Earlier this month, Chicago’s state’s attorney Anita Alvarez was decisively voted out of office. Her key role—not merely in covering up the murder of Laquan McDonald, but in regularly defending […]
“There are good cops” is a desperately reassuring refrain we hear regularly in the movement for Black lives. Indeed, we are often the ones who say it. When a cousin of […]
I’m Black. I’m queer. I’m from a wealthy family. I’m formally educated. I did not grow up in the city in which I currently live. I work for a nonprofit […]
To the white people I share home with, I’ve gotten degrees. I’ve been published. I’ve spoken at academic gatherings. I’ve taught classes and workshops. I’ve built up a resume. I’ve […]
Happening Now: Members of the Black queer community of Chicago are disrupting the Chicago Pride Parade. Here is their public statement: On this day in 1969, Sylvia Rivera, a Boricua […]
As a nation, we fail to comprehend Black political strategy in much the same way we fail to recognize the value of Black life. We see ghettos and crime and […]
Last week my immediate family came out with my friends and me to their first protest since the fatal shooting of Mike Brown. They were interested in getting involved in the […]
I was lucky enough to share a meal a few weeks ago with a current student at my alma mater, who was embroiled this last year in a struggle over […]
I first started going to strip clubs when I was about nineteen years old, ushered in by my close high school friends who had begun working there as dancers. This […]
‘We need jobs’ has been the call for decades. Impoverished communities, neighborhood organizations, nonprofits and even local government have long argued for the importance of employment opportunities in battling poverty, […]
