by Michelle Y. Talbert

Prom. High school graduation. College graduation. Motherhood. Adulthood. Yet another of our daughters will never experience any of these or the other milestones that make life so rich.

By Anna Nti-Asare

In 2013, The Sentencing Project, a group aimed at exposing the horrendous facts behind mass incarceration in the U.S., published the following information: “If incarceration rates continue to grow at the pace they have since the 1970s, 1 of every 3 Black American males born today can expect to go to prison in his lifetime, as can 1 of every 6 Latino males, and 1 of every 17 White males.”

by Liz Alexander

See Her.

As we continue to grieve the lives of Black women and girls who are murdered by state and systemic violence as well as confront the invisibility and marginalization of those lives in larger discourse, black and brown girls are being silently swallowed up by the juvenile justice system.

by Marena Bridges

One of my favorite moments in The Simpsons comes when Lisa is forced to join a cult by her dad and attend school at their headquarters. She becomes so fed up with the propaganda she endures that she stands up and declares, “The whole damn system is wrong!” as she kicks over her desk with a scream. Why am I talking about The Simpsons in an article about anti-Black police brutality? Because, lately, I’ve often felt like Lisa Simpson must have in that moment; fed up knowing that every day it’s different actors following the same script. A police officer brutalizes and/or murders one of us. That specific officer faces backlash. And we either feel we’ve been denied justice if they get off scot-free or served justice if they’re indicted.

by Janette Robinson Flint

I am deeply hurt, enraged, and gravely concerned by the onslaught of violence against Black women and girls. The latest offense happened on Monday, July 13th, when Sandra Bland, a 28 year-old woman who was pulled over for a minor traffic violation, was found dead in her Texas jail cell. The following day, 18 year-old Kindra Chapman was also found dead in an Alabama jail cell. In June, a police officer tackled and handcuffed a 14-year-old girl in a bikini at pool party in McKinney, Texas. In June, nine people—six of whom were Black women—were murdered at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Cynthia Hurd, Rev. Sharonda Singleton, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lance, Myra Thompson, Hon. Rev. Clementa Pinckney, Tywanza Sanders, Rev. Daniel Simmons Sr., and Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor lost their lives because of the deep-seated anti-Black hatred cultivated against African Americans in this country. And this is only in the last few months. There are scores of Black women who did not get a hashtag. There were no marches or protests for them. Their deaths have gone unnoticed by most of the nation and grieved by only the ones who knew them.

by Anna Gibson

According to a recent article in the New Yorker, Kalief Browder’s mother was sitting in her living room last Saturday at around 12:30pm when she heard a loud thump on the side of the house. She had no idea where the sound came from, until she saw the body of her son hanging from a second story window outside their home.

by Evan Seymour


Marilyn Mosby is at the center of the national spotlight. The 35-year-old state’s attorney for Baltimore City is the youngest chief prosecutor of any major U.S. jurisdiction. She’s only been on the job for four months, and she’s already facing what will most likely be the defining moment of her career.

by Marena Bridges


When I entered the cell block, dragging my mattress behind me, my new cell mate offered me the bottom bunk and made space for my meager belongings. A few days later, as we chatted over a card game, she declared, “You don’t seem like a criminal.” I chuckled and gave a halfhearted shrug, but her words never left me.

by dream hampton

When 19-year-old Renisha McBride was shot in the face after knocking on a White man's door in suburban Detroit, I tweeted that her death would probably not mean as much to Black people as the then recent shooting of 24-year-old Jonathan Ferrell. I doubted aloud if her murder would mean as much as Trayvon Martin's, for whom we'd united to demand justice. I tweeted that Black male bodies mean more to us than Black female bodies.