Blest on Justice for Jewu (by NewHavenJustice)

Longtime community organizer Blest Peters speaks at Jewu Richardson’s pre-trial court date. Jewu Richardson is a student, father, worker and community organizer who was shot inches from his heart by police while in the middle of a lawsuit against the NHPD. After filing his lawsuit for police brutality, wrongful incarceration, planting evidence, falsifying reports, and more, Jewu was repeatedly surveilled outside of his home, harassed, stopped and frisked until the night of Jan 16 2010. He was illegally chased, shot, beaten and jailed with insufficient medical attention. Please visit www.justiceforjewu.com or facebook.com/justiceforjewu to learn more.

windy audio from :36 to :56:
” We have to look at the relationship that’s been established between the officers. We have to look at the time that he served unjustly. And we have to take a look at the man that came out of the prison system who’s walking around our community today. This is a man, Mr. Richardson. He’s a good man. He’s a mentor.”

Thanks a lot, Drake

afrafemme:

siddharthasmama:

bad-dominicana:

petrushkab:

lucky4oh3:

dollyboy:

tendertranstrender:

teen-boy-fag:

ug this rubs me so wrong.

if this was just the text, id be into it. 

but as it is… 

you do not need to look like this to be queer

you do not need to look like this to be queer

you do not need to look like this to be queer

there is no queer look

so can we please stop acting like having piercings or fancy hairdos or studs on yr jackets or ripped up clothing or tattoos have anything at all to do with queerness?

commentary^^^

But seriously though. The commentary. Yes. 

This bothers me. I’ve always had a hard time fitting into queer scenes for not being viewed as ‘queer enough’, and it’s always been a source of anxiety/self-deprecation. I’m really not into the idea of working my way past queer gate-keepers. How many queer people do I need to have sex with before I’m allowed to pass?

Yeah I feel this big time. Cara expresses it better than I ever could, but yeah, fuck this. Huge source of anxiety for me, especially in mtl.

not to mention theyre all white or lightskint.

ok, only you belong. cool. great. the antithesis of radical. 

all that I bolded were my initial thoughts on seeing the photo and honestly if it weren’t for the commentary, I wouldn’t reblog this photo for those very reasons.

they all wack too.

Wait wait y’all, someone decided to take the text off the original post, which was commentary on all of the above mentioned issues. Which is an example of why it’s fucked to take someone else’s work and intentionally remove it from its context.

Originally the drawing was posted with this text:

to join, you must be this queer:

•     must be dfab
•     must be non-binary
•     must be white
•     must have at least two of the following: stretched ears, facial piercings, tattoo of a cat
•     must do everything yourself
•     must say “yr”
•     must shave part of your hair and/or dye part of your hair (diy optional but preferred)
•     must spell it “punx”
•     must have spikes on all yr clothes
•     must be as intimidating as possible
•     must be as cliquey as possible and only associate w/ other elite queer punx like yrself
•     must i.d. as hard femme
•     must collect patches on all yr clothes
•     must own a sizeable collection of dildos
•     must be interested in d/s or other kinks of some kind
•     must wear vintage combat boots
•     must be uninclusive to people who are not queer punx like you

Which is some good & important commentary! And people shouldn’t be cowards and try to remove some commentary like that.

Flesh colored. This shit comes in 50 shades of beige.

Words are to be taken seriously. I try to take seriously acts of language. Words set things in motion. I’ve seen them doing it. Words set up atmospheres, electrical fields, charges. I’ve felt them doing it. Words conjure. I try not to be careless about what I utter, write, sing. I’m careful about what I give voice to.

Example of privilege of nonviolence

best sisters forever

searchingforknowledge:

Hank Willis Thomas art piece.

Reblogging because I couldn’t find it when I wanted to show someone recently.

mijajaja:

Social studies lesson? Let’s talk about gangs, communities, and the institutions we interact with like the military, govt, schools, and mo— all using the freshest books

babylonfalling:

High school students confront a meeting of the Detroit Board of Education to demand Black Studies programs.

Photo by Alan Gotkin for Fifth Estate (1969)

Despite many (white) teachers’ and school boards’ assumptions that students, especially POC, just don’t care about learning or their education. Naw, we just don’t care about whitewashed education.

Many of my students who really struggle with literacy and study skills, and whose classroom teachers complain about them being apathetic, suddenly bloom into historians and philosophers and literary critics when they’re allowed Black and Latino studies. Even just a glimpse sets them off being engaged for the first time.

Look through history and you’ll see youth of color fighting to learn. It’s going on as we speak, and I see it with my students while their teachers complain about them.

Problem is the curriculum, not the students.

(via sinidentidades)

chairman-fred:

“I dont care how much theory you got, if it don’t have any practice applied to it, then that theory happens to be irrelevant. Right? Any theory you get, practice it. And when you practice it you make some mistakes. When you make a mistake, you correct that theory, and then it will be corrected theory that will be able to be applied and used in any situation. Thats what we’ve got to be able to do.”

Fred Hampton, Olivet Church, 1969

(via sinidentidades)