Professor @ColumbiaLaw and @UCLA_law; Executive Director @AAPolicyForum; Host @IMKC_podcast; Views expressed here are my own!
Sep 14 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
In her speech on Racism and Fascism Toni Morrison explained how the creation of a pariah class is one of the first steps taken by fascist regimes.
They create an internal enemy and then they, “Isolate and demonize that enemy by unleashing and protecting the utterance of overt and coded name-calling & verbal abuse.”
Jul 30 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Black women make up less than 10% of the population, yet when it comes to killings by police, we make up a 3rd of them, with the majority unarmed. And that’s exactly what happened with Sonya Massey.
#SayHerName
#CRTSummmerSchool
“They want us to show our papers, in your own home. Which leads them being able to enter the home. What makes it worse, he has no remorse for this beautiful Black woman, a mother.” @AttorneyCrump
#SayHerName
#SonyaMassey
Jul 25 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Over the next few months, we’re going to see a rise in racist, misogynistic language. Why? Because the public targeting of Black women is a direct tactic to drive the right-wing’s agenda.
#Thread 🧵
This is a direct consequence of a lack of understanding and failure to prioritize an intersectional framework on issues that directly impact our communities, such as police violence against Black women. We have to #SayHerName because of public silence.
Jun 14 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
As we celebrate Juneteenth, we can't overlook the fact that “anti-woke” attacks on Black history and Black political power have become one of the biggest threats to our democracy. The consequence of this threat goes all the way up to our supreme courts.
On June 12th, the Oklahoma Supreme Court didn’t allow the last survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre — Viola Fletcher, Lessie Benningfield Randle, and Hughes Van Ellis — to seek justice and reparations from the emotional, physical and financial losses of the massacre.
Mar 8 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Last night’s use of #SayHerName by Marjorie Taylor Greene during the SOTU Address reflects a deeply offensive trend in right-wing politics – the intentionally misleading appropriation of justice-seeking demands from those who have historically been rendered voiceless.
The #SayHerName campaign was founded 10 years ago to break the silence around Black women, girls & femmes whose lives have been taken by police. Tanisha Anderson, Korryn Gaines, Shelly Frey, Kayla Moore & Atatiana Jefferson are just some of the many names we uplift.
Mar 1, 2022 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
Kudos to @LastWeekTonight for getting to the nitty gritty of how this panic over CRT is an old trick out of a very old racist playbook.
Here’s the gist of it (1/5):
(2/5)
Jul 6, 2021 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
I finally took a moment to read Judge Cahill’s sentencing memo in the trial of Derrick Chauvin and I’m appalled. Buried deep in Judge Cahill’s justification for Chauvin’s sentence is a shocking disregard of the trauma inflicted on the Black girls who witnessed Floyd’s murder.
The disregard of the trauma imposed on 17-year-old Darnella Frazier who filmed Floyd’s death, her 9-year-old cousin who witnessed it, and two other teens was easily missed by most observers last month who were relieved that Chauvin received any significant time at all.
Apr 3, 2021 • 13 tweets • 5 min read
My most recent piece, "The Eternal Fantasy of a Racially Virtuous America," was my last in what was a great run at @newrepublic under the editorial leadership of Chris Lehmann (@lehmannchris).
Here's a thread of the articles I wrote for TNR in the past two years:
From May of 2019, "Racial Terror and the Second Repeal of Reconstruction: How the legacy of Jim Crow haunts Trump's America.”
Almost 5 years ago, over 25,000 protesters surged through the streets for Millions March NYC, an anti-police brutality demonstration fueled in part by grand jury decisions not to indict police officers for the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown. 2/13
