Outside pressure is a good thing for movements and an important aspect of civic engagement. Engaged voters don’t need to be silent about what isn’t working for them. On the contrary, feedback is a gift, invitation, and road map all in one. Praise and blind allegiance alone turns public servants into celebrities. A true democracy is strengthened through rigorous critique so that our leaders and representatives can hear directly from the people about what our society should look and feel like.  

Nearly 50,000 people packed into Chicago’s United Center for the 2024 Democratic National Convention. The words “our fight for reproductive freedom” were splashed across the biggest screen on the main stage. In front of the block lettering, a Black woman named Kaitlyn Joshua stood and told the story of how abortion bans left her bleeding out and fighting for her life eleven weeks into her pregnancy.

American politics have devolved to such a spectacle that we celebrate complete sentences and zingers without digging into policy proposals or the pathways to actual implementation. Harris won the debate because she stayed on topic and remained composed but the substance of what she had to offer Americans wasn’t too exciting. She spent most of the debate cozying up to Republicans which left me — and many other progressives — wondering whether Harris winning the battle was more important than the war she should be fighting: winning the people who will vote for her.

Donald Trump’s inability to speak in coherent sentences mixed with the outrageousness and irrelevance of his words at any given moment is so shocking that we sometimes laugh to cope. Memes are spurned and people think that by “owning” or making a fool of him online, they are engaging in some sort of digital activism. In actuality, while everyone else was getting in on the fun, Haitian-Americans paid the price.

In 1982, Banned Books Week was established in response to this “surge in the number of challenges to books in libraries, bookstores, and schools.” More than forty years later, and with Project 2025 looming over our heads, the fight against suppression is just as fervent and urgent.

From Supreme Court cases to state-level legislation, the past year has brought unprecedented attacks on critical race theory, diversity, equity and inclusion, school curricula and the books available to the general public, as well as affirmative action.

Brea Baker is a writer and organizer. In this op-ed, she shares her perspective on the history and current movement of Black feminist support for Palestine.

March 21st, 2023 was a cool spring day in the Desoto suburb of Dallas, Texas. Supported by a doula and their two older children, Temecia and Rodney Jackson welcomed their new baby Mila in their home, completing their family.

Atlanta is a unicorn. A predominantly Black city with among the highest percentage of tree canopy of any major U.S. metropolis, the Georgia capital earns its nickname: the City in a Forest.

Today is the first day of Black History Month. It is also the day Tyre Nichols will be laid to rest. On Friday, people across the country watched and shared footage of police officers brutally attacking Nichols and leaving him without aid. The country witnessed as Nichols called out for his mom and asked the officers: “What did I do?”

Unbothered continues its look at the tangled history of Black culture and identity with ROOTS (Un)Banned, a series of stories on book banning for Black History Month. In 2023, we’re exploring efforts to censor Black stories across the country, the roots of what’s happening, those who are being affected, and those who are on the ground fighting to stop it.

There are certain world events that occur, and you just know that you'll always remember where you were when you first heard the news. Sept. 8, 2022, the day Queen Elizabeth II died, will certainly be one of those moments in time for many of us.

Update:

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, ordering that “all persons held as slaves” should “be free.”

Tracy McCarter says she was acting in self-defense when she stood up to her estranged husband. Now she’s being charged with murder.

The new docuseries from Soledad O'Brien and Geeta Gandbhir highlights the work of Derrica and Natalie Wilson, who are advocating for Black missing persons and supporting communities that are far too often ignored.

black people are resilient, but our wounds have not disappeared. Instead, they’ve been ignored, left to fester, so we can continue trying to survive in this world.

One year ago today, police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd on the streets of Minneapolis, kneeling on Floyd's neck as he called out, “I can't breathe.” A video of the incident made its way around the globe, prompting months-long protests and a national conversation about race and policing in America.

Tomorrow marks one year since Breonna Taylor was taken from us. How do you measure a year? It’s one year that her mother, Tamika Palmer, has had to hold grief at bay in order to pursue a semblance of accountability.

If President Biden wants to support the LGBTQ+ community, he can start by freeing us from high interest rates and predatory lenders.