Isabelle Nastasia on March 06, 2016
When we launched Youngist in the spring of 2013, we were responding to a powerful need that we saw in our informal networks. Something big was happening, but it wasn’t being covered in ways that were immediate, honest, and present....
Lubabah R. Chowdhury on May 27, 2015
I do not want to believe that history repeats itself. When I was younger, I loved studying history for the same reason I obsessively read and re-read “Harry Potter” and “Lord of the Rings”. The strange customs, outlandish clothes and...
Michelle Zei on February 07, 2015
Imagine being arrested for trying to obtain an education. For students in Palestine, educational suppression is commonplace and one of the Israeli occupation’s many tactics to keep Palestinians oppressed. Education equips people with knowledge about their circumstance and tools for...
Zoe Pepper-Cunningham on February 02, 2015
This article is an adaptation/translation of an article written by the editorial team of Colombia Informa: Agencia de los Pueblos The results of the official autopsy establish that the death of Carlos Pedraza, a leader from the Congreso de los...
Maria Zepatou on January 31, 2015
On the 26th of January 2015, Alexis Tsipras took his oath of office at the age of 40, which makes him the youngest prime minister in the history of Greece. Syriza, Coalition of the Radical Left, won the elections with...
Asam Ahmad on January 22, 2015
On June 3, 2014, the lifeless body of Kandy Hall, a 40-year-old Black trans woman, was found slumped in a field near a school and playground in Baltimore, MD. Exactly ten days later, the body of 28-year-old Zoraida ‘Ale” Reyes,...
Queen Arsem-O'Malley on January 19, 2015
“We came here to Palestine to stand in love and revolutionary struggle with our brothers and sisters,” journalist and scholar Marc Lamont Hill declared to kick off a solidarity demonstration in Nazareth last week. Hill was one in a coalition...
Muna Mire on January 06, 2015
Black Brunch, the collectively led series of direct actions designed to afflict the comfortable has officially hit New York. This past Sunday, I joined organizers from Oakland who took the protests from their city to commercial brunch spots nationwide, including...
Hira Mahmood , Muna Mire , Isabelle Nastasia , Victor Casillas Valle and Queen Arsem-O'Malley on January 01, 2015
We write to you as dispossessed queer youth and youth of color from Atlanta, Boston, Brooklyn, Los Angeles and Oakland. Over the past several months we have taken part in a national uprising against police violence and the killing of...
Hira Mahmood on December 23, 2014
I don’t call myself an artist – but that doesn’t mean I’m not intrigued by the artist’s world. From the position of a consumer and patron, I’m invested in exploring the false separation of art and the socio-political world. My...
Queen Arsem-O'Malley and Isabelle Nastasia on December 17, 2014
Assata Olugbala Shakur is on our minds today. Yesterday, Obama announced that the U.S. and Cuba would normalize diplomatic relations, after almost 54 years of embargo. A White House fact sheet, dubbed “Charting a New Course on Cuba”, outlines the...
Ferguson Action, Millennial Activists United, Black Lives Matter, Organization for Black Struggle, BYP100, Hands Up United, The Dream Defenders and Million Hoodies Movement for Justice on December 16, 2014
This open letter was originally posted at Ferguson Action On the week of August 9th, Black youth in Ferguson took to the streets and kicked off a wave of resistance against police violence that has spread across the country. In...
Jamila Hammami on December 10, 2014
December 10th is the United Nations International Human Rights Day. This year, the Convention against Torture is celebrating its 30th year, and the United Nations (U.N.) theme for 2014 Human Rights Day is Human Rights 365, the idea being that:...
Messiah Rhodes on December 02, 2014
I’ve visited Detroit, Portland, St. Louis, Newburgh and many little towns across the nation that you’d least expect. In their history, all experienced uprisings that would break the segregation of communities. But we have come far from our slave ships...
anonymous on November 29, 2014
We are a few of the thousands of people disrupting ‘business as usual’ and fighting back against the state sanctioned murders of Black individuals and communities. We stand in solidarity with demonstrations spreading all across the nation following the announcement...
Isabelle Nastasia on November 03, 2014
From small-scale actions targeting banks during Occupy Wall Street led by high school students to political organizing trainings to this summer’s 480-mile long March for Democracy, Kai Newkirk and 99Rise have orchestrated ongoing projects calling for an end to corruption....
Luz Rodea S. on October 28, 2014
On September 26, students from the Ayotzinapa Rural College for Teachers, located in a small town located in the state of Guerrero, México, were attacked in the city of Iguala by municipal police, while they were on their way to...
Hera Chan on October 27, 2014
In pursuit of a “white ethnicity” and to engage white Americans into racial discourse, director and producer Whitney Dow of Two Tone Productions has created ‘The Whiteness Project’, a pilot television series partially funded by PBS that will feature white...
Hannah Giorgis on October 22, 2014
In a bold, compassionate call to action to legislators and community members alike, over 50 people came together outside the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Conference in Washington, D.C. last month as part of the Black Trans* Women’s Lives Matter campaign....
Hannah K. Gold on October 21, 2014
After twenty hours on the road, we knew we had arrived at our destination when we saw the formation of cop cars blockading a narrow street. Their lights fanned out like wings fluttering madly, attempting to cut through the thick,...
Michelle Zei on October 17, 2014
In times of crisis, the term “protect the women and children” might still come to mind. However, when police responded to Ferguson residents with the excessive force of rubber bullets, tear gas, and arrests, women stood their ground and took...
Priscilla Ward on October 06, 2014
We cannot forget about Ferguson, Missouri. Despite the mainstream media’s coverage shift, the dialogue is still happening. Young people are continuing to respond in the killing of Michael Brown. Our lenses are being recalibrated as those under 25 claim their...
Sean Estelle on October 02, 2014
The first time I stepped foot on University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Campus was not for a campus tour or a prospective student orientation. It was for a ska/punk show at the Ché Café. The Ché, with its murals...
Anwar Batte and Isabelle Nastasia on September 30, 2014
Yesterday, Lena Dunham—whose character on the HBO show Girls is one of the most recognizable millennial narratives in pop culture—was called out by Gawker for “hiring” unpaid opening acts on her book tour. Only a few hours later, under pressure...
Kai Cheng Thom on September 29, 2014
Content Warning: Discussion of suicide “Make no mistake about people who leap from burning windows […] It’s not desiring the fall; it’s terror of the flames. And yet nobody down on the sidewalk, looking up and yelling ‘Don’t!’ and ‘Hang...
Georgia Travers on September 23, 2014
It’s no accident that many commentators have drawn parallels over the past months between the riots taking place in Ferguson, MO following the police murder of black teenager Michael Brown, and Israel’s offensive against the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip...
University Community Collaborative on September 22, 2014
In this short film young people reflect on their experiences with police harassment in Philadelphia. This video was produced by high school students in VOICES, an after-school program at the University Community Collaborative at Temple University.
Black Youth Project 100 on September 21, 2014
How does the struggle for LGBT rights fit into the struggles for communities of color? What are the most pressing issues in LGBT activism? This short video from Black Youth Project 100 explores these questions and underscores that LGBT rights...
George Joseph on September 13, 2014
Yesterday, in its first public rally, Columbia’s anti-rape group, No Red Tape, called on students to come out and voice their experiences of sexual violence directly in front of Low Library, the seat of Columbia’s administration. Last year, No Red...
Luna Merbruja on September 13, 2014
I met Nia King when she asked to interview me for her podcast, We Want the Airwaves, a podcast highlighting queer and trans artists of color and the work they are doing. When figuring out a quiet place to meet,...
Elizabeth Sedran and Samantha Cooney on September 12, 2014
At 1:45 p.m. on Wednesday, a group of students helped Emma Sulkowicz, CC ‘15, carry a mattress from the East Campus courtyard to her class in Schermerhorn Hall. The collective carry event was in support of Sulkowicz’s visual arts senior...
Rain Embuscado on September 08, 2014
Our morning started with a hunt for acetate. It was warm for late December, and as Kaminski pointed out, the whole of Harlem seemed excited by the winter heat wave. He opted to enjoy the weather with a tank: Keith...
Colt Thundercat on August 24, 2014
This article was originally published on Twin Cities Organizer. I knew it would be hard going into it. Friends who already worked in the distribution center I was about to start work at had warned me about the specific difficulties...
Victor Casillas Valle on August 20, 2014
Hillary Thompson, originally from Raleigh, NC, . Thompson began taking hormones in 2008, according to an interview she did with King Shit Skateboarding Magazine. After a couple of years moving around the southern United States due to a need to...
James Cersonsky on August 15, 2014
This post, curated by {Young}ist contributor James Cersonsky, was originally published at StudentNation and is reprinted here with permission. 1) At 11, Not One More On August 2, more than 2,000 people marched on Washington, DC, to pressure President Obama...
Alexi S on August 07, 2014
From 2011 onwards, the Chilean student movement, represented by the Confederation of Chilean Students (CONFECH), an organization made up of student federations from major universities across the country, has made the concrete demand for free education, drawing hundreds of thousands...
Jack Swallow on August 04, 2014
As the world heats up, it becomes increasingly obvious that the institutions of capitalism are incapable of reacting equitably to the problem of climate change. Environmental racism, the direct consequence of this inequality, threatens our historically diverse generation’s future. The...
Bakri R on August 01, 2014
“SCHOLARSHIP IS ART AND WE ARE ARTISTS. THIS IS IN ALL CAPS TO BE HEARD OVER THE NUMBING SILENCE AND CACOPHONIUS BLABBER OF THE ACADEMY. ARTISTS AND CREATORS AND LIFE-GIVERS ARE NOT APPRECIATED HERE. THERE IS NO BODILY INTEGRITY. NO...
Reem Suleiman on July 31, 2014
To many Americans, Palestinians are just statistics. As I write this, the Ministry of Health in Gaza announces over 1,255 Palestinians dead in Israel’s recent assault, over 230 of whom are children. The numbers move past the bottom of our...
Victor Casillas Valle on July 30, 2014
Youngist is going to start curating a new series for the month of August under the theme: millennial do it yourself. Think: youth culture as it intersects with politics. Everything from skate crews, youth-led alternatives to incarceration, queer haircutting collectives,...
Zachary Howe on July 30, 2014
The scariest thing about gay politics these days is not the ongoing stupidity of extremist Christian homophobia or setbacks in the march towards marriage “equality.” The scariest thing about gay politics is still AIDS. Yes, people continue to die from...
Alexander Abbasi on July 25, 2014
Palestinians teach life. Indeed, we do. The Palestinian poet Rafeef Ziadeh famously wrote the poem “We Teach Life, Sir” to demonstrate what it means for an occupied peoples to live under a system which superiorizes one human population over another....
H Kapp-Klote on July 15, 2014
What could possibly be left to say about Pride? Everyone, it seems, queer and straight, has an opinion on pride. JD Samson thinks we should get off the internet and, somehow relatedly, that trans women should be nicer. Colorlines thinks...
Hannah K. Gold on July 10, 2014
Every young generation, as it comes of age, is told it’s special, that everyone else’s hopes and dreams live through it, and, simultaneously, that it is already not living up to these expectations. With this in mind, I — a...
Maria Zepatou on July 08, 2014
It took nine months for the 396 cleaners that had been made redundant by the Greek Finance Ministry to gain their victory. Since September 2013, they have been on strike, selling T-shirts to survive and pay for banners and other...
Alice Lesperance on July 02, 2014
Two questions I’m constantly asked on my blog are some variation of, “Why do you care so much about the Millennial generation?” and “Why is punk important?” In fact, this week I was specifically asked “Why is Millennial punk so...
Chrysten Jackson on June 29, 2014
Buffalo. The nickel city. The Queen City. Monikers of a city from a bygone era. Living in a post-Rust Belt world, where my city - a city once renowned as the eighth largest in the nation - now rides high...
Erik Lampmann on June 25, 2014
As I celebrate Pride this month I continue to identify mainstream narratives that situate the LGBTQ movement in the past, treat the expansion of same-sex marriage as a fait accompli, and fail to name the shared struggles for immediate survival,...
Emma Caterine on June 22, 2014
Pride in and of itself is worthless. Not only worthless, but a dangerous complex of invulnerability to criticism or even review. Pride is held by all tyrants and key to control in oppressive systems. Whether you want to call it...
Hira Mahmood on June 21, 2014
The Atlanta Zine Fest is an annual conference celebrating DIY and handmade media. The first Atlanta Zine Fest, held in 2013, garnered over 300 participants, 25 vendors, and 21 speakers/workshop facilitators. AZF holds events and programs year-round, culminating in a...
Andrew Szeto on June 19, 2014
Home, again. The Sunset District is well known for its cold and foggy weather, where sunsets are a rarity, but on that rare occasion, offer stunning glimpses to “the end of the world.” I grew up on the borderlands, between...
Alex Ngo on June 16, 2014
I am a recent college graduate inspired to write this as a thank you to my comrades for the times they picked up one of my fallen stars, embraced me, withered and weak, and lifted me back up. As I...
Beth Huang on June 11, 2014
For more than year, the Student Labor Action Project (SLAP) – alongside coalition partners, including the American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association, and U.S. Student Association – has been calling for the Department of Education to cancel its $100...
Hannah K. Gold on June 11, 2014
The LGBT Rally for Homeless Youth began even before the hundreds of people who had gathered in Washington Square Park stood at attention before the stage, while they were still milling around and greeting one another. A smattering of joyous...
David Bedford on June 08, 2014
After Rutgers students sat-in to protest Condoleezza Rice’s selection as commencement speaker, media outlets from across the country, ranging from USA Today to Fox News to the Daily Beast, tried their best to shoot us down. They accused us of...
Patricia Tortora on June 07, 2014
The University of Mississippi Creed states that all those involved with the University are to “Believe in the respect for the dignity of each person.” Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant’s selection as commencement speaker misrepresents and dishonors this creed. Bryant recently...
Hannah Giorgis on June 06, 2014
Trigger warning: Discussion of sexual violence and sexual assault Years ago, I returned home from a regular day of high school with my mother and three siblings. We approached our front door and my mom felt instantly that something was...
James Cersonsky on June 06, 2014
This post, which was curated by Youngist contributor James Cersonsky, originally appeared at StudentNation, and is republished here with permission. 1. As Deportations Rage, Five Blockade for Queer and Trans Justice On Tuesday, May 27, LGBTQ organizers from across the...
Christopher Soto on June 04, 2014
_PART I_ At dinner she asked why I write such sad poems. And I told her, “my poems are not sad, they are masochistic.” My poems like a good choking, a good spanking. They want to be bound and gagged...
Raven Rakia on May 28, 2014
On Tuesday, May 20, 2014, the Newark Students Union (NSU) called for a rally on 2 Cedar Street, at the Board of Education building. As their supporters rallied outside, nine high school students from the NSU entered the building where...
Eli Schmitt on May 28, 2014
When I graduated from college and moved to New York City, I learned a lot about social justice movements, and how young people do or don’t fit into them. Some of what I learned was told to me by other...
The Fisk Takeover on May 27, 2014
Based on the events of February 21st, 1969 at Wesleyan University. Follow us https://twitter.com/RebelXEmpire Check out http://thefisktakeover.tumblr.com/ On Friday, February 21st, 1969, the Black Students of Wesleyan took over Fisk Hall. They brought all academic processes to a halt to...
Sam Warren on May 27, 2014
Since former University of California, Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau declined to receive an honorary degree from my very own Haverford College, commentators have decried the intolerance of the protesters who criticized his invitation to commencement. Student speech obstructed Birgeneau’s right...
Alyssa Flores and Kimberly Garcia on May 26, 2014
In February, President Kathleen McCartney announced that the Smith College commencement speaker would be Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund. Inviting Lagarde undermined Smith’s claim of building a more diverse community to empower marginalized voices—specifically, voices of...
H Kapp-Klote on May 25, 2014
Say what you will about advanced capitalism, it’s definitely lively. The ecosystem is being destroyed, there is a fundamental disconnect between those in power and those they are supposed to represent, and white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, and neoliberalism are all consuming....
Muna Mire on May 24, 2014
This past week, the state of Kansas captured the attention of the nation and the news cycle as the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, a case which made the Topeka Board of Education famous, touched off a...
on May 23, 2014
It’s not every day you see 100 students deliver 4,000 petitions to the School Board President, but that’s exactly what happened in Los Angeles on April 29, 2014. Students asked Dr. Vladovic, President of the L.A. Unified School Board, to...
Kathryn Seidewitz on May 23, 2014
Emily Augusta began her transition in September 2012. Underemployed and without healthcare, she started taking illegal hormones she purchased on the street. She had moved to DC from Connecticut in the height of the Occupy movement, where she had gotten...
Emma Caterine on May 22, 2014
As the confetti falls, lights fade on JUNIOR and the sound of typing. FAITH, in a white laced Filipiniana Wedding gown, enters to introduce the members of HER wedding party. FAITH: I am Faith Sia-Lippin, born the day bombs fell...
Michael Lee-Murphy on May 21, 2014
The AP tells its reporters ‘keep it short’. Larger legacy media consistently misses or willfully ignores stories of major importance, like missing and murdered indigenous women. Whenever stories about Quebec appear in English media in the rest of the country,...
on May 20, 2014
The California March for Democracy, a campaign of 99Rise, will be a nonviolent campaign to elevate and dramatize the corruption of money-in-politics and activate greater public support for the fight for political equality. On March 17th, we rallied in Los...
Timothy Garcia on May 17, 2014
Abroad at Home: Accounts of The Invisible from Middlebury Film & Media Culture on Vimeo. “Abroad at Home: Accounts of the Invisible” is a short documentary that takes a look into student life at Middlebury college by exploring experiences of...
Michelle Zei on May 13, 2014
There’s much more to campus life than classes and parties: college is a fundamental time to question beliefs and develop social consciousness. The college campus has always been an incubator for change and a battleground for political debate. Students exceptionally...
George Joseph on May 07, 2014
Early this morning, Youngist received a report that a survivor of sexual assault has chosen to file a federal complaint against Northeastern University. The filing comes on the heels of a flood of Title IX complaints from students across the...
James Cersonsky on May 07, 2014
This post, which was curated by Youngist contributor James Cersonsky, originally appeared at StudentNation, and is republished here with permission. </b> <P> On May Day, California Students and Workers Unleash </b><P> On May 1, students marched, rallied, walked out and...
on May 06, 2014
At Sunday’s meeting, the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) voted to adopt Resolution 11.35, which calls for the University and the WSA to divest from companies that profit from the occupation of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem....
Chrysten Jackson on May 06, 2014
I remember when I received my first pride guide. I remember keeping an ultra secret profile when I returned to my fundamentalist Christian parent’s house. And I remember seeing the Evergreen advertisement. I remember the overwhelming feelings of hope, that...
Hira Mahmood on April 29, 2014
Do you have a knack for film, video, web design, and feel a sense of collective responsibility for our world? Do you want to further develop community art while also fostering other young artists and activists? {Young}ist is looking for...
Jess Rybak on April 28, 2014
It’s ironic, insulting, and revealing of the true nature of SUNY. SUNY – the statewide public university system of New York – is currently masquerading as an institution that offers something it does not: an environment for accessible public education....
Mariama Eversley on April 24, 2014
On this episode we speak with 3 guests — Chris Garaffa and Al Riccio from the Party for Socialism and Liberation and Aaron Romano the attorney of a 16-year-old trans girl who is currently incarcerated in a woman’s prison and...
George Joseph on April 24, 2014
Trigger Warning: The following content discusses specific cases of sexual assault “I don’t trust the University to take my experience or my safety more seriously than they take their own public image.”- Cami Quarta, Columbia survivor and complainant This morning,...
Zoe Pepper-Cunningham on April 18, 2014
A national strike in Colombia – involving groups of indigenous peoples, Afro-Colombians, students, women, small miners, petroleum workers, and campesinos [farmers] – is planned to begin on May 1st. The strike was declared during the Popular Agrarian Summit, held from...
George Joseph on April 16, 2014
{Young}ist contributor George Joseph talks to memebers of Columbia Prison Divest about the prison industrial complex, actions the group has taken recently, and their plans for the future.
Anna-Lisa Castle on April 14, 2014
On Thursday, I was one of the hundreds of people who showed up to the Student Assembly meeting to talk about the possibility of talking about Resolution 72, which calls for divestment from six companies that profit from the Israeli...
Andy Fitzgerald on April 14, 2014
Underneath the employment figures that are released and hotly debated every month lurks a troubling reality: the ballooning contingent labor force. Its ranks include seasonal employees, temporary contractors, freelancers, and interns, none of whom can expect their job to be...
Brittney Harrington on April 09, 2014
I am a descendent of slaves attending a school that was founded with my explicit exclusion in mind. I walk through halls built by my shackled ancestors and I wonder what it means for my body to exist here, for...
Muna Mire on April 06, 2014
Millennials are in vogue. But the very idea of the millennial is a top-down phenomenon, a canned attempt to market to a young demographic. It is a strategy that has found success through the sheer force and repetitiveness of its...
George Joseph on April 06, 2014
(Note: Names have been changed to protect students from further administrative reprisal.) Members of No Red Tape, a Columbia University students’ group, attempted a silent action today at a gathering for prospective students. Following the example of Dartmouth students last...
Janani Balasubramanian and Jamila Hammami on April 06, 2014
When immigrants—often those who have faced situations of extreme violence and torture—arrive at the U.S. border without papers or otherwise in violation of immigration law, they are placed in mandatory detention. Cages are the U.S. government’s answer to multiply marginalized...
Andraya Williams on April 03, 2014
On March 19th, 2014 I was publicly humiliated and harassed by a female security officer on [Central Piedmont Community College] CPCC’s campus. In attempting to file a complaint about the incident, I was turned away and intimidated. On March 19th...
Anonymous on April 02, 2014
Trigger warning: This article contains graphic description of sexual assault. Editors’ Note: This is a first-person, present-tense account of the aftermath of a sexual assault that took place in 2013. For reasons of both style and substance, we have left...
William C. Anderson on March 31, 2014
If you have kept up with the US political cycle, you noticed potential prospects for the next President touted after President Barack Obama’s re-election. Elizabeth Warren, Marco Rubio, and Chris Christie are familiar names for many of us – even...
Kate Aronoff and Stephen O'Hanlon on March 28, 2014
As we look back on the last 150 years of Swarthmore, we might ask: what will Swarthmore look like in 150 years? At its sesquicentennial, Swarthmore can claim a long history of envisioning a better world. Founder Lucretia Mott envisioned...
George Joseph on March 24, 2014
March 4th in Albany felt like a massive field trip gone wrong. On the same day that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio rallied over a thousand students, parents, and labor activists to the capital in support of his...
The Student of Color Solidarity Coalition on March 18, 2014
“We have been waiting for Napolitano to come… and finally she is here, but she is hiding, she remains in one building and does not leave…where she says she is doing her “listening and learning tour” behind doors with only...
Sandra Khalifa on March 14, 2014
Geneva, Switzerland — Yesterday, multiple members of the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UN HRC) found Florida’s Stand Your Ground law and similar laws around the country to be “incompatible” with the “inherent right to life” - Article Six of...
George Joseph on March 13, 2014
This Monday, to kick off End Israeli Apartheid Week, the Barnard-Columbia chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine hung up a banner in front of Barnard Hall, featuring a map of historical Palestine. In response, students and parents from campus...
James Cersonsky on March 08, 2014
(This post which was edited by Youngist contributor James Cersonsky, was originally published by The Nation and is republished here with permission.) Contact studentmovement@thenation.com with any questions, tips or proposals. Edited by James Cersonsky (@cersonsky). As Napolitano Sits, Campus Occupations...
Erik Lampmann on March 04, 2014
Institutions dedicated to the pursuit of the ‘common good’ will be unable to forge meaningful coalitions, strategize policy interventions, or leverage communities’ collective voices without integrated youth at argue youth at the highest levels of spaces invested with real decision-making...
Nicole Ouimette on February 10, 2014
The revolution will not be cited. It will not have a bibliography, or a title page. The revolution will never happen in the seclusion of the ivory tower built by racist, sexist, and classist institutions. Professional academic researchers in the...
Staff Writers and Reclaim Turtle Island on February 05, 2014
All across Turtle Island and around the world Indigenous peoples are taking direct action to protect their lands by any means necessary. Together we are resisting colonialism by defeating corporate Imperialism, preventing resource extraction, asserting our sovereignty, and fighting White...
Jenny Marks and Isabelle Nastasia on January 31, 2014
Teen pop singer Justin Bieber was arrested last week in Florida on charges of drunk driving and resisting arrest. Because he is living in the U.S. on an O-1B Work Visa, many people reacted by demanding that he be deported....
Asam Ahmad on January 30, 2014
Sometimes American pop culture can feel like an unending cannibalistic orgy where Black and African-American art forms are constantly consumed and regurgitated by White artists for more money, more fame and more credibility. As Jon Caramanica wrote in the New...
Luis Moreno on January 27, 2014
[This post was originally published on BuzzFeed but was removed because of complaints of “racial bias” against whites.] So the Biebs got arrested by Florida police on Thursday morning for drunk driving and speeding in his Lamborghini. We know this....
Dennis Trainor, Jr. | The Resistance Report on January 24, 2014
January 22 marked the beginning of a ten-day push by groups who work on a wide variety of issues to stop Congress from granting the President Fast Track for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The push culminates in an Intercontinental Day...
Muna Mire on January 21, 2014
I once got into an argument with two white men over race on the internet. That’s not the beginning of a joke, it’s just a shitty thing that happened to me. I’ve since learned my lesson about how “social justice”...
Queen Arsem-O'Malley on January 20, 2014
Temperatures hovered just above freezing in New Brunswick last week, and yet a group of people at the Fredericton, Saint John and Moncton campuses of the University of New Brunswick spent days standing outside. That group was hundreds of the...
Molly Stuart on January 17, 2014
Laughter rolls out of the women around me and mixes with the smoke of the wood fire. The thread was all tangled again because I just dropped part of the loom on the dirt floor. The mother of the house,...
Sandra Khalifa and Arely Lozano-Baugh on January 17, 2014
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." — Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letters from a Birmingham...
Hannah Giorgis on January 15, 2014
Sunday night’s Golden Globes were a spectacle—and not just because Emma Thompson sauntered onstage with her heels in one hand and a martini in the other (more power to ya, girl). The 71st Annual Golden Globes were more than just...
Stephanie Rivera on January 15, 2014
Ever since I started my blog (exactly!) 2 years ago, I have been told a number of times: Stay away. You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into. It’s not what you think it is. In the past few...
Lexi Adsit on January 14, 2014
I’ll be honest, I didn’t consistently follow CeCe McDonald’s story or read her blog. Mostly because incarceration is a huge fear of mine and I’ve heard so many negative experiences of incarceration for transgender women of color, I prayed CeCe...
Susan Du on January 14, 2014
**This article was originally published by The Chicago Bureau, a publication devoted to examining issues of juvenile justice in Chicago. ** Mariame Kaba is the founding director of Project NIA, a Chicago-based nonprofit that supports youth involved in the criminal...
George Joseph on January 13, 2014
People in the “education reform” movement often claim that policy makers must put students’ needs over teachers’ demands. Whether it be Michelle Rhee’s “Students First” lobbying campaign or corporate-sponsored “student activist” groups like Teach for America and Students for Education...
Sandra Khalifa on January 13, 2014
TALLAHASSEE, FL – Florida Senators will yield to mounting pressure from youth, community members, and fellow legislators from across the state and hold a public meeting on Wednesday to examine multiple allegations of abuse, negligence and unsanitary living conditions at...
Anna-Lisa Castle on January 10, 2014
The Huffington Post published an article Wednesday entitled “Cornell Revamps Sexual Assault Policies, Takes Proactive Approach.” The piece, written by Tyler Kingkade, is largely dedicated to lauding my institution’s “proactive approach” to its sexual assault policies—namely, President Skorton’s meeting with...
Phillip Agnew on January 01, 2014
For 364 days, at least, I found myself in a constant state of conflict. Almost daily my alarm clock awoke me at the corner of a crossroad: asking that I decide … And every day I oscillated away. I was...
Taylor Payer on January 01, 2014
2013 was quite the year for folks in Indian Country. I’d like to take this opportunity to explore 12 important moments of this past year in Indian Country including mind-blowing events of collective action, cultural shifts and political mile-stones from...
George Joseph on December 27, 2013
Society’s historically racist template for what sexual violence looks like generally confines itself to the dark city alley in which a Black male stranger overpowers a young white girl. But for college students the reality is much closer to home....
Suey Park on December 26, 2013
I met Dr. David Leonard, Associate Professor in the Department of Critical Culture, Gender and Race Studies at Washington State University, on Twitter shortly after my initial critique of Tim Wise. I was pleased to discover that there existed another...
Chris Longenecker on December 21, 2013
Also postedhere It was a lot less street theater this time around, and a lot more action. On Friday, December 20th, emboldened by the success of anti-eviction protests against a “Google bus” in San Francisco’s Mission District the week prior,...
Josh McConnell on December 19, 2013
Experts say the continued growth of for-profit prison operators like Youth Services International amounts to a cautionary tale about the perils of privatization: In a drive to cut costs, Florida has effectively abdicated its responsibility for some of its most...
Raven Rakia on December 13, 2013
Police brutality resistance has sprung up in Santa Rosa, California. In October and November, the town saw marches, forums and meetings to address the police slaying of a 13-year-old boy. On October 29, the first march, hundreds of kids walked...
Camila Ibanez on December 12, 2013
{Young}ist is proud to co-publish this article with Waging Nonviolence. On the day of the Swift raids, more than 300 U.S.-born children came home to find at least one of their parents gone. Seven years ago today on a crisp...
Kirin Kanakkanatt on December 12, 2013
Last month I was published in In These Times's cover feature, “Generation Hopeless?”, a discussion of the legacy and unfulfilled promises of Occupy. Due to space, my article had to be cut down. I now present you with the full text:...
Amity Paye on December 11, 2013
On November 25, student activists and their allies held a protest against the City University of New York’s Board of Trustees meeting. “During the Fall of 2013, the CUNY Machine has joined forces with militarism and suppressing free expression on...
Sean Becker on December 10, 2013
In East Contra Costa County (above), a suburb 45 miles east of San Francisco, the number of people living in poverty grew a whopping 70% during the 2000s – Photo by Brookings Institution The latest casualty of the free market...
Mariama Eversley and Ross Levin on December 03, 2013
The self-proclaimed “Diversity University” is at it again. Wesleyan University, located in Middletown, Connecticut, is prosecuting three trans* and gender-nonconforming students for taking political action to address transgender discrimination on campus. This comes just one year after the University reversed...
Taylor Payer on November 28, 2013
Yesterday, my friend was saying her good byes as she boarded the bus to leave for the holidays. At the last second, she turned around to wish me a “Happy Thanksgiving” and then stumbled over her words saying, “Oh, awkward...
Maria Zepatou on November 25, 2013
We’ve all heard it. Greece is deep in crisis. But the crisis does not affect everyone equally. A rich 1% has found an opportunity to get even richer by giving starvation wages and violating every labor right there is. But...
Remy Lourenco on November 20, 2013
Trigger warning: This poem, which is posted here to honor Transgender Day of Remembrance, includes description of sexual assault and anti-transgender violence. they call me crazy when I enter the men’s room— that man bellowing at the top of his...
Isabelle Nastasia on November 19, 2013
In McCalla, Ala., the McAdory High School cheerleading team thought it was a good idea to construct a bust-thru sign (pictured above) that read, in big rainbow lettering: “Hey Indians, get ready to leave in a Trail of Tears Round...
Laurent Bastien Corbeil on November 18, 2013
MONTREAL – There’s nothing as dangerous as the press release in journalism. Press releases are engaging, easy to read, and they can summarize massive amounts of data. This is why newsrooms find them particularly attractive. Instead of scanning through hundreds...
Erik Lampmann on November 14, 2013
There are actions, policies, battles … and then there are movements. Over the past few weeks I’ve grown increasingly concerned that episodic protests, press releases, and elections receive the lion’s share of our concern, while strategic movements to build strong, resilient...
Sean Estelle on November 11, 2013
The third annual Students for Justice in Palestine National Conference on October 25-27 continued the trend of growth in the Palestinian solidarity movement on college campuses across the United States. The theme of the conference was “From Margin to Center: Connecting...
Victor Casillas Valle on November 07, 2013
Recently, the city of Irwindale, CA filed a lawsuit against the Huy Fong Foods factory which makes the hot chili sauce Sriracha. Headlines from various news outlets, stretching from Al Jazeera to the Los Angeles Times, made comments such as...
George Joseph on November 04, 2013
This fall, when students shuffled back into their dorms at Barnard College, one of the nation’s premier all women’s universities, many were surprised to hear that they would only be allowed to have guests sleep over no more than six...
William C. Anderson on November 01, 2013
On October 18th I watched in awe as a progressive Democrat, the nephew of a Tuskegee airman and alumni of Morehouse – a traditionally Black university – addressed the nation. He was fellow Black man I remembered well, because he’d...
Samuel Nelson on October 31, 2013
“If you want to make history, it helps to be in the thick of it,” it says on the steps of the George Washington University Cloyd Heck Marvin Center. This imagery is part of GW’s shiny new $600,000 rebranding, all...
Suey Park and Isabelle Nastasia on October 29, 2013
Over the past couple of weeks, actor and comedian Russell Brand has been praised by several blogs and social media users for his viral video and last week’s New Statesman manifesto calling for revolution. The headlines speak for themselves: “Russell...
Suey Park on October 24, 2013
{Young}ist sits down with Sumayya Fire, a member of the Free Marissa Now Mobilization Campaign, to talk about the Marissa Alexander case, and what we can do to help fight for justice for Marissa, and against domestic violence at large....
Kai Cheng Thom on October 22, 2013
“He pressed his wrist against mine and said his was too pale My skin was so much more beautiful To him, I was Pacific sunset, almond milk, a porcelain cup When he left me, I told myself I should have...
William C. Anderson on October 21, 2013
I learn more reading what feminist women of color write on Twitter than I feel I could learn in many gender studies college courses. Firestorms of conversation are happening around feminism and race. And for many of us men who...
Cayden Mak on October 18, 2013
On Thursday, the Bay Area showed it has what it takes to shut down ICE. Undocumented youth leaders, joined by members of the faith community, physically blocked an ICE bus headed to the San Francisco Airport for two hours. The...
Amanda Vodola on October 11, 2013
One night in May 2012, I was lying in my bed in my Brooklyn apartment, tossing and turning because it felt like I pulled my pectoral muscle. It was uncomfortable, and, after a breast exam, I found a distinct lump...
William C. Anderson on October 08, 2013
We’ve come a long way on certain issues relating to gender, sexuality, and assault. But some things take longer than others. We specifically still have trouble accepting that boys and men are sometimes the survivors of sexual assault. At best,...
Muna Mire on October 07, 2013
This past Saturday, October 5, thousands of immigrants and their supporters coordinated a nationwide March for Immigrant Respect and Dignity. There were demos in more than one hundred cities across America. Marchers renewed calls to Congress to take meaningful action...
Isabelle Nastasia on September 30, 2013
From the organization that orchestrated the ‘Dream Nine’ border-crossing and hunger strikes this past August, 30 young undocumented immigrants are preparing to cross the border back into the United States from Mexico to the states they grew up in. This...
Queen Arsem-O'Malley on September 26, 2013
In 1990, a group of disability rights activists gathered outside the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. and crawled up the 100 front steps, calling for the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The direct action, known as the “Capitol...
William C. Anderson and Natalie Yoon on September 25, 2013
There is something big coming our way. It’s called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). It’s a trade deal that dwarfs the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), set to conclude as early as the end of the year. TPP has been...
Sharmin Hossain on September 25, 2013
In a political reality where the Senate Foreign Policy committee approves U.S. military intervention in Syria; where we uncover thousands of Iraqi children born with deformities as a result of U.S. chemical weapon attacks; and where the continuous illegal detainment...
Bryan Perlmutter on September 24, 2013
Elizabeth City, N.C.—On September 19, early voting opened in Pasquotank County, home to Elizabeth City State University, an HBCU (Historically Black College or University). Earlier this year, ECSU Senior Montravias King initially had his application to run for City Council...
Pauline Holdsworth on September 19, 2013
What does long-term progress for the reproductive justice movement look like? How do we create and sustain conversations that extend beyond major political moments and recognize the hours of unaccounted, exhausting work that make those moments possible? What does responsible,...
Cristine Khan on September 18, 2013
[Note: The views in this article in no way reflect the views or opinions of the Fulbright Colombia program nor those of the U.S. Fulbright program.] As I was walking into the university in Bogotá, Colombia, where I work as...
Suey Park on September 16, 2013
One of my biggest regrets about attending the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign is missing out on the opportunity to take a class with the transnational feminist punk scholar, zinester, and critical fashionista Mimi Thi Nguyen. Lucky for me, Mimi is on twitter...
Kathryn Seidewitz on September 11, 2013
I just graduated from high school. I was a high school activist. Actually, I was an activist in high school. I think the distinction is important to make. Although I attended many protests, hung out with anarchists, and spent a...
Michael Lee-Murphy on September 10, 2013
By Michael Lee-Murphy A peace wall at Cupar Way in West Belfast, separating the Catholic Falls Road from the Protestant Shankill Road. (Robin Kirk/Duke Human Rights Center) As decades of the Rosary dragged by, the slack of years ago hauled upBead...
Muna Mire on September 09, 2013
Stereotypes of millennials are being turned on their head as racial justice conversations are now taking place in a new arena: Twitter. The Internet has recently provided young activists of colour a platform from which to amplify conversations around appropriation,...
{Young}ist Editorial Board on September 07, 2013
As {Young}ist reported last week, three young people—Alayna Eagle Shield, Sofia Campos and Phillip Agnew—were cut from the speaking list at the anniversary of the March on Washington. All this week, young people have been responding by posting their own...
Eric Ginsburg on September 06, 2013
Even a casual observer of the Motor City’s decline isn’t shocked that Detroit is bankrupt, but saturated media coverage ignores the fact that this outcome wasn’t inevitable. Predicting aspects of the collapse long before the current crisis, people living in...
Kai Cheng Thom on September 05, 2013
This post is the first in a column series entitled “Bad Ass: Real Talk about (Queer) Sex and Dating”. “We have been raised to fear the yes within ourselves, our deepest cravings […] The fear of our desires keeps them...
Alex Gabriel on September 04, 2013
When Margaret Thatcher died this April, “Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead” reached number two on the UK singles chart. Campaigns on social networks all but swept the song to the top spot, but the BBC, citing concerns of propriety, offense...
Kristian Davis Bailey on September 02, 2013
It was my first full day by myself in Ramallah after a two week-long delegation around Palestine with Interfaith Peace Builders, and after some anxiety about making my way outside with such little Arabic skills, went to meet up with...
Jessica Fischer on August 30, 2013
The current situation in Russia did not happen ‘all of a sudden’ - the situation is the rampant governmental discrimination against the gender and sexuality minorities (GSMs) in Russia. In Russia male homosexual acts were decriminalized in 1993, but there...
Teagan Widmer on August 23, 2013
In January of 2010, I was sitting in the lounge in my school’s English department completely freaking out about the fact that I had no clue what came after graduation. I was an English major with an emphasis in theatre....
Kim Moore on August 21, 2013
An alliance of students and young people from across the country called, “We Got Next”, have planned a dramatic action in Crystal City, Virginia at the headquarters of the controversial American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) on Friday, August 23rd to...
Queen Arsem-O'Malley on August 14, 2013
Organizers have announced that the ongoing national wave of fast food strikes is going to escalate in the next week. Not sure what we’re talking about? Catch up with the fast food strike in 5 minutes: Last November in New...
Katrina Casiño on August 06, 2013
Today President Obama is scheduled to break his silence on the Dream 9, a group of immigration reform activists who made national headlines when they self-deported two weeks ago in an act of civil disobedience and were subsequently detained at...
Teagan Widmer on August 02, 2013
It seems Netflix has finally hit the jackpot with an original series. After the mediocre (and transphobic) 4th season of “Arrested Development”, the disappointing “Hemlock Grove”, and the underrated “House of Cards”, Netflix has finally hit its stride with the...
Ngoc Loan Tran on July 25, 2013
The history of Pride in America June was Pride month in the United States. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender folks from coast to coast celebrated the history of queer resistance led by drag queens, poor and homeless queer youth, and...
Taher El Moataz Bellah on July 25, 2013
On the 28th of January 2011 Mohamed Faramawy was present in Tahrir square. Despite being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, his decision to join was motivated by the noble duty of toppling a corrupt regime and not by the...
Hira Mahmood on July 15, 2013
According to reports, U.S. secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano will resign her cabinet position and will now become the next president of the University of California. Napolitano will replace Mark Yudof who has held the position since 2008, and...
