The Long Journey: Sending Love to Grace Lee Boggs

99 year-old legendary American activist Grace Lee Boggs has been in hospice care in her Detroit home for the past two weeks. Recent posts on her social media outlets have intimated that Boggs may be “coming to the end of a long journey,” as she has put it. She is not conducting interviews, taking phone calls or receiving visitors. After a lifetime of inspirational and powerful community activism, having been at the forefront every major social justice movement in recent American history, including civil rights, feminism and environmental justice, she has earned a well-deserved rest.

However, her work does not stop – the posts also note that her contributions will be celebrated and advanced at an October conference called, “Reimagining Work and Culture” to be held Oct 18-20 in Detroit.

We at Sisters of Resistance would like and express our deep love and gratitude to Grace for her incredible life work, and send love to her and to her family, with our wishes for peace and strength at this time.

Read the whole article at Detroit Free Press.

UPDATE, 28 Nov 2014: Grace’s trustees have made an urgent request for donations to help support Grace during her time in hospice care. If you can, please make a donation here.

UltraViolet Campaign to Cancel CeeLo Green’s TV Show

In recent news, CeeLo Green has admitted to drugging a woman and defending his actions on Twitter, claiming it wasn’t rape if the victim wasn’t conscious. A coordinated public response that resulted in cancelling his upcoming TV show would be a profound statement against rape and rape culture. UltraViolet, a “new and rapidly growing community of women and men across the U.S. mobilized to fight sexism and expand women’s rights, from politics and government to media and pop culture” has put together a petition to do just that.

Click here to sign the petition

Re-posted from UltraViolet:

Grammy-winning artist CeeLO Green just let loose a series of tweets claiming that rape isn’t rape if the victim is unconscious.

What’s worse is that his tweets aren’t out of the blue—he recently pled no contest to drugging a woman who later woke up naked in his bed, with no memory of what happened. Yet despite this criminal act, and these incredibly dangerous tweets, major network TBS and its parent company Time Warner are still giving him a huge public platform in a reality TV show that recently premiered. They’ve got to drop him, now. 

Tell TBS and Time Warner:

Rapists and rape-apologists should have no place in your line-up. Cancel CeeLo Green’s reality show The Good Life immediately.

SIGN, SHARE AND REPOST!

Campaigns for #MikeBrown #Ferguson

Sista Resista:

How you can help Ferguson!

Originally posted on Spaceship Dreaming:

 

Here is a list of donations, protests, and petitions that you can do to help the people in #Ferguson and to assist #MikeBrown and #EzellFord all others who have been killed by the hands of the police. I will try to update as much as possible.

 

Donations for Mike Brown’s Family:

 

Michael Brown Memorial Fund:

 

These funds will assist his family with costs that they will acquire as they seek justice on Michael’s behalf. All funds will be given to the Michael Brown family.

 

http://www.gofundme.com/justiceformikebrown

 

College 4 MikeBrown’s Siblings:

 

This effort will help support Mike Brown’s siblings, 2 younger sisters and a younger brother go to college. It is run by Sara Goldrick-Rab, UW professor of the Wisconsin HOPE Lab ( http://www.wihopelab.com) and Michael Johnson of the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County (Madison, WI) can vouch that all funds will go…

View original 484 more words

News Roundup: Ferguson, Gaza, Rape Culture and Resistance

A collection of news from around the web showing the latest information on the situation in Ferguson, protests against the genocide in Gaza, and an excellent piece showing not only how they are linked, but also how the ‘war on terror’ has always existed for Black Americans. We also join others in calling for an end to rape culture and whorephobia by posting a critique of the Internet’s response to Christy Mack’s release of photos of a brutal attack by an ex-partner, and a show of online solidarity with 16-year-old rape victim Jada.

Latest news on Ferguson:

Autopsy Shows Michael Brown Was Struck at Least 6 Times [Frances Robles and Julie Bosman, NY Times]

Second night of curfew in Ferguson, governor calls out National Guard  [Al Jazeera America]

Ferguson, Mo., police were trying to ‘besmirch’ dead teen when they released convenience store video: governor [Adam Edelman, NY Daily News]

Amnesty International Sends Human Rights Delegation to Ferguson, Missouri [Amnesty International]

U.S. and Israeli Military Tactics Used Against American Citizens … Gazans Tweet Tips to Help AMERICANS On How to Handle Tear Gas [Washington’s Blog]

Palestinians express “solidarity with the people of Ferguson” in Mike Brown statement [Rana Baker, Electronic Intifada]

“From all factions and sectors of our dislocated society, we send you our commitment to stand with you in your hour of pain and time of struggle against the oppression that continues to target our black brothers and sisters in nearly every aspect of their lives.

We understand your moral outrage. We empathize with your hurt and anger. We understand the impulse to rebel against the infrastructure of a racist capitalist system that systematically pushes you to the margins of humanity.  

And we stand with you.”

Critical Analysis Pieces on Ferguson

Itemizing Atrocity [Tamara K. Nopper & Mariame Kaba, Jacobin Magazine]

“The problem with casting militarization as the problem is that the formulation suggests it is the excess against which we must rally. We must accept that the ordinary is fair, for an extreme to be the problem. The policing of black people — carried out through a variety of mechanisms and processes — is purportedly warranted, as long as it doesn’t get too militarized and excessive.”

12 things white people can do now because of Ferguson [Janee Woods, Quartz]

“In the aftermath of the murder of Michael Brown, may he rest in power, here are some ways for white people to become white allies who are engaged thoughtfully and critically in examining the situation in Ferguson and standing on the side of justice and equity. This list is a good place to start your fight to dismantle racial inequity and shine a light on the oppressive structures that lead to yet another extrajudicial killing of a black person.”

In Ferguson the violence of the state created the violence of the street [Gary Younge, The Guardian] 

“Nobody in their right mind wants more violent protests. But nobody wants more Michael Browns either. And those two things – the violence of the state and the violence of the street – are connected.”

Resistance to genocide in Gaza:

10,000 protest in Tel Aviv for a just peace, end to occupation [Moriel Rothman-Zecher and Haggai Matar, contributors, +972 blog]

Israeli ship remains at sea as thousands of protesters gather in Oakland [Rebecca Bowe, The Guardian] (#BlockTheBoat)

Critique of Internet response to the abuse of Christy Mack

[TW – Rape, Rape culture and physical abuse]:

This is how the Internet responds when a porn star is beaten up [EJ Dickson, Daily Dot]

“Apparently, we not only think that sex workers deserve to be treated differently than other people: Many of us don’t even think of them as people to begin with.”

Solidarity with Jada (#IamJada)

Trolling of teen rape victim Jada sparks internet fightback with hashtag #IamJada [Heather Saul, The Independent]

The Mike Brown Story: A Young Man Murdered, A Community Terrorized #NMOS14

 

Father of Mike Brown, 9 Aug 2014

On the afternoon of Saturday, August 9th, 2014, 18-year-old Michael Brown was murdered in cold blood by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. The black community of Ferguson rallied in protest, and was met with a fully militarized police force with tanks, riot gear and sniper rifles using tear gas, stun grenades, and smoke bombs to disperse crowds, techniques taken directly from the military arsenal.

Most traditional media sources were silent about the shooting and the violent police response to the peaceful protests. Media outlets that did attempt to cover the story were threatened and tear-gassed, as was a state senator. Journalists and the St Louis Alderman were arrested without cause, and released without charge. Thus, people took to Twitter to provide coverage of the events.

The people’s outrage at these latest acts of terrorism by the state against its own citizens is palpable and justified. Black Americans are disproportionately harassed, intimidated, incarcerated, and murdered at the hands of the police in the United States. Yet when the people show collective anger in response, they are demonized and portrayed one-dimensionally as rioters and looters, which in turn is used to further reinforce racist narratives and justify the use of more force against them.

Vigils were held all over the US tonight to mourn Michael Brown and the many other recent black victims of racist police brutality, including Eric Garner, John Crawford, and Ezell Ford.  Thank you to Feminista Jones who began the #NMOS14 Twitter campaign that was used to organize the vigils, the journalists who shared their accounts of the events, the bloggers who put the Ferguson events in historical and social context, the countless members of the public who used social media to signal-boost coverage of the story as well as of the nationwide vigils, and to members of Anonymous who hacked the city of Ferguson website (and will likely do more than that before this is through).

We salute the residents of Ferguson and St. Louis who in these past few days have shown tremendous courage and stood up to the veritable army that is the St. Louis police force, and we share our outrage, sorrow, and solidarity with all those around the world who have been victimized by state and police violence.

UPDATE: ColorofChange.org is calling for the immediate prosecution and firing of all officers involved in the killing of Michael Brown. Sign the petition here.

*****

We would also like to commemorate today the 1-year anniversary of the Rabaa Massacre in Egypt, in which Egyptian forces committed a crime against humanity by murdering nearly 900 people in what may be one of the worst ever violations of international law. We remember those who were killed, while at the same time we condemn the colonialist and imperialist forces that through their tactic of divide-and-conquer created the foundation for civil unrest in Egypt and throughout the Middle East.