(((nataluna)))

"Parking Lot Pimpin| On the Wrongful Conviction of Julius Jones This Friday we get into the wrongful conviction of Julius Jones, a Black man who has been on death row in Oklahoma for 19 years for a 1999 murder that he’s always denied taking part in. Julius will be wrongfully be put to death in SIX DAYS if we don’t take action now. 🚨 Reach out to the Governor’s office at 405-521-2342 and urge Governor Stitt to stand by the recommendation of the Pardon and Parole Board and grant Julius Jones clemency. Time is of the essence. What you can say or speak from the heart: I would like to urge Governor Stitt to stand by his own word to follow the recommendation of the Pardon and Parole Board and grant Julis Jones clemency. Please save Julius from wrongful execution. RT @so.informed - Let’s also discuss how the judge is literally messing over the Kyle Ritttendon trial. His overly chatty disposition can lead directly to an appeal if Kyle is in fact found Guilty." - @lyneezy

TAKE ACTION NOW:

➡️ Call the Oklahoma City Governor’s office at 405-521-2342 and urge Governor Stitt to stand by the recommendation of the Pardon and Parole Board and grant Julius Jones clemency

➡️ Sign this petition Justice for Julius petition

➡️ Complete this form to send an e-letter to the Pardon & Parole Board.

"Updated on Nov. 3, 2021 at 1:30 p.m. ET: Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-1 to recommend clemency for Julius Jones on Nov. 1. The recommendation to commute Mr. Jone’s death sentence to life in prison with the possibility of parole now goes to Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt for consideration. Mr. Jones is still scheduled to be executed on Nov. 18.  Monday’s recommendation from the board reaffirmed its recommendation following a previous hearing on Sept. 13, 2021."

https://innocenceproject.org/julius-jones-death-row-oklahoma-what-to-know/

american whites were just caught on footage, chasing haitian migrants on horseback with whips in their hands. on horses. with whips.

and yet, black immigrants are still completely dismissed from all conversations about the violence against immigrants. for as long as i could remember, mestizo mexicans and central americans have been the face of immigration-related abuse… so much that people wrongly assume these are the sole victims of that violence.

haitian immigrants represent a disproportionate amount (44%!) of people currently detained in ICE quarters (as of 2020), and since haiti is overwhelmingly black, most - if not all - of those figures are black people. which means the attacks on haiti are automatically attacks on blackness.

it worries me a lot how haitian migrants are being treated and have been treated by not only the united states, but the rest of latin/caribbean/south america. there have been extended violences toward haiti from the entire americas for so long, it’s naive to say that it’s not related to how black the country is. to be black is to be unthought of, and unalive.

forced migration/extermination is genocide.

and it’s so telling that people won’t bother empathizing with the victims of forced migration unless they look a certain (non-black) way.

(if i find any haiti crowdfunds for haitian immigrants, i’ll add them)

i went in the notes to see if crowdfund sources had been added in a reblog; the notes are full of "not all whites" bullshit.

(protip: if you are white in america, arguing 'does that make me racist?' then you need to examine yourself and why you personally feel attacked by a news story about antiblackness.)

here is a link to an aggregation of news stories concerning immigration to the US:

https://www.immigrationadvocates.org/nonprofit/news/archive.2021

and here is a link to an article that may be a good place to start looking for who might be able to help crowdfund and advocate, though the thrust of the article regards post-earthquake aid within haiti:

https://haitiantimes.com/2021/09/01/more-donors-fund-grassroots-and-smaller-groups-for-2021-haiti-earthquake-relief/

thank u so muchhh, i literally just woke up & usually i see crowdfunds on twitter but i have yet to see any. i did not expect this post to get more than 100 notes so i am a bit overwhelmed eeeek

Daunte Wright was only 20 years old, and they killed him over air fresheners. 

AND they had the actual gall to call it an accident, a mistake— because somehow a veteran cop mistook her gun for her taser. And I’m the bloody Queen of England! 

I’m beyond outraged. Minnesota’s corrupt police have struck again. America has learnt nothing, and are letting their black citizens down. Why is nothing changing? Why is there still a trial going on for George Floyd’s murder, that happened almost a whole year ago?? Why did Wright’s killer just get put on administrative leave??? 

WHY IS NOTHING CHANGING. 

I’m just so incensed that this is still happening. Down below are some resources that will help. Look through them, especially if you’re American and actually in more capacity to help. 

GoFundMe for Daunte Wright’s burial and towards the raising of his young son (GoFundMe changes your currency for you, so you can donate even if you have no USD)

How to support Wright’s family and the Brooklyn Center community (cops not included)

Stand in solidarity with Daunte Wright

Petitions to Minnesota’s officials for justice (don’t donate to change.org!)

Black Lives Matter carrd (updated today, 13th April.)

Petition for the arrest of officers involved (unfortunately only based in America.)

A black girl will be spending years in jail because she had a mental health crisis. PLEASE READ

Meet Saraya: she was experiencing a mental health crisis. Police came and tackled her. She is 15.

Saraya Rees is a 15 year old biracial girl from Coos County, Oregon. After being abruptly instructed to stop taking her antidepressants by a local pediatrician, Saraya went into psychosis. In her manic state, Saraya poured a small amount of gasoline on the floor. Her parents called Coos Health & Wellness in hope that that would send mental health advisors, Coos Health & Wellness sent the police. While still in psychosis, the officers arrested her, questioned her without her family or lawyers present, charged with attempted murder and assault, and sent her to juvenile prison for 11 years.

ELEVEN.YEARS.

This is not justice.

This is inhumane.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP:

1. Call these people and demand that she be let go to the custody in her parents.

Please call Governor Kate Brown and Senator Jeff Merkely.⁠

⁠

📞Governor Kate Brown: (503) 378-4582⁠

📞Senator Jeff Merkley: (503) 326-3386⁠

2. Sign the petition! 

http://chng.it/dPR59dnMzq

Please DO NOT donate to CHANGE.ORG, instead donate to Saraya’s gofundme. 

3. Follow @justice4saraya on instagram. You can find info on where to send her encouragement cards and get updated on progress.

4. SEND CARDS TO THE FOLLOWING (please also note card sending rules)

OAK CREEK CORRECTIONAL FACIILITY 

C/O SARAYA REES

4400 LOCHNER ROAD SE 

ALBANY, OR 97332

EDIT: PLEASE CONSIDER THESE RULES WHEN SENDING HER CARDS! The family has asked for the following when sending cards: 

-No vulgar language or cursing (she’s a child, afterall) 

-No stickers

-No metal 

- Do not use return address stickers

-No Cash

Using these things could mean Saraya doesn’t get your card. If you want to donate to the family during this very hard time, please use the GOFUND ME.

 https://www.gofundme.com/f/justice4saraya

You can also send her gifts for when she gets out to a PO BOX: 

SARAYA’S PO BOX

PO BOX 211

MYRTLE POINT, OR 97458

MENTAL ILLNESS IS NOT A CRIME. LET’S FREE OUR GIRL SARAYA!!!

Saraya’s website: https://www.justice4saraya.com/

UPDATE EDIT: Jan.5.2021: Saraya has written a letter: 

Dear Mom and Dad, 

I want you to post this on every social media platform that you can. I want you to do so, so that everyone knows how messed up the system is and how messed up the state is.

I don’t care if people know about my “crimes”, and I don’t care if people know I’m in prison. All I care about is letting people know the truth, this for me, and all of the rest of the kids in the system. This is what really, this is the truth….

I am Saraya Rees. I’m 14 years old, and I’m being charged with attempted murder x2. And attempted aggravated assault x1. I was arrested July 8th, 2019. I was in a detention for 3 months and 9 days. I spent my 14th birthday in Juvy. Not only that, but I have been sexually and physically harassed and the staff did nothing to help. I physically hurt myself even though I was on suicide watch.

They allowed the boys to make sexual gestures and comments to all of the females. The staff at my Juvy made fun of people who self harm or attempted suicide. They would do that right in front of the kids who have done that. Out of all the staff there was only one that was respectful. That staff’s name was Tom (thank you Tom for helping me through all this BS).

The reason I’m telling (whoever it may concern) this, is so you know what really happens in the system. But now I’m going to tell you why I’m really stuck in prison. I am being held in prison because I cried for help. People who know me, know I’ve done many things as a call for help. This was all of the biggest, what I did was pour a small amount of gasoline of the floor at my house. I was never going to light it, but the police and the court all said otherwise. 

When in comes to the court they don’t care about the fact they care about tearing people and families apart. The kids that they arrest are the kids who are being sexually and physically abused at home, the teen moms, the kids looking for love in the wrong places, places because their families don’t want them, the kids who are hurt, the kids who are suicidal. They arrest the misunderstood and that is not fair.

They arrest kids even if they have never committed the crimes, they arrest kids for no reason sometimes. As citizens of Oregon we need to take a stand, we need to stick up to this injustice. Please help get the kids like me who, without their families have nothing to hold onto. No reason to continue living out of places like this…please. Join our cause at #takeastand4oregon. 

                -Saraya Rees, 15 (she was 14 when this was written, I believe) (currently serving 11 years for a crime she did not commit)

For some reason people stopped talking about autonomous zones after the CHAZ was shut down, so most people don’t realize that both George Floyd Square in Minneapolis and the James Talib-Dean Memorial Encampment in Philadelphia are still autonomous 3 months later

They’re also both facing regular threats of invasion and could really use visibility and support. The cops are expecting to be able to clear these places out without anyone else noticing

Just found out there’s one in Los Angeles too, under the banner Black Unity LA

The folks at George Floyd Square and Black Unity LA are also both holding regular community assemblies to organize and start conversations around these movements

This is far from over. Don’t take your eyes off of what’s happening

I mad agree with this.

This reminds me, if y'all haven’t heard of therapyforblackgirls.com please visit if you need a therapist. You can search by mental health need, location/distance, insurance, etc. I believe there are some that provide a sliding scale payment method for those without insurance.

If you’re not quite ready to make the jump, there is a podcast you can listen to as well as articles and links to help answer some of your questions about mental health and/or therapy.

The purpose, as I understand it, is to provide a place where black women can go to find culturally sensitive therapy. Some specialize in family/couples as well.

Take a look.

For any black Women following me! 

Taking care of your mental health is another important factor in your overall health. Fighting for good mental health is a fight worth doing, and is just as difficult, if not moreso, than physical fighting. 

-FemaleWarrior, She/They 

Especially with everything going on right now. We constantly hear how strong we are and it’s like no we can be tired, emotional, stressed too and we need to take care of our mental health. Here are some free therapy sessions that I’ve seen going around. Please share

Also Black minds matter UK!

https://www.blackmindsmatteruk.com/

I love this

i hope this helps :)

I need this esp now 😔

Watch: In a powerful Congresional speech, Sandra Bland’s mother called people who think they’re woke “the walking dead” because of how little we still know

The speech included a rousing call to action before the newly formed Congressional Caucus On Black Women & Girls. And her words were incredibly resonant, even if you think you know the whole story.

Gifs: Josh Begley

WATCH THE VIDEO

fucking hell, plz share this

My heart hurts for these victims and this mother.

Sandra Bland

Kindra Chapman

Alexis McGovern

Joyce Curnell

Ralkina Jones

Raynette Turner

Support for Kenosha, WI protestors against police!

On 8/23/2020, police officers shot an unarmed Black man named Jacob Blake in the back, 7 times, in close range, and in front of his children. As of 5AM 8/24, Jacob Blake’s relatives reported that he was alive, out of ICU and surgery, but still fighting for his life. Witnesses report Blake was breaking up a fight between two women when police tazed and shot him.

Kenosha Police have called a citywide curfew, and are reportedly attacking protestors with chemical weapons and using unmarked vehicles (thread with police scanner activity here). Gov Tony Evers deployed the National Guard against protestors while claiming to stand against excessive force and escalation against Black people in WI. The Milwaukee Freedom Fund made a statement on on FB around midnight, extending legal support to all Kenosha protestors.

Wisconsin Legal Aid:

Donate to the Milwaukee Freedom Fund here!

Wisconsin numbers to call here! 

UPDATE 8/24: Donate to support Jacob & his family here!

Please protect the identities of protestors in news you share (especially in images/video), and, if you are not Black, do not further traumatize Black people by spreading video of the attack without adequate warnings.

Keep reading

Protesting is a FELONY in Tennessee now…Facism at it’s finest (x)

I’m sorry, but people need to know this. This is LITERALLY the most blatant telltale sign of totalitarianism and this needs to be spread like wildfire. DO NOT LOOK AWAY.

Y'all, I live here, and this is not a fucking joke.

Peaceful protesters had been at the People’s Plaza/Ida B. Wells Plaza for 61 days. The state and the police repeatedly tried to silence them, strip them of their resources, create and enact laws against them, and demonize them. I’ve stood face to face with the cops at this plaza for hours, and the entire time, everyone was peaceful. I’ve been surrounded by cops in riot gear on all four sides with these protesters, and still, everyone was peaceful. No matter what, they remain peaceful. Yet I’ve seen and read so many stories about how these protesters have been arrested on bullshit, made-up charges and have witnessed them be brutalized over and over again. I’ve seen so many people with chipped teeth, lung problems, scars, gashes, head trauma, bruises, sprains and fractures, concussions, and more all because of these pigs. I’ve read stories from protesters about how their experiences at the Plaza have triggered panic attacks, PTSD, psychosis, dissociation, and more and how some had been forcibly medicated/tranquilized by police without their consent. I’ve seen people get robbed of their personal items by these pigs, one cop going so far as to rob a man of his medications that he needed to live. I’ve seen and read about cops ripping masks off protesters and sexually harassing them. I’ve seen the cops speed down the road and almost hit protesters multiple times. I’ve read stories from protesters about how they’d been detained for hours and hours with several other people and without masks or how they, especially Black female protesters, had been detained in solitary for hours. And most of those people required medical attention, which they didn’t receive. A GIRL WITH ASTHMA ALMOST DIED BECAUSE THE COPS RELEASED A GAS SIMILAR TO TEAR GAS NEXT TO HER CELL AND IGNORED HER CRIES FOR HELP AND RESPONDED BY PUTTING HER IN SOLITARY AND TAUNTING HER INSTEAD OF PROVIDING MEDICAL ATTENTION, FFS!!

Over 200 arrests had been made during this 61-day occupation. The state tried to get a judge to allow 24/7 GPS-monitoring of a lead activist of the movement. Officers have kicked, punched, sexually harassed, dragged, hospitalized, tear-gassed, zip-tied, arrested, taunted, and brutalized protesters during this occupation. Protesters have held countless vigils and peaceful marches and have literally put their blood, sweat, and tears into this cause. All we wanted was for the governor to meet with the people to discuss removing Confederate monuments and addressing police violence, and this is what protesters were met with instead. And now they’ve made it illegal for us to even fight against their brutality and for our rights to freely exist while Black and brown.

This is not okay. This is totally and completely unconstitutional. Do not ignore this. Do not let this slip by. Do not let them win. Please help us fight all of this injustice. Our lives matter. Black lives fucking matter.

Here’s a report from a local paper on the bill :

by Janine Francois

What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore…” asks Langston Hughes in the haunting lines of his poem, “Harlem.” Written nearly 70 years ago, Hughes’ words remain just as relevant as ever.

“Harlem” is typically read as referring to Black aspirations—the crushing of dreams, and particularly, the promise of racial equality by American society at large. However, his words here may apply to literal Black dreams as well. A growing amount of research has found that Black Americans experience significantly less slow-wave sleep—the kind required for actual, rejuvenating rest—than white Americans. The lack of slow-wave sleep can cause serious mental and physical health issues, including premature death. This disparity, or “sleep gap,” has been the subject of numerous studies, some of which have found that Black Americans are five times more likely than white Americans to get less than six hours of sleep per night, are more likely than white Americans to feel sleepy during the day, and on average get an hour less sleep per night than white Americans.

There’s no scientific consensus on what, specifically, causes the sleep gap. As reported by The Atlantic in 2015, however, leading theories point to both experiences of discrimination and structural inequality—aspects of one’s environment that make one feel unsafe and insecure—as root causes. As Benjamin Reiss pointed out in the LA Times in 2017, Black Americans have lacked access to sufficient sleeping environments since slavery: “Aboard the ships of the transatlantic slave trade, African captives were made to sleep en masse in the hold, often while chained together. Once in the New World, enslaved people were usually still made to sleep in tight quarters, sometimes on the bare floor, and they struggled to snatch any sleep at all while chained together in the coffle. Slaveholders systematically disallowed privacy as they attempted round-the-clock surveillance, and enslaved women were especially susceptible at night to sexual assault from white men.”

Just as sleep deprivation was used as a means to control slaves, the modern-day sleep gap continues to weigh down many Black people, like me, today. I can feel it in me: It breaks my spirit, as I exist in between half-conscious states; never fully awake or asleep, never able to distinguish between the two. This may be the true power of racism—its force encompasses everything, seeping into our dreams at night and deflating our capacity to envision a better future. How can the radical Black imagination rebel against a system that so thoroughly seeks to destroy us? What would a future look like where we are liberated, reparations are paid, and we can finally rest?

Last year_,_ I attended an exhibition called Black Power Naps that begins to answer those questions_._ After debuting at Matadero Madrid Contemporary Art Center in Spain, where I saw it, the exhibition has since travelled to Performance Space New York, where it is on view through January, 2019. The ongoing project by Black Latinx artists Fannie Sosa (referred to as Sosa) and niv Acosta presents a series of interactive installations that invite Black visitors to lie, nap, relax, and play, providing “deliberate energetic repair,” as the artists put it, on the dime of white cultural institutions.

I and many other Black people are constantly aware of our Blackness in hyper-white environments, including art institutions. Elijah Anderson, a prominent ethnographer and Yale lecturer, describes us as “black interlopers” in his 2015 essay, “The White Space”: “When present in the white space, blacks reflexively note the proportion of whites to blacks…and… may adjust their comfort level accordingly; when judging a setting as too white, they can feel uneasy and consider it to be informally ‘off limits.’” As W. E. B. Du Bois suggests, we experience double consciousness, where we simultaneously become aware of both our Blackness, and the responses to it, in white spaces. The surveillance our bodies experience in art institutions—from being followed around in their gift shops to being watched by the gaze of their gallery attendants, and all amidst an undiverse collection of artworks and workforce—informs our feelings of exclusion. But perhaps Black Power Naps does something different: It is designed with Black people in mind, inverting a white art institution into a “Black space,” where the Black body is the center around which all the show’s installations conceptually orbit.

To enter Black Power Naps, you must take off your shoes. Removing one’s shoes is an act associated with sacred places—a symbolic gesture of leaving the world’s toxicity behind. Once inside the room, you see six “healing stations” before you, each “invented,” as the artists put it, to evoke different bodily sensations through physical contact. Each is adorned with silks, satins, and chiffons in delicate pastel hues to create a cozy cocoon of a room. The stations include the “Black Bean Bed,” a pool filled with uncooked black beans, designed to soothe someone experiencing a panic attack. If you lie in the pool, the beans swallow your body while cooling the skin, enveloping you in comfort. The “Air Swing,” meanwhile, is a swing surrounded by three silent fans intended to increase the amount of oxygen you breathe in and, effectively, improve sleep. And the “Atlantic Reconciliation Station” is a water bed intended to help descendants of enslaved people forcibly brought through the middle passage—or pushed off ships along the way—reconcile with the ocean by reminding them that, as the artists explain, the ocean is an “adoring entity that has always had our back.” Continue reading..

Here are some ways to support Black disabled activism, from Alice Wong.

Queen Mami No Swami @myeshxa

"Y'all notice a sharp decline in protest videos and content in the last couple of weeks?"

Joshua Potash @JoshuaPotash

"I don't think people understand.

This is NYC right now. Day 30. In a row.

The #BlackLivesMatter movement is just getting started."

[Video Description: a very large parade of masked protesters changing and cheering. One of the more distinguishable chants from the crowd is "I believe that we are one!" End ID]

The dwindling amount of videos and media coverage of protests is honestly worrying to me. In my opinion, protesters, especially Black protesters, are more at risk because of this. Cops tend to act up and hurt people less if they know they're being filmed and especially if they know that a lot of people are filiming. But I worry that as soon as they feel no one is looking/not enough people are looking, they'll start shooting us, and this time, it won't be with """rubber""" bullets and tear gas.

Document everything, y'all. Don't let them think we aren't watching. Don't let them feel safe enough to kill us.

As of today (7/7/2020) PromotePositivityMovement in Atlanta has been protesting for 40 straight days at the Olympic Rings in Centennial Park.

On Saturday alone I attended 4 protests in a row. And that was 4 out of many.

Protests are still happening, daily, but unless they're "exciting," they're not on the news.

Do something!

Most of the “keep up the work after the protests have ended!”-type posts I’ve seen are mostly focused on like, reading Black authors and listening to Black voices and unlearning racism, and obviously all of that is absolutely vital - but no amount of individual self-reflection will be able to dismantle institutional systems of oppression. So I wanted to put together some resources for continuing to build a culture of noncompliance and resistance to the police and prison system even after things have calmed down

But first, be aware that the protests aren’t over. It’s June 29th and there are still events and actions being planned regularly across the nation, and they still need your participation and support. If you’re able, please keep your focus there; this list is for what can be done long-term outside of the protests

Here are some other organizations to join that are doing good work in this area:

The police state and prison industrial complex rely on the complicity and cooperation of all of us to function and be effective. By building a culture of noncompliance and active resistance, we can drastically reduce the state’s ability to oppress communities of color. Don’t let the struggle be forgotten with the changing of the news cycle - keep up the struggle until all are free!

Boosts and additional resources are very much appreciated!