Between July 2020 and January 15, 2021, Donald J. Trump’s administration executed 13 people: one woman and twelve men. That was more federal executions – in just six months — than in the last fifty-six years. More executions than the “last ten presidents combined.” This string of uninterrupted killings has not been seen since the …
In the words of the well-known white South African academic, Samantha Vice; “South Africa is a strange and morally tangled place to live in” (323). While it can be agreed that for a nation like South Africa, there is a liberating sense of restorative power that has been cultivated since the ending of apartheid. What …
South Africa’s Contemporary Relationship to Racism Read More »
The summer of ‘20 sweltered. The uninhibited southern heat served as the stage for what has become one of the most notable series of protests in our lifetime. Like heat rises, the tension between injustice and Black livelihood rose to a point where it could no longer be simmered down— it was a time for …
To Stand for Something: Interviews with Two Activists in the Black Lives Matter Movement Read More »
“Please, I can’t breathe,” said 46-year-old George Floyd before becoming unconscious. Floyd died of asphyxiation during an arrest in Minneapolis in May. His family ordered two independent autopsy reports. They did not trust the report from the authorities, which stated that he did not die from asphyxiation but a combination of pre-existing health conditions and …
Black Lives and Experiences – From USA to Norway Read More »
“Alright” was a song from To Pimp a Butterfly—perhaps its most famous track. It had served as a Black Lives Matter anthem upon its release, during the marches of 2015. The New York Times has described the song as the “unifying soundtrack to BLM protests nationwide”, and numerous commentators including Black American Television (BET) has …
To Pimp a Butterfly: Rap Music’s Darkest, Brightest, and Most Political Album Read More »
It was within days of the murder of George Floyd by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on May 25, at the peak of the national protests that the killing sparked, at the center of which was, is, the Black Lives Matter movement, that they started appearing: Facebook posts on my feed of friends and …
My community needs to stop saying “ALL LIVES MATTER” Read More »
“I cannot breathe” – that’s what George Floyd said when a white cop murdered him in Minneapolis. During this time where Coronavirus has forced us to change the way we live our lives, all of us can recognize the feeling of not being able to breathe – the whole world seems to be holding its …
