i tend to get quite emotional about these real life people that gave their lives for the struggle that still persists today. George Jackson, Huey P., Little bobby, Fred hanmpton, malcolm little, martin luther… they killed them because they wanted better for us…. when are we going to start honoring that?
Today in 1875, Mary McLeod Bethune was born in Maysville, South Carolina. She is most known for starting an African American School in Daytona Beach Florida currently call Bethune-Cookman University. She also was adviser to president Franklin D. Roosevelt.
“Who taught you to hate the color of your skin?
Who taught you to hate the texture of your hair?
Who taught you to hate the shape of your nose and the shape of your lips?
Who taught you to hate yourself from the top of your head to the soles of your feet?
Who taught you to hate your own kind?
Who taught you to hate the race that you belong to so much so that you don’t want to be around each other?”
- Malcolm X, 1962
I’ll be submitting mine today to HenriettaLacksProject@gmail.com
I am now collecting letters to President Obama for the Henrietta Lacks Project with the objectives of:
1. Impressing upon him the need to publicly acknowledge and apologize to the Lacks family.
2. Raise a counter discourse to the narrative written by Rebecca Skloot and soon-to-be movie by Oprah Winfrey.
3. Create a space for public discussion about the abuse and appropriation of black women’s bodies for the sake of research and profit.
Why Henrietta Lacks? Her cells (HeLa) were extracted from her body while she was dying without the consent of her or her family. It was hidden for decades and her family has yet to receive proper justice. Her cells have led to the cure for polio and informed the research that led to gene mapping, invitro fertilization, and other solutions to health-medical issues.
Letters can be of any length but should discuss your unique perspective on the use of black women’s bodies in U.S history, critique/limitations of Rebecca Skloots narrative, and why public acknowledgement/ apology is critical to move toward justice.
Submissions and Questions can be directed to: HenriettaLacksProject@gmail.com
On this day in 1985, 11 members of the radical black liberation anarcho-primitivist group MOVE were killed by the Philadelphia Police Department.
The police shot tear gas canisters into their house, attempted to flush them out with water cannons from the fire department, shot over 10,000 rounds into the house, and finally dropped a bomb made up of C4 and a dynamite substitute onto the roof of the house. The fire caused considerable damage to the community around the MOVE compound and managed to kill the group’s founder, John Africa.
I would encourage everyone to watch this video of Ramona Africa, one of the two surviving members who lived in the compound, talk about her experiences with extreme police brutality. She speaks passionately about how police attacked MOVE members in both 1978 and 1985.
yea… what she said. #conditioned
This is part of why you hate your natural hair.
In case you’re fresh-out of Modern American Hate, here is some Vintage Old-Fashioned Hate. Did Fox News have a print magazine back in the day?
“They Pass For White”
Does anyone know what publication this is from?
I like the fact that according to the caption the white ladies in the photo are telling an “anti-Negro joke” while the woman who is passing remains silent. Because that’s what white people do when they think there are no people of color around: tell racist jokes. Which gets awkward with all this sneaky deceptive “passing” business going on.
Another gem comes in the third paragraph: “No one ever reports a missing Negro to the Missing Persons Bureau until they’re sure the absentee isn’t passing. It’s an old Negro custom, some 200 years old.” Um, I think Lowell Walker might be missing the point with that factoid.
I’m also curious what publication this comes from.
i like to read the rest of this…
‘Radical’ is a label that is always applied to people who are endeavoring to get freedom.
—Marcus Garvey, on revolution (via theinterlocutor)
When you’re older you’ll see, I think, that we all commit our crimes. The thing is not to lie about them — to try to understand what you have done, why you have done it. That way, you can begin to forgive yourself. That’s very important. If you don’t forgive yourself you’ll never be able to forgive anybody else and you’ll go on committing the same crimes forever.
—James Baldwin (via marniekunz)
so a Nola-ite shared his much appreciated thoughts on other cultures celebrating the defeat of the french army by the mexican army (yes thats what cinco de mayo is about) but not celebrating their own culture specific holidays. I applaud and agree. celebrate others yes, but celebrate yours as well. :o)
oh and please click the title so you can see the whole article. props.