michael brown
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1 Year Later: BLM Protester Who Interrupted Bernie Sanders’ Rally Discusses the Moment and the Movement
It’s been a year since Mara Willaford and I jumped up onstage with presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in what would become one of the most controversial Black Lives Matter actions to date. Filled with naivete about the impact we would make and conviction around the urgency of the fight for black lives, we did the…
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Dear Mike: Another Year Has Passed and We’re Still Fighting for You
I started my time at Advancement Project one year ago. My first big assignment came only three weeks after my first day: I was being sent to Ferguson, Mo. As the leader for our youth-criminalization work, I would manage the national media and communications efforts for the one-year commemoration of Mike Brown’s death. I hadn’t…
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St. Louis Reporter Loses Job After Sick Michael Brown Joke
In more news of just how sick American racism is and, further, how it permeates every single aspect of American life, a St. Louis TV reporter got the boot after he posted a crass “lead diet” joke on Facebook around the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. According to reports, after it was announced that…
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'Mothers of the Movement' Stand With Hillary Clinton at the DNC
It was an emotional moment Tuesday night when the “Mothers of the Movement” took the stage at the Democratic National Convention to speak about their children’s deaths and endorse Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. The nine mothers walked onstage amid cries of “Black lives matter!” from the crowd, the Los Angeles Times notes, as Geneva…
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Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and the Hypocritical Screams of White America After the Dallas Cop Shootings
There was a moment when white Americans felt the dread black Americans live with daily. It happened Dec. 14, 2012, when a shooter entered a Newtown, Conn., elementary school and fatally shot 20 children between the ages of 6 and 7. The notion of safety was shown to be a fraud. The unfairness and vulnerability…
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The Murder Of Alton Sterling (And Others Like Him) Slowly, Subtly, And Steadily Kills Us Too
The thing about state sanctioned murders of Black Americans — such as the murder of 37-year-old Alton Sterling; a father of five who was shot and killed by a Baton Rouge police officer while two other officers restrained him — is that if you write and think and scream and rage and cry and obsess…
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Living And Other Things We Can't Do While Black
After work yesterday, I was going to my friend Jason’s event down in Soho. He does this monthly conversation series called “Brothers and Sisters” in which brothers and sisters gather somewhere and over beer and wine have thoughtful discussion about a specific topic. Past topics have included conversations on beauty and dating. This month’s discussion…
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The Worst Part Of The DOJ's Report On Ferguson
We know that the Department of Justice will continue to investigate the Ferguson Police Department. And, if Ferguson doesn’t adhere to whichever changes the DOJ orders them to make, they will face some type of consequence. We know we’ll use the empirical evidence of the systematic racism in Ferguson to continue to fuel our own…
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Ferguson Isn't About Black And White. It's About Green.
Robert McCulloch, the prosecuting attorney in St. Louis County, was first elected to the post in 1991, and has held the post ever since. He often runs unopposed. He’s been re-elected six times. One of those times came after a 2001 grand jury where he allowed four officers to go free after shooting two unarmed…
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Darren Wilson Is A Dick. Literally
Darren Wilson is a dick. Not in the figurative sense (although he is that too). No, I came to that conclusion after seeing the first clear images of him — the photos of the injuries he sustained while involved in the life-threatening altercation with the 8’4, 720 pound Michael Brown. Darren Wilson is dick, literally.…