Never/Comfortable

belovedphilosophy: Nostrand Ave., Brooklyn Photos taken...

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 16:37:15 -0500

belovedphilosophy:

Nostrand Ave., Brooklyn

Photos taken 01-06-12

belovedphilosophy: Nostrand Ave., Brooklyn poster art. Photo...

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 16:36:26 -0500

belovedphilosophy:

Nostrand Ave., Brooklyn poster art.

Photo taken 01-6-13.

American gymnast Gabrielle Douglas wins Gold in the women’s...

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 14:44:22 -0400

American gymnast Gabrielle Douglas wins Gold in the women’s gymnastic all-arounds.

"A revolutionary woman can’t have no reactionary man. If he’s not about liberation, if he’s not about..."

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 12:02:02 -0400

“A revolutionary woman can’t have no reactionary man. If he’s not about liberation, if he’s not about struggle, if he ain’t about building a strong Black nation then he ain’t about nothing.””

- Assata Shakur (via nadia-love)

"I wrote this ^_^ The latest available figures show that only 48 percent of voting-age women with..."

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 14:24:42 -0400

“I wrote this ^_^

The latest available figures show that only 48 percent of voting-age women with ready access to their U.S. birth certificates have a birth certificate with their current legal name. The same survey showed that only 66 percent of voting-age women with ready access to any proof of citizenship have a document with their current legal name.

Ultimately, these measures make the voting process more confusing and place additional burdens on groups who each had to struggle to obtain the right to vote and the right to access quality & affordable reproductive health care.

What are leaders in the movement saying?

“If you can’t access the ballot box, how do you ensure access to reproductive health care?” — Aimee Thorne-Thompson, Advocates for Youth

For reproductive justice advocates, voter suppression is a reproductive justice issue. Many groups like the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Rights (RCRC) and NYC Reproductive Justice Coalition (NYC RJC, formerly SisterSong NYC) and Advocates for Youth work year-around to educate communities on the issues and mobilize them to vote for progressive candidates and ballot measures.

Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Justice Director at RCRC, Angela Ferrell-Zabala says voter suppression has the potential to affect down ballot measures and local races in states like Florida.

“Down ballot issues like Amendment 6 will open the state’s constitutional privacy laws and make it very difficult for women to seek abortion care’’ Ferrell-Zabala states.

If Amendment 6 is passed, politicians will be allowed to intrude on personal medical decisions and take away access to healthcare that many women who are Florida public employees currently have.

There is much at stake and “we have to look at the repercussions, it all leads back to reproductive justice. Accessing healthcare and education — making informed decisions about your sexual health and family planning.” Ferrell-Zabala explains.

This is about agency and the power to transform communities.

“To limit the agency of women and youth who are disenfranchised by the social conditions of our race, gender, age and socio-economic status is unacceptable at best, and a direct violation of our human rights at its worst.” says Jasmine Burnett, NYC RJC lead organizer.

Gloria Feldt, author and past president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America argues that “the young, the poor, the women struggling to make ends meet for their families are most vulnerable to disenfranchisement yet have the most to lose if right-wing perpetrators of voter suppression succeed.”

The power of the women’s vote can only be effectively leveraged if every woman who is eligible to vote is able to enter the voting booth and have her vote counted. If they are not counted in 2012 then, “reproductive rights, health, and justice would be among the first freedoms to go, and economic justice not far behind.” said Feldt.

”

- Charlene Carruthers, “The Right To Vote Affects the Power To Choose: How Voter Suppression In 2012 Will Erode Reproductive Rights,” RH Reality Check 7/13/12 (via racialicious)

"Rape is rape, whether it is a human being or a landscape. #ecofeminism #ecology #feminism"

Wed, 16 May 2012 11:24:11 -0400

“Rape is rape, whether it is a human being or a landscape. #ecofeminism #ecology #feminism”

- Carolyn Kizer
Feminist
Pullitzer prize winning poet

think-progress: From North Carolina’s Charlotte Observer. The...

Wed, 09 May 2012 14:37:03 -0400

think-progress:

From North Carolina’s Charlotte Observer. The last time North Carolina amended its constitution on marriage, it was to ban interracial marriage.

"I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left..."

Mon, 07 May 2012 10:46:00 -0400

“I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their “thus saith the Lord” far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I. compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.”

- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—Letter from Birmingham Jail

Photo

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 12:53:14 -0400

Must have shot for my next photo shoot. Hilary Clinton = #bawse

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 17:46:20 -0400

Must have shot for my next photo shoot. Hilary Clinton = #bawse

#MillionHoodies

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 16:00:05 -0400

#MillionHoodies

Trayvon Martins Parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 14:40:48 -0400

Trayvon Martins Parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin

B*tches in Bookstores Don’t read in the darkI highlight...

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 19:47:00 -0400

B*tches in Bookstores

Don’t read in the dark
I highlight with markers
While laying in the park
And wearing Warby Parkers

Local Events for Trayvon Martin

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 10:05:00 -0400

Below is a list of local events being hosted for Trayvon Martin.

Rally & Protest hosted by Rev. Jamal Bryant - Sanford City Hall - March 26 at 4pm (City Hall meeting at 5pm)
Rally & Community Meeting hosted by Rev. Al Sharpton - First Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Sanford, March 26 at 7pm
NAACP March & Rally, March 31st, More info TBA
Candlelight Vigils for Trayvon Martin- NYC, ATL, DC, Chicago, Philly

Please shoot me a tweet at @CharleneCac if you know of any other events or want more details about the NYC, ATL and DC vigils.

My Daily Rage: Whitney, Trayvon and Bei Bei

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:31:58 -0400

I woke up around 3:00 am (EST) last night to a thousand thoughts.

I found myself unable to get past thoughts of:

Whitney Houston- I’ve yet to accept her death and find myself singing her songs throughout the day. She was a genius. Black + Woman + Genius. Did we ever really recognize her genius? I can’t say either way.
Trayvon Martin- I think of Trayvon every time I see a brown-skinned boy. I am filled with rage and frustration over being powerless to change his fate and the fates of countless other children. Take action when and where you can. We have to protect our children.
Bei Bei Shuai-I’m haunted by the criminalization of pregnant women in this country. Bei Bei was imprisoned after attempting suicide while pregnant. She’s been incarcerated for over a year. She is a human being, why can’t the men dead set on viewing her as less than a full human being see her humanity?

As Soraya L. Chemaly so brilliantly stated in her piece “Ten Reasons the Rest of the World Thinks the US is Nuts:”

No, I am not crazy. I am angry.

I am angry. Filled with rage beyond belief. I mean, how can one be a women + Black + in America in 2012 and not be?

Alas, the fight and the struggle go on as they always have and will.

Peace to everyone who cares about something. Doesn’t matter how large or small it is. If you have energy towards compassion and enough nerve to exercise it, peace to you.

Trayvon Martin was killed for walking while black. Sign the...

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 15:50:57 -0400

Trayvon Martin was killed for walking while black. Sign the @ColorOfChange Petition calling on the Department of Justice to arrest George Zimmerman.

http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/Trayvon

"Black women need a religion of self-compassion"

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 16:00:06 -0400

“Black women need a religion of self-compassion”

- Tanya Steele

Ex-Google employee says Google+ has ruined the company

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 08:00:05 -0400

Ex-Google employee says Google+ has ruined the company:

“Google was the rich kid who, after having discovered he wasn’t invited to the party, built his own party in retaliation,” Whittaker wrote. “The fact that no one came to Google’s party became the elephant in the room.”

"And the single biggest lie at the core of that American Dream was the myth of white supremacy, the..."

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 17:12:06 -0400

“And the single biggest lie at the core of that American Dream was the myth of white supremacy, the delusion that allowed a nation of immigrants, outcasts, and orphans to galvanize their standing in a new social order where status and self-worth were rooted in the accident of not being born black. Who is Don Draper but a white man pretending to be a sort of white person he’s not, and who suffers a complete breakdown when that lie is exposed? And what could better symbolize the story of white America in the 1960s?”

- Mad Men and race: Why Season 5 may finally put the civil rights movement front and center. - Slate Magazine

(Emphasis mine. Whoa.)

Good Democrat B*tches. What?! #WarOnWomen #Sandra Fluke...

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 17:09:35 -0400

Good Democrat B*tches. What?! #WarOnWomen #Sandra Fluke #HilaryClinton