Edited by Mara Meyers
This week we’ve been following the Baltimore uprising…
An important reminder when thinking about Freddie Gray, Michael Brown and the countless others who have died at the hands of the police: We cannot simply replace the word “Ferguson” with “Baltimore” because each story, person, and life is unique.
Baltimore native Ta-Nehisi Coates exposes the hypocrisy of those who ask for “nonviolence” from the protesters.
This week, a video of a black mother beating her son because he was participating in protests quickly went viral. As people jump to conclusions about her actions, the full story is much more about fear than anger.
When the causality of violence is erased (i.e. the fact that the protests are a response to the repetitive violence of the police) we forget who the real perpetrator is.
Many of our speakers also had something to say about Baltimore…
How did we get here? In her latest article, Zerlina Maxwell provides some necessary context by talking about the larger history of Baltimore’s relationship to police brutality, and the lack of economic opportunity for young black men like Gray.
Mychal Denzel Smith calls out those who have been asking for “peaceful” protests by reminding us that “peaceful” protests are, in fact, the easiest to ignore.
Following Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake use of the word “thug” to describe protesters, Brittney Cooper questions whether or not the black middle class in Baltimore could be participating in anti-black violence themselves.
What else is new from our FRESH crew…
We couldn’t be prouder to see that Jimmie Briggs’ Man Up Campaign was featured on Ebony’s list of 5 men’s organizations working to end rape.
What kind of a badass editor gets POTUS onto their publication about education innovation? Sarika Bansal does. Read President Obama discuss his fifth grade teacher and the impact she made on him on Medium.
It’s no surprise that we believe that a diversity of perspectives is better than one singular voice. Aaron Hurst reminds us just how important a diversity of opinions is in his latest article on LinkedIn.
Jay Smooth exposes the game of political campaigns.
What happens when you threaten the positionality of a sexist media? You’re censored. After Jamia Wilson’s interview with Tom Watson was unpublished from Forbes because it was too on point for them to handle, it was republished on Medium.
The #EmpowerALLBodies campaign continues the conversation about media representation of women by showing us how important it is to see the beauty in a diversity of body types. Julie Zeilinger discusses in her latest Mic article.
