Category: View from the Battlefield

We know that students are not showing up for the online classes. From the U.S. Census and other sources, we also know that most of them do not have internet services or computers at home. How is this situation--well-known before the pandemic—being addressed in our struggling communities?

How we learn from this ugly time will depend on our collective scrutiny on where the cracks in the system lie, and not just the health care system. It is a fight for democracy because the whole damn system is guilty as hell.

If one is of sound mind, you know there’s nothing radical or revolutionary about the Democratic Party. Calling it a progressive party is being generous. I know all of this, but I was still hopping mad when I saw the invisible hand of the party manipulate the process to ensure a clear path to the White House for Uncle Joe.

Race and money are guiding forces in prevention and intervention

There’s only one thing worse than a fat-ass empowered black woman. That’s a fat-ass empowered black woman who’s got public reins in her hands.

Voting is one tool we use to participate in this so-called democracy but it’s an important one. We have seen persistent attacks on voting rights from unnecessary identification laws to illegal purging of voter rolls to trickery at the polling sites.

The Plain View Project used an algorithm to search through thousands of social media rants by past and current police officers. The hatred and bigotry against Black folks, women, Muslims and the LGBTQ community were unapologetic.

These 400 years of mutating slavery is worth uplifting for serious critique. It includes the captivity of a people and our enslavement. It includes Jim Crow and slavery by another name (forced, mainly unpaid labor). It includes all forms of segregation and second-class citizenship. It includes mass incarceration. Many of these manifestations and systems are still current and often co-exist with one another.

As a Black, voting woman, I have serious concerns about my right to exist as a free citizen with all the protected fundamental rights including the power over my own body.

This country is at a serious crossroads, democracy is hanging in the balance. Most of us don’t know much about this country’s history or how government functions. It’s time to learn. It’s time to stop the advancement of a dictator.