The bottom line is we examined the situation we found ourselves in and said, “this shit has got to change.”
We call upon the legacy of the Stonewall uprising. We call upon the legacy in the fight for our freedoms from the racist, homophobic, transphobic, classist, ableist, violent system. Tonight we will call out the names of some, not all — the ones that we know have been killed at the hands of the police, or from their neglect in upholding our safety. We cannot name all the names because often we are disappeared and not remembered.
Cara Page, Executive Director of the Audre Lorde Project, via Audre Lorde Project Hosts Vigil and Flashmob To “Free Our Sisters, Free Ourselves”
While it is definitely tragic we still have to march, there is something beautiful and hopeful about the fact that I am fighting for [my mom’s] freedom as much as mine, and we’re both out here so that my nephew, who just turned one, hopefully won’t have to march when he grows up. This moment transgresses time and in that sense this movement is beyond the individual; it’s truly for the whole collective.
Elisa Peebles via Dispatches From The Millions Marches
We told some really incredible stories this year, and you won’t want to miss a thing.
I had lived the privilege of a blackness that was reaffirmed in society, and found myself reflected in every echelon of power, and tale of despair. My experiences had been normalized, rather than nominal. I had walked streets and avenues, surrounded by nothing but brown shiny faces and had never experienced the color of my skin as a coat to be put on outside my home. It is because of this that I spend the first two years in America looking for faces like mine in every public space, finding them, counting them, willing them to multiply so that my skin can feel at ease again. It never happens.
Amid the incredibly disheartening barrage of news updates about white cops killing and hurting black people, there has been a notably lopsided division of attention and passion from both the media and the activists on the ground. Black men and boys are seen as symbols for an entire race of people who deal with police violence. And women and girls, gunned down, raped, and abused by cops, disappear in virtual silence.
It’s #TBT, so here’s a photo of Senior Editor Yvonne as a tiny human! http://instagram.com/p/weXBVoAld8/
Queer and trans people of color have been on the front line of Ferguson protests around the world. In our latest post from the speakeasy, they share their stories.
If you can shoot Martin [Luther King Jr.], you can shoot all of us. And there’s nothing in your record to indicate you won’t, or anything that would prevent you from doing it. That will be the beginning of the end, if you do, and that knowledge will be all that will hold your hand. Because one no longer believes, you see—I don’t any longer believe, and not many black people in this country can afford to believe— any longer a word you say. I don’t believe in the morality of this people at all. I don’t believe you do the right thing because you think it’s the right thing. I think you may be forced to do it because it will be the expedient thing. Which is good enough.
James Baldwin via #BlackLivesMatter: A Longform Reading List
A Thank You Letter From One Trans Woman To The Others in My Life
A Thank You Letter From One Trans Woman To The Others in My Life
Dear trans sisters and mothers and abuelas and aunties and daughters and nieces and cousins,
Thank you for everything.
You are my life. You are my reason for being alive. Like, literally, when I was a young, closeted trans girl, and I became a part of the disturbing statistic that is 41% of trans people who attempt suicide, it was all of you who helped me get through. I saw you and I knew there…
Also.Also.Also: I Swear This Isn’t Clickbait and Other Stories We Missed
Also.Also.Also: I Swear This Isn’t Clickbait and Other Stories We Missed
Lord have mercy you will never get through all of this. Maybe next week I’ll do two smaller AAAs and everyone will wake up happy. Here are some of the things we missed while Time magazine was being the absolute fucking worst!
look what new Intern Raquel found for you!
Gay.+ One of my favorite humans, Arabelle Sicardi, wrote The Best Time I Got Sent to ‘Pray Away the Gay’ Bible Yoga Campand…
See You At Facing Race 2014 in Dallas
See You At Facing Race 2014 in Dallas
Now that it’s cold and night falls earlier, the height of my week is when I can cuddle on the couch with my partner and watch Gilmore Girls. But this week is way more exciting than my average Fall week! I’ll be at the Facing Race Conference from November 13 -15 happening in my backyard of Dallas, TX and I’m so stoked for what’s in store at this national conference. Fikri will also be attending!
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Why The Anti-Street Harassment Movement Needs to Involve More Women of Color
Why The Anti-Street Harassment Movement Needs to Involve More Women of Color
The last time we convened here to discuss the prickly issue of race and street harassment, it was after Minnesota blogger Lindsey took to the web to publicly humiliate her street harassers who happened to be primarily men of color. This time, white New Yorker Shoshana B. Roberts teamed up with video editor Rob Blissand anti-street harassment organization Hollaback! to make a video depicting a…
Also.Also.Also: A ‘Bend It Like Beckham’ Musical and Other Stories We Missed
Also.Also.Also: A ‘Bend It Like Beckham’ Musical and Other Stories We Missed
Hey my living room is covered in fairy lights and artificial cranberry branches! I’m not saying I’ve decorated for the holidays, but I’ve definitely decorated for something. Here are 78k things we missed while I was dreaming of chili fries and talking myself out of hanging the Christmas wreath on the front door.
