Governor Rick Scott on Facebook. My status stated: “Requiring welfare recipients to undergo drug testing is yet another method being used by the GOP to increase social surveillance in low-income communities. This is nothing but a ploy by Governor Rick Scott to add more […]

This essay contains discussions of racialized sexual violence and mentions r/pe and molestation.  by Mekleit Dix The Handmaid’s Tale is a wildly popular American Television show based on a novel of the same name by Margaret Atwood. It portrays a dystopian nightmare: sterility in women becomes a widespread epidemic resulting in a break down of […]

I come from folks who organized rent parties and bail funds, who put money away for rainy days or times when mamas needed to escape dysfunctional and abusive households. I come from folks who believe in direct giving and show it. Folks who give hugs and offer handshakes in order to exchange money discreetly. Folks who […]

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 […]

“She don’t even like us. She only help us because of this.” My coworker pointed at her forearm with an ardent finger, calling attention to the mahogany of her skin. A deep, dark, gorgeous color. The white woman she spoke of was a member of the church that housed the after-school program we worked for. […]

By Arielle Iniko Newton I first heard the term “white privilege” in college after the predominately white student government association refused to allow a Black-only mixer for Black students and professors. A Black student organizer reasoned that a campus sanctioned Black-only event was necessary because “white privilege” meant that white students inherently had access to […]