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On Randall’s Island, a stone’s throw from east Manhattan’s shoreline, hundreds of Native American artists, educators, dancers and performers gathered all weekend for a powwow to honor indigenous people around the world. Instead of Columbus Day, they’re here to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day, which is devoted to healing and lifting up the rich history and culture of Native Americans. The mood here is spirited and hopeful despite the circumstances.

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I had an outer body experience today. I realized I never allowed myself to be a child. It was one of the scariest and saddest revelations I have ever had.

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The Nightly Show, July 23, 2015

Larry Wilmore covers the Sandra Bland case

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From TIME: 

“’Black Lives Matter’ is not an agenda. It’s not a catchy slogan for political points. It’s a movement that is trying to save the lives of those who live in fear every single day. Those who ignore race issues are standing by as our fellow men and women fall in the streets, in their cars, in the prison system, and in their own homes and neighborhoods. Nothing matters as much as life itself. Issues such as the economy, education, and the military are all very important, but as long as many white people continue to focus on those issues before they get around to addressing the issues of race, those advocating for “Black Lives Matter” have to force the microphone from their hands.”

From Think Progress:

“If there’s one message Black Lives Matter activists want to send to the presidential candidates running for the White House in 2016, it’s that they want police violence and racial disparities in policing to be acknowledged and addressed. But how exactly they communicate that message to politicians, organizers said, is less important.”

Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors to Maritn O’Malley at Netroots townhall meeting:

“I want to hear concrete actions. I want to hear an action plan. And we want to hear it from Bernie Sanders too.”

Tia Oso who overtook the stage at the Netroots town hall meeting and interrupted Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley: 

“We said we’re definitely going to do an interruption, not just a demonstration in the space. We’re going to try to make sure that everyone can hear us, which is why I asked for a microphone. We didn’t want it to be misconstrued as heckling, even though it was. Strategically, we were thinking about how to hold the space and make sure we put everyone’s attention on the issue. There are so many different things that need to happen and so many different types of meetings and so many different levels and tactics and strategies that have to be employed to make a difference. So sitting down, talking, and having a nice meeting is definitely a part of it. And then also getting out in the streets and making some noise and disrupting daily life is also 100 percent as legitimate a part of it and necessary.”

Tia Oso also penned an article for Mic on why she interrupted the stage:

“… the most important and urgent issue of our day is structural violence and systemic racism that is oppressing and killing black women, men and children. This is an emergency. […] I recognized the opportunity that I had to change this narrative. I, along with the 50 other black organizers attending Netroots Nation 2015, decided we would use the platform of the Presidential Town Hall to demand that former Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) #SayHerName and address the crisis of structural racism and their plans to make sure that Black lives matter should they be elected president.”

Marissa Johnson who overtook Bernie Sanders’ stage at the Seattle rally w/ fellow activist Mara Willaford explains why:

“Here’s the thing. I saw the video that happened at Netroots just like everybody else. In that video, Patrisse says very specifically to [Martin] O’Malley: ‘You and every other Democratic presidential candidate should expect to be confronted or interrupted until you put forth solid proposals, no matter where you go in this country.’ So I heard that and when the news dropped that [Bernie] Sanders was going to be coming to Seattle, there wasn’t even a conversation that needed to be had. It was ‘that’s the status quo for presidential candidate.’ He hadn’t, at that point, put out a criminal justice reform plan, like O’Malley had. So, it was very clear.

Going after Sanders is super important because Sanders is supposed to be as far left and progressive as we can possibly get, right? In Seattle political context, I know that really well. We have hoards and hoards of white liberals and white progressives, and yet we still have all the same racial problems. For us locally, in our context, confronting Sanders was the equivalence of confronting the large white liberal democrat leftist that we have here in Seattle, who not only have not supported BLM (Black Lives Matter movement) in measurable ways, but is often very harmful and upholding white supremacist society that we live in. That’s why we felt the need to address him and his supporters.”

From Seattle’s Kiro TV Channel 7 Eyewitness News

“Bernie Sanders’ campaign staff did not want police to remove the two Black Lives Matter protesters from the stage last weekend after they interrupted Sanders’ planned speech, a Seattle police spokesman said Monday.”

From New Republic

“Black Lives Matters protesters are not the problem. Ever since their disruptive July protest at Netroots Nation, the progressive activist and media conference, it has been apparent that Black Lives Matter and those which partner with it are not simply looking for words from candidates reassuring brutalized communities of color. They sought detailed proposals from the two Democratic hopefuls on stage, Sanders and former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley. O’Malley, whose awful criminal justice record during his Baltimore mayoralty has ruined his reputation with many black voters, responded more than one week ago with a comprehensive, if perhaps unrealistic, set of reform proposals and a call for a constitutional amendment to formally grant (and thereby protect) the right to vote.”

From Vox:

“Black Lives Matter activists are treating this as a prerequisite: Anyone running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 should have put a lot of thought into racial justice and have concrete ideas for how to fix it. So far, it looks like they’re achieving that goal (although Hillary Clinton has yet to put out a platform). But with a long way between now and the end of the Democratic primary — since the Black Lives Matter movement isn’t endorsing a candidate — activists’ relationship with Sanders, O'Malley, and (eventually) Clinton is going to be determined not just by the content of the candidates’ platforms but by the content of their records. Sanders lists things that should happen; O'Malley explains how he’d make them happen.  

It’s up to activists to decide how much candidates who helped create the problem of mass incarceration (which certainly includes Clinton and O'Malley) have to do to prove they’re committed to ending it. Sanders lists things that should happen; O'Malley explains how he’d make them happen. O'Malley’s platform, which was released July 31, is much more specific than Sanders’. When the Sanders’ platform first came out on August 9, the day after he was interrupted by Black Lives Matter protesters in Seattle, it was described as a “draft,” so his campaign might have more details forthcoming. Right now, it’s a collection of statements about things “we” (society and/or the government) need to do; how the Bernie Sanders administration would make these things happen isn’t always clear.

Even if Black Lives Matter activists hadn’t been explicitly calling for O'Malley and Sanders (as well as Hillary Clinton) to release criminal justice platforms, you’d still be able to see the movement’s influence. Both platforms take it as a given that police use of deadly force is out of control, and that the federal government needs to step in.

From Business Insider:

Black Lives Matter activists have begun to turn up the heat on Republican candidates.

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Amandla Stenberg is showing a generation of black kids how to shut down racist trolls 

While the racist reaction to her casting in The Hunger Games is perhaps what Amandla Stenberg is still most publicly associated with, in the mere three years since, she’s become a bold, outspoken, feminist role model. “That’s the least I can do, is try to start a conversation, try to get people thinking about a certain topic,” she told Mic.

We sat down with Stenberg to talk about her feminist awakening, using her celebrity for good and how her goal in life will help black girls everywhere.

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Boi lol

LIL HOMIE FULL ON DIED

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Repeat after me:

Dylann Roof is not mentally ill; he’s racist. Dylann Roof is not mentally ill; he’s racist. Dylann Roof is not mentally ill; he’s racist. Dylann Roof is not mentally ill; he’s racist. Dylann Roof is not mentally ill; he’s racist. Dylann Roof is not mentally ill; he’s racist. Dylann Roof is not mentally ill; he’s racist. Dylann Roof is not mentally ill; he’s racist. Dylann Roof is not mentally ill; he’s racist. Dylann Roof is not mentally ill; he’s racist. Dylann Roof is not mentally ill; he’s racist. Dylann Roof is not mentally ill; he’s racist. Dylann Roof is not mentally ill; he’s racist. Dylann Roof is not mentally ill; he’s racist. Dylann Roof is not mentally ill; he’s racist. Dylann Roof is not mentally ill; he’s racist. Dylann Roof is not mentally ill; he’s racist. Dylann Roof is not mentally ill; he’s racist.

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some people find my love for Blackness off-putting I find their discomfort with anyone’s love for anything that is an extension and reflection of who they are disturbing and most of all telling of just how well the white narrative has been told, taught, re-taught and distributed by way of levels of comfort and discomfort by way of people who don’t even know how they are mediums through which they are programmed to tell and re-tell the tale of anti-blackness

-likened2honey (via likened2honey)

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Reasons why I love my supporters so much:: Last year I was in Albany vending to raise money for a Sudanese family, This beauty called her sister while in NYC to stop what she was doing and pick her up a few pieces. Luckily, I met her today at the #bighairandbrunchnyc! Looking absolutely radiant ☀

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Wrote this a while ago...still love it

Human Beings

I never knew the gravity of the privilege it is to be human 

until I heard an angel say:

“I wish I could feel

I wish I could stub my toe and feel the sensation that comes from 

my body rushing to make me feel better

I wish I could see see rain and feel it in on my skin

I wish i could inhale oxygen and exhale Carbon Dioxide and 

stand next to a tree to try to watch the exchange happen 

and flow right back into me

but not be able to because it is so magical

I wish I were a human so that I can feel a person walk into the room

without immediately knowing that they did 

and seeing them become my first love

and have proverbial earthly butterflies fluttering 

in my stomach while praying that God would tell 

me more about this human surprise

better than my summer birthday because they make me see 

fireworks in November

In my heart, I would feel campfires burning to hear

what our love story would be

I wish I were a human who

could make a decision 

based off of free will

Decided to feel fire and get burned 

and then feel flushed by the Father’s love

and then be rushed to the alter by my desire to love Him

and have Him romance me with His infinite glory

and have no idea what is next for me 

but being in perfect peace with not knowing

and by faith prove to others that there is a world of spiritual beings 

to whom they themselves are considered "others”

that their otherness is beautiful 

and so delightful 

that one is trying to take it away for jealousy’s sake

and the other is trying to give you more of that grace

OH, that God gave YOU the ability to feel and experience

all of the things He has created

and to be linked to it all in breath, and touch and sight and mind

and to give you the chance to chose to be light

and see the glory in that decision 

the best decision for the rest of your human life

and then become an angel to tell the story for eternity 

of How God took you as dust and made you as gold 

for the world to see

But I am an angel 

I am here to tell you that your position 

as human is above mine

I serve you

God created me to watch over you

Yes, I have authority 

but God loved you with privileges that I will never get to experience

You, human, love life and live out your days on this earth

because it is a magnificent happening 

being a human being"

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