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Buy Black Wednesdays: Black history is universal
February 1, 2013
There are a lot of people out there who are concerned about how you spend your money. Embrace this glorious month of February and our incomparably rich history that extends back God knows where and support the future Gabby Douglases and Colin Kaepernicks and George Washington Carvers of the world by buying Black.
Beyond banning ‘bad guns’ and ‘arming good guys’
January 27, 2013
In our current climate, it is increasingly hard to see how some of the alternating proposals flowing from these debates, namely, a “good guy with a gun” in every school or a generic “gun control” that bans all bad guns and gun accessories will be anything but a distraction from truly understanding and addressing the root of what is causing people to die.
A woman’s perspective: Our time is now to support our youth
December 31, 2012
To our Black youth and men of essence who call themselves men with character and integrity, I am calling you out to take a stand, to stand for something. What will your “something” be? Whatever it may be, allow yourself to empower, enhance and impact someone’s life for the better. You can start with your own children.
Free Lynne Stewart: an open letter to the Center for Constitutional Rights
December 3, 2012
We received your appeal calling for urgent support of the Center for Constitutional Rights. The appeal, regrettably, omits mention of Lynne Stewart, who is serving currently 10 years in a federal prison for her role in defending Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman as co-counsel for the defense with former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and renowned civil liberties counsel Abdeen Jabara.
The 1966 Hunters Point rebellion: The fight must go on
September 2, 2011
With the current wave of uprisings across England … and the insurgence of flash mobs across the United States … it is appropriate to call on the history of rebellions by our people. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once stated, riot is the language of the unheard; and so it comes as no surprise that the language of our underclass is of the same dialect that it has been for decades and even centuries …
Facebook caves to the prison-industrial complex
August 19, 2011
In a decision setting back prisoners’ rights and helping to advance the interests of prison bureaucrats and their guard union allies, Facebook announced plans to work with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to shut down pages set up for prisoners.
A hunger striker’s journal, Part 3: Who is watching the guards?
July 19, 2011
Richard Johnson, a prisoner who recently suffered a heart attack due to a blocked artery in his heart, is among the hunger strikers at Pelican Bay. Since the beginning of the strike, he has been taken off three of his daily meds; medical staff say they may be adverse to his health when taken on an empty stomach. He has been submitting a series of articles throughout his time on strike to educate potential supporters about the prison experience.
Georgia prisoners’ strike: ‘We locked ourselves down’
December 14, 2010
In a protest spreading through Georgia’s prison system, inmates are striking for better conditions and to be paid for their work, which they’re now forced to do for free. They’ve locked themselves down in peaceful protest but are being punished violently, some beatings resulting in broken ribs and one man beaten beyond recognition. Sign the petitions and learn other ways you can help.
‘Rebel Musiq’: an innerview of rapper Bicasso of the Living Legends
April 17, 2009
Two decades after Bob Marley’s “Rebel Music,” in 2009 Oakland, artists like Bicasso are the musical spokespeople for criminalized Black neighborhoods that are literally at war with the police; must I remind you of the cases of Oscar Grant and Lovelle Mixon?
Prison bill AB 900: a view from inside
August 22, 2007
California’s adoption of mandatory minimums, drive for three-strikes laws and participation in the nationwide “War on Drugs” campaign of the 1980s has created a burgeoning prison system fractured along racial, humanitarian and economic lines.