42 Search results for "ableism"

Marianne Williamson makes me physically ill, and seeing people support her compounds my nausea. The Democratic candidate made waves last week when she delivered an impressive answer about reparations to Don Lemon post-debate:  “[T]here were 250 years of slavery followed by another 100 years of domestic terrorism… given that there were 4 to 5 million […]

In May, I quit my paid job as a counselor/ organizer in Oakland, CA. I was burned out, depressed, and incredibly frustrated with the conditions that Black folks are exposed to and expected to accept while working within social justice organizations. I had health insurance, but my co-pay was $60 and it didn’t cover mental […]

  by Marisa Kierra I was diagnosed with IBS at the age of fifteen, but in the last year my symptoms have rapidly gotten progressively worse. I went from having flare-ups every few months, to every few weeks and then eventually to everyday. The flare-ups and high levels of pain left me hopeless and constantly […]

A history of forced institutionalization in service of white supremacy

By now, many of us have learned of Tessica Brown’s devastating story. Last week, Brown, a Black woman from Lousiana, posted a TikTok that went viral when she admitted her hair has been stuck in the same hairstyle for a month. After running out of her usual Got 2 B Glued freezing spray, Brown decided […]

by Jo (Foderingham) Brown “When we say abolish police. We also mean the cop in your head and in your heart.” — Tourmaline Liberation theology is defined as “a movement in Christian theology that emphasizes liberation from social, political, and economic oppression.” This philosophy has been utilized in freedom struggles from Latin America to Palestine, […]

A host of popular Black shows from the 90s and early 2000s are finally being made available to stream this year, and many of us are rejoicing. As we should. There has been a glaring gap on popular streaming platforms lacking Black shows from this era and it’s nothing less than egregious. We deserve to […]

*Please note that below this essay on colorism is a list of dark skinned Black folks’ GoFundMes you can contribute to today.* Adults, older girls, shops, magazines, newspapers, window signs – all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll was what every girl child treasured. – The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison  The […]

Whether we want to admit it or not, there’s a superficial boundary between professionalism and unprofessionalism that undergirds constant productivity, capital and unhealthy notions of self worth. This boundary exists to reinforce white supremacy, carcerality, punishment, policing and surveillance. The structures that legitimize this faux boundary do so in service of themselves always. All the […]

In my family, we have a tradition of cooking and sitting with the grieving, especially when they have no words. Especially when the tears have been ripped out and the well to produce more has disappeared. We honor the lives of the folks who’ve been lost, beaten, and violently shredded from this world by sitting […]

by Jo (Foderingham) Brown The COVID-19 pandemic has forced non-disabled people to socialize almost exclusively via an internet connection. Suddenly, the IRL — “in real life” — world became inaccessible for people who have never experienced inaccessibility. But the world is still inaccessible for disabled and chronically ill folks.  For the last three months in […]

CW: mention of body changes, dissociation and dysmorphia. by Imani As a Black person who has survived trauma and poverty, I assumed that I could handle anything, including what has been a physically debilitating matrix of illnesses. But in less than 8 months I started experiencing dissociation. I moved from a body I fought to learn […]