"Red Emma’s turned my theory into practice. It was an identity and more importantly a mandate on how to live. Activist is now the fabric and the structure of my being as much as my blood, my skin, my nerves, and my bones.My first love was not a person. It was a collection of people with who I struggled alongside. They were my mentors, fellow workers, collective members, activists , comrades, revolutionaries, and friends. They were my education. They were my first love. They were and are my Emma’s."
This past year, rape has dominated the headlines. From front-page coverage of the Penn State trials to Todd Akin’s “legitimate rape” comment to international outcry about gang rape in India to national focus on Steubenville, talking about rape—a long-silenced topic—is finally a mainstream conversation. We are in a unique cultural moment where the ever-present epidemic of sexual violence is being recognized.
Red Emma’s Bookstore Coffeehouse often describes itself as your local, friendly, radical infoshop. Named in honor of the famous anarchist, feminist, activist hero Emma Goldman, Red Emma’s (often affectionately referred to simply as “Emma’s”), as part of the infoshop movement, has always worked to keep her firebrand legacy alive and well via knowledge sharing, envisioning, and creating. A collective-motto of sorts is Emma Goldman’s quote: “The most violent element in society is ignorance.”
A white student union (WSU) is currently active on Towson’s campus. The group is led by Matthew Heimbach. The goal of the WSU is “to create an avenue for people to participate in political, cultural, educational, and social events to celebrate European heritage," according to its website. I left and voicemail and email request to interview Heimbach. He has not responded to my interview requests.
Baltimore - Artist-activist video projection group, Luminous Intervention, took part in country-wide actions to draw attention to the issue of corporate tax evasion in the week leading up to Tax Day. Overpass light brigades and other guerilla projection groups across the US projected the game "Tax Evaders", a riff off of the classic video game "Space Invaders".
A group calling itself, the White Student Union, was the subject of three demonstrations, on the Towson University campus on Tuesday afternoon, April 2, 2013. Towson students, who don’t like the group, held their protest earlier in the day at 4 PM, followed by two demonstrations at 6 PM by local human rights and social justice advocates.
“America is now in considerable part more a formal political democracy than a democratic social structure, and even the formal political mechanics are weak.”
The crisis of empathy is a great danger to the individual. It separates us from the pain that is felt universally. It stunts our ability to conceive of anything better in how we could live our lives. It is when we can tear down the fences that we build within ourselves, and undergo that transformation—from hostility to warmth, from suspicion to a welcoming embrace, from bitterness to tenderness—we find a power that cannot be taken from us.
Dr. Ben Carson is a well-trained plantation fox, guarding the hen house of White supremacy. He is infected with the delusion of individualism and Bill Cosby boot-strapitis. He can be found on his way to the White House, tripping the political, racist land mines set for his demise. Just think, he could live in Baltimore, not far from me. Well, there goes the neighborhood.
This winter, I had the great fortune to travel to Puerto Rico. A beautiful, diverse island, Puerto Rico has a long colonial history and a long history of resistance. Both of these traditions are still alive today, and Puerto Rico is a fascinating place to study the effects of neoliberalism.
