CW: descriptions of graphic violence

Black women who have experienced having a family member incarcerated have higher levels of stress and depression symptoms.

“On generational wealth. So. We needed to get our home appraised. The appraiser came by and he was immediately unpleasant - making one rude comment after another. He expressed exaggerated surprise when he saw me working at my home office during the walk-through. At the end of it we received an appraisal result that was so low that it was laughable. We appraised far lower than neighboring home sales with fewer bathrooms, fewer bedrooms, significantly lower square footage and half the land.

I knew immediately what needed to happen. We ordered a second appraisal and took down all family pictures containing Black relatives. We took down all pictures of African-American greats that we display to inspire our son. Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison came down from the bookshelves; Shakespeare went up. My son and I took a convenient shopping trip during the appraisal, leaving my white male husband to show the appraiser around, alone.

We appraised $135,000 higher the second time around. The amount of an entire house in some areas.

Racism silently but conspicuously steals wealth. Racism wastes time. Racism raises blood pressure. Racism makes me hate myself for my calm acceptance of what I had to do, and have always had to do, to achieve a fair result. I write this from a place of absolute anguish, to sort through my emotions. I want better for my son. #BlackLivesMatter”

The legal reproduction of white supremacy has always hinged on the violence and exploitation of Black and women of color in particular. There is a legal principle that Black feminist scholars point to in order to ground this claim — it is called partus sequitur ventrem. In Latin it translates to “the condition of the child follows that of the mother.” And though it existed in the U.S. prior to the 1800s, it became especially important after 1808, when the U.S. passed an act prohibiting the importation of enslaved Africans.

Now we know that slavery continued and was not legally abolished until 1865. So, partus sequitur ventrem ensured the enslaved Black people with reproductive capacity, Black women, would continue to reproduce a slave labor force. Put another way, slavery legally required the rape and sexual exploitation of Black and women of color. When we have that as our legacy in this country, it becomes challenging to unequivocally celebrate the centennial as a gain for women. Though Black women were certainly part of the suffrage movement, we have never been fully covered by the legal protections promised and premised by U.S. citizenship.

“About 90% of Native American students attend traditional public schools. But in many rural communities on reservations, schools managed by the BIE are the only option.

A review of hundreds of documents and dozens of interviews with parents, school employees and tribal officials by The Arizona Republic and ProPublica detail how the agency has either disregarded, ignored or delayed efforts meant to end its pattern of failing Native American children.

For the past three years, the bureau failed to comply with key components of the Every Student Succeeds Act, the nation’s primary education law, which mandates that states and the BIE adopt uniform standards for student learning and accountability and sets requirements for transparency.

As a result, the BIE is the only education system in the country that hasn’t implemented a plan to hold schools accountable for student performance. While its students take standardized tests, the schools have for years administered two dozen different exams, leaving the agency unable to compare scores in different states and monitor systemwide performance. And the bureau doesn’t publish federally mandated school report cards, which provide parents with information from academic scores to teacher qualifications to the frequency and severity of student discipline.

Even more striking, the U.S. Department of Education warned the agency for the past 13 years that it was shortchanging special education students, meaning some children went from kindergarten to graduation without the BIE making changes that could improve their education.“

Over a 1 year period, Albany NY cops pretty much only targeted Black folks for arrest for weed (97% of arrests)... the city is 27% Black.

“Hispanic Texans make up about 40% of the state’s population but 48% of the state’s 5,952 confirmed COVID-19 deaths, according to Department of State Health Services data.

In the Houston region, where COVID-19 hospitalizations surged in June before beginning to decline in recent days, data released by the Harris County health department showed a disproportionate share of those requiring hospital care — as high as 65% of newly hospitalized patients during some weeks in June — were Hispanic, despite the fact they are 44% of the population.

At Memorial Hermann Health System, one of the Houston region’s largest hospital chains, an analysis of emergency room visits shows that far more Hispanics in their 20s, 30s and 40s have showed up at its hospitals with COVID-19 compared with other ethnicities, an indication that the virus is spreading widely among young Hispanic residents and that they may be waiting until they are sicker to seek care, officials said.

Meanwhile, as the Houston Fire Department reports record numbers of patients dying abruptly at home this summer before paramedics can even reach them, Harris County medical examiner data shows that more than two-thirds of those who’ve died at home from confirmed coronavirus infections have been Hispanic.

There are numerous reasons for these disparities, experts say. Hispanic residents are more likely to work in service jobs or live in multigenerational households that make social distancing difficult. They are less likely to have health insurance. And they are more likely to have health problems, including diabetes and high blood pressure, leaving them more vulnerable to serious illness.”

Finally.

“History tells us this is not the first time that fear of disease has led to outbreaks of anti-Asian racism. Underlying prejudice against Asian communities has been a staple feature of North American society since the first Chinese workers arrived in the mid-19th century.”

decriminalizing >>> legalizing

“[a study] found that in three years, 23 of the 28 cities increased their police budgets by at least 10 percent, as of the 2019-2020 fiscal year. Eight cities saw an increase of at least 25 percent.

We’re not just talking about rural, Republican-run towns: These numbers include the state’s two largest cities, Los Angeles and San Diego. Of all 28 cities studied, the average increase in police budgets was 19 percent over three years.”

“The benefits of social transition must be enjoyed by all members of our community, including those who do not use (or just use) she/he/they pronouns. Non-binary communities also need to embrace body positivity and fat liberatory politics in order to free our population from the idea that to be androgynous you must be skinny In fact the idea that you have to be androgynous in order to be non-binary needs to be deconstructed as it is based on the medicalisation of our gender identities – that to be a specific gender you must have a particular body shape, and to be trans, you must change your body shape to match the ideal body shape for your gender.”