newwavefeminism:

A convict’s lawsuit says he was told by a prison official that an award-winning book about the heinous treatment of black prisoners after the Civil War was “too incendiary” for him to read.

newsflick:

Eastern Senegal is experiencing a gold rush, following the discovery of large deposits of the precious metal. Several major international companies have ventured into the West African nation, while informal miners have also flocked to the area. In Diabougou, one of the biggest informal sites in the area, anyone can come and dig a mine shaft, called a “dama” in the local Malinke language. The gold rush has transformed Diabougou into a small town. (BBC)

(Source: newsflick)

cassket:

Would you like Erykah Badu to be present at your birth? It could happen — she’s already a doula, and now has said she wants to be a midwife.

In case you’re not up on what the roles mean, a doula supports a woman and her family during childbirth (and sometimes other times), but isn’t necessarily a trained medical professional, whereas a midwife is, in the U.S. at least, licensed and trained in maternity and well-woman care.

She became a doula after being present at a friend’s birth. “I’ve always had a mothering nature. But I didn’t plan on becoming a doula. I just wanted to care for my family and friends,” she toldPeople. “When I saw the baby, I cried. I knew what I was supposed to do with my life.”

Badu apparently performs massages and Reiki during birth now, and she offers her services for free. She says her patients call her “Erykah Badoula.” She’s also a spokeswoman for the International Center for Traditional Childbearing. Now she wants to take it to the next level to open birthing centers in underserved areas.

Incidentally, the United States has the highest infant mortality rate among developed nations, and the African-American infant mortality rate is more than twice that of white infants.

Erykah Badu is fucking awesome.

black-culture:

After a long legal fight, the Cherokee nation ousted thousands of descendants of black slaves who had long been official members of the tribe.

The Cherokee Supreme Court (the tribe is a sovereign nation) ruled this week a 2007 constitutional amendment that required Cherokee blood in order…

WOW. So we officially have no allies in this Nation huh?

nefferamaat:

SEAL Team 6, unit that killed Osama bin Laden, died in helicopter crash:

The Associated Press reported that the majority of the 31 American troops killed Saturday when the Taliban shot down a military helicopter over Afghanistan were members of SEAL Team 6, the elite team that killed Osama…

lucifelle:

by J.J. Snyder

A group of British scientists, including two astrophysicists, a thermodynamicist, and other professional researchers, are conducting experiments and solving complex equations that they believe furnish conclusive and irrefutable proof of human survival of…

(Source: cfpf.org.uk)

gaypolitics:

One in four gay teenagers living in the US state of Massachusetts are homeless, says a new study.
Findings by the Children’s Hospital Boston also indicate that 15% of bisexual teenagers are homeless - compared to three percent of heterosexual teenagers.
6,300 public high…

    I should have known. Marriage is something purely of the bourgeois Upper class in order to safe guard wealth. It has nothing to do with their civil rights and everything to do with their money. Which is one of the problems I have with the gay community co-opting the civil rights movement for their struggles when it has nothing to do with gay people of color unless they are middle class and are marrying white people. 

jhenne-bean:

The sad truth behind London riot

cacotopian:

As political and social protests grip the Middle East, are growing in Europe and a riot exploded in north London this weekend, here’s a sad truth, expressed by a Londoner when asked by a television reporter: Is rioting the…

Stop Calling them Riots they are REBELLIONS 

anytime the states uses violence against citizens they have a right to defend themselves 

the state sanctions the police to carry out violent attacks on people of color

they must respond accordingly…this is why they never properly teach medieval history in schools…..they dont want you to understand how to organize your neighborhood to gain political and economic power 

(Source: crowdsourced)