There are the obvious ways, a lack of ramps for people in wheelchairs. Books that don’t have electronic versions so people who use screen readers don’t have access. Ableist language that is passed off as accidental- or worse just used casually and without thought to the harm it causes. But ableism in political organizing runs much deeper than that.
Racist harassment of the Thompson family by white Garner residents and the police continues. Last year a neighbor of the Thompson family, Don Barnett made repeated 911 calls to complain about the family listening to “loud Islamic Jihadist Preaching’s”. However, it was the Honorable Malcolm X that the family was actually listening to during the…
America loves to count on the Black vote without offering substantial gains to Black voters. Issues such as police brutality and the murder of Black people at the hands of the police is rampant. While America continues its decline. The states’ complicit nature to overlook or victim blame when a cop kills Black women and men and children i.e. Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland, Elonor Bumpers or Korryn Gains all four Black women were murdered by cops.
There is a hyperfocus on how victims and survivors choose to handle their abusers both within society as a whole, and within the movement. Should a survivor or victim publicly account the abuse or harm they experienced, the focus and scrutiny is instantly placed on the accuser. We tell survivors to do everything besides confront…
In May of 2019 the DA of Wake County offered me a plea deal. If I took the deal all of my belongings that were stolen from our family would be returned to us if I agreed that my “neighbor” could now be my “overseer” and could call in a warrant at any time on me if he heard “ANY AMPLIFIED SPEECH” from my home. Due to the fact that my mere presence alone brought the police out. I am again reminded that my living is my resistance.
Three Wilmington, North Carolina cops, James Gilmore, Kevin Piner, and Corporal Jessie Moore, were fired Tuesday after their violent, racist remarks were caught on dash camera footage. During a June 4 audit of two hours worth of dash cam footage, Moore and Piner were both found on film saying the N-word multiple times. Gilmore was…
“When I liberate myself, I liberate others. If you don’t speak out ain’t nobody going to speak out for you.” Fannie Lou Hamer. Today, a June 23, 2020, Mikisa Thompson was found not guilty by the Wake county courts of North Carolina. Her charge was a “violation of a noise ordinance.” On May 16, 2019,…
Monday May 25, 2020, George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police after the police were called for an alleged forgery. The officer who killed Floyd did so by kneeling on his neck and back for almost 9 minutes. The entire incident was caught on camera by horrified onlookers. Shortly after the murder, video and news…
RIOT received an anonymous statement from a Black woman about her experiences being sexually assaulted as a student and her experience after reporting the sexual violence to the school she attends. RIOT supports all survivors of sexual assault. Time and time again Black women fight to protect us all from the violent systems that threaten…
There are no coincidences in what I uncovered while simply trying to pay my respects to a Black man lynched by police. I have discovered what I have known for sometime. “Racism is nothing that Black people seek out racism lingers even when the flames are extinguished. The rebellions’ flames are extinguished but the embers are red for now as they should be, ready to go.”