Politics & Democracy

796 posts

How abolitionists are responding to the Capitol riot

The cause of abolishing police and prisons often gets challenged with questions of extremes: What will happen with serial killers? How do you stop a person with a gun? On Jan. 6, a violent mob descending on the United States Capitol presented one of these examples of extreme harm. How

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7 Min
By: Jack Herrera

Could the Georgia runoffs rewrite the narrative of the Latinx vote in the 2020 election?

In the 2020 presidential election, Latinxs nationwide voted about the same ways they have for the last four decades: Roughly 70% voted Democrat, and around 30% voted Republican. However, shocking results out of South Texas and southern Florida shook that reliable narrative. In heavily Latinx counties in the south of

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5 Min
By: Jack Herrera

The white backlash has begun. Again.

As surely as night follows day, any flex of political power by Black and brown people in the United States will be followed by a reactionary white supremacist show of force. The pattern of racist white backlash to the barest hint of racial progress has persisted since the earliest days

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3 Min
By: Ashton Lattimore

Democrats make history in Georgia special election

After a contentious runoff race Democrats will be taking control of the Senate. Rev. Raphael Warnock was the first projected winner of Georgia’s two special elections Tuesday night, which turned to runoffs in November after no candidate secured 50% of the votes. The race was officially called by major

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1 Min
By: Carolyn Copeland

Young activists like me are a force to be reckoned with

“I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.” Fannie Lou Hamer’s infamous words have stuck with Black women through the fight for equality, racial justice, the gun violence crisis, and so many other fights for social justice. I’m part of a generation of young women who

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3 Min
By: Makayla Jordan

Mobilization of Asian American voters was key to Biden’s victory

Asian Americans are the fastest-growing electorate in the country, especially in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, and Georgia, and currently total more than 11 million eligible voters nationwide. In several battleground states, voters in urban areas where Asian Americans are highly concentrated proved to be the key in swinging those traditionally

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6 Min
By: Jenn Fang

Black voters swayed the election in the Midwest. Getting there took incredible work

Esther Bush says the work to register Black voters in Pittsburgh began long before November 2020—decades before. “Every year, we have a get-out-the-vote campaign. Every year, annually,” Bush says.  Bush serves as executive director of the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh, a 100-year-old civil

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6 Min
By: Jack Herrera

Amid high-stakes Senate runoffs, Georgia organizers focus on the long game

College junior Christina Williams voted in her first ever presidential election this November. But the 20-year-old Philadelphian has always been politically active at Clark Atlanta University (CAU), the historically Black college in Atlanta, Georgia, where she majors in political science. For this plucky student organizer preparing for Georgia’

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4 Min
By: Maki Somosot

White Mexicans have had a role to play in white supremacy

Just before he died this year, my grandfather told me a story about his childhood in Laredo, Texas. In the winters, the Rio Grande would flood its banks and water would pour over the ranch land on both sides of the border. My great-grandmother, a Mexicana named Francisca, would

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10 Min
By: Jack Herrera

Rep. Deb Haaland poised to make history again as first Native American interior secretary

Rep. Deb Haaland has made history once again. The New Mexico representative for the state’s 1st Congressional District was selected Thursday by President-elect Joe Biden to be the nation’s first ever Native American interior secretary, and the first ever Native American cabinet secretary in U.S. history.

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1 Min
By: Carolyn Copeland

Q&A: Bronx-based organizer Elisa Crespo on public education, housing, and sex workers’ rights

When Bronx-based community organizer Elisa Crespo advocates for housing accessibility, investment in public education, and job security, it’s personal. The 30-year-old is fueled by memories of growing up in New York City, witnessing her single mother fighting to sustain herself and her four children. Because her

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9 Min
By: María Inés Taracena

What’s the power of a conversation?

On a brisk day in March before the pandemic, MariaElena Fournier knocked on the door of a trailer home in rural Michigan. Fournier heard rustling inside, but no one came to the door. Looking down at their canvassing list, Fournier noted that the woman listed as the resident was over

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5 Min
By: Jack Herrera

Showing 12 of 796 total posts

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