geniuschild

As the world watched the tumultuous events in Ferguson, Mo., over the last week, a new hashtag was born: #IfTheyGunnedMeDown. The meme was photographic: what images would the media use if I died? But the question, at its heart, was one of naming.

Kid or criminal? Victim or threat? Brother, son, friend — or thug? One of us, or other?

Danez Smith grapples with the power of naming, and the powerlessness of being named, in this poem. Poetry Magazine tweeted it out earlier today, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.

— Camila

Phoenix Arizona anarchists have been active supporting the Ferguson uprising in different ways. Anarchists are organizing and attending local events as well as spreading propaganda both online and off. Many comrades see the events in Ferguson as much more than an isolated disturbance or a singular flash point that the state is having trouble controlling.

To many, Ferguson represents an escalation in the way the state plans to handle rebellions they are unable to manage with propaganda and counter-insurgency. So what this ends up meaning is, moving forward we should expect immediate escalation and martial law. The next economic disaster and war will bring mass resistance. What we see in Ferguson is their plan to deal with it, to manage it.

So, it becomes imperative to support in ways that make the most sense. Single acts of support in many places not only provide hope and inspiration but the impression that anarchists can act in mass when needed. What does it look like during the next escalation if our acts continue to multiply?

And the babies cease alarm as mothers

raising arms

and heart high as the stars so far unseen

nevertheless hurl into the universe

a moving force

irreversible as light years

traveling to the open

we are the ones we have been waiting for.

poem by June Jordan

Summer School Episode 1: #AbuserDynamics and Gender Violence

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Black people are suffering and dying for that “dream of fighting the status quo” that you romanticize, and yet you still refuse to help us dismantle it.

History Parallels

1st image: 1967 Newark Riots

2nd image: 2014 Ferguson Protests

3rd image: 1964 Harlem Riots

...How much more bloodshed and how many more black bodies are gonna have to lie dead in the streets before we rise up to put an end to these modern day lynchings??