Posts tagged Racial Oppression
The Untold Story of Flint: The Assault on Democracy for Poor & Black People
The Untold Story of Flint: The Assault on Democracy for Poor & Black People

by Kristian Davis Bailey

The city of Flint peaked in national headlines last month as more people learned about the city’s exposure to dangerous levels of lead-contaminated water. For almost two years, community members in Flint had been fighting a state-imposed decision to switch the city’s water source from Detroit’s clean water system to the Flint River.

After presidential candidates and celebrities weighed in on the crisis, Flint organizers said one major piece of context has been missing: poor and Black citizens have been stripped of their rights.

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Black Bottom ArchivesFlint, Water Crisis, Human Rights, Democracy, Disenfranchisement, Systemic Racism, Racial Oppression, Poverty, Public Health, Emergency Managers, Kristian Davis BaileyComment
The History of Black Humanity in America
The History of Black Humanity in America

by Lynx M’Chea

The fascination and commitment to the brutalization of Black bodies is as American as apple pie. From public whippings and picnic lynchings to viral videos of girls being beaten at pool parties. This horrific competition could not exist without the fundamental understanding that Black people do not have humanity.

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Black Bottom ArchivesRacial Oppression, Domestic Terrorism, American Society, Black Humanity, Lynx M'CheaComment
Off the Moral Compass
Off the Moral Compass

by Alexis Farmer

Churches should be more than just places of worship; they should be community hubs for their neighborhoods. Why don’t more churches host job training programs or literacy programs for incarcerated or formerly incarcerated persons; food and clothing drives throughout the year, and not just during Christmas; and gardening programs and community beautification events? Why aren’t there more Christians serving meals in their churches during the summer, when many kids struggle to find a meal because they are not in school? Where are the youth programs? Where are the shelters for marginalized youth and veterans? Where are our soldiers of Christ to serve those on the margins of society? It seems as though there is a lost obligation to humanity; to truly treat everyone as his or her brother and sister.

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Black Bottom ArchivesReligion, Morality, Community Development, Racial Oppression, Alexis FarmerComment
The Supreme Court and the 'Arc of the Moral Universe'
The Supreme Court and the 'Arc of the Moral Universe'

by Eli Day

Change in America often occurs at an agonizingly sluggish pace. We’ve come to expect our republic to operate precisely in the ways anticipated and forewarned by its architects: refining itself gradually, in fits and starts, shot through with truculent deliberation and factional quarreling. Battle lines are no longer merely drawn—they’re etched irrevocably into the fabric of our political universe, thwarting any hope of rapid change.

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Black Bottom ArchivesEli Day, The Supreme Court, Morality, Politics, Public Policy, Racial OppressionComment
Metro Detroit Unity & the Tradition of American Mythology
Metro Detroit Unity & the Tradition of American Mythology

by Eli Day

Mythology means never having to do the hard work of thinking, all while living safely in fantasy. But for black Detroit, rebranding the metro area as a haven of inclusion is little more than cheap varnish. It’s nostalgia for an era that never was. I wish it were otherwise, but the conquered can least afford the price of myth. The point isn’t that unity can never exist alongside tension; it's that unity, by definition, can never take hold where historical rifts remain.

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Op-edsBlack Bottom ArchivesEli Day, Racism, Racial Oppression, Detroit History, SegregationComment