PRESS CTRL OR COMMAND+ FOR BIGGER TEXT, CTRL OR COMMAND- FOR SMALLER TEXT
SKIP TO NAVIGATION & SEARCH | SKIP TO CONTENT
neutresex: Black History month with Ruth Ellis. Ruth Ellis (1899 – 2000) dedicated countless years of service to her community, and particularly black LGBT youth. In 1937 Ruth moved to Detroit with her partner Babe, the two bought a house, which from 1946 to 1971 was known as the “Gay Spot.” Not only did their home serve as a safe space for Detroit’s LGBT community, but the couple also offered lodging and support to many black LGBT youth in need. In a time before the Gay Civil Rights Movement began Ruth was a beacon of light for many LGBT youth who found themselves in the dark. In 1999 The Ruth Ellis Center was founded in Detroit, MI, which continues to offer lodging and support to LGBT youth in need. She continued working with LGBT organizations until her death in 2000 at an age of 101.

neutresex:

Black History month with Ruth Ellis.

Ruth Ellis (1899 – 2000) dedicated countless years of service to her community, and particularly black LGBT youth. In 1937 Ruth moved to Detroit with her partner Babe, the two bought a house, which from 1946 to 1971 was known as the “Gay Spot.” Not only did their home serve as a safe space for Detroit’s LGBT community, but the couple also offered lodging and support to many black LGBT youth in need. In a time before the Gay Civil Rights Movement began Ruth was a beacon of light for many LGBT youth who found themselves in the dark. In 1999 The Ruth Ellis Center was founded in Detroit, MI, which continues to offer lodging and support to LGBT youth in need. She continued working with LGBT organizations until her death in 2000 at an age of 101.

(Source: tranqualizer, via heartinakiln)

radicallyhottoff: via www.freewebs.com SO. There’s currently 97 MILLION BILLION pictures of Detroit’s train station post falling apart. Every fucking hipster artist from all Western countries of the world have taken pictures of the once glorious train station because it was Once Glorious. And now It’s So Sad. So Many Ghosts. Etc. But…I try to find an artistic interpretation of the Joe Louis FUCK OFF fist….and I find nothing. No glorious setting sun angle. No glorious sun rising angle. No misty rain. No Sad Foggy Lens frame. No Ironic overlay of glorious decay next to passed out drunk, even. Just—a picture of the fist. In the sun. Or a few pictures of the fist in the sun with tourists smiling next to it. Somebody told me that a group of people vandalized the fist by painting it white. This fist has a story to tell. And I guess some people are more interested in worshipping the bruises of white supremacy than understanding the resistance to it.

radicallyhottoff:

via www.freewebs.com

SO. There’s currently 97 MILLION BILLION pictures of Detroit’s train station post falling apart. Every fucking hipster artist from all Western countries of the world have taken pictures of the once glorious train station because it was Once Glorious. And now It’s So Sad. So Many Ghosts. Etc.

But…I try to find an artistic interpretation of the Joe Louis FUCK OFF fist….and I find nothing. No glorious setting sun angle. No glorious sun rising angle. No misty rain. No Sad Foggy Lens frame. No Ironic overlay of glorious decay next to passed out drunk, even.

Just—a picture of the fist. In the sun. Or a few pictures of the fist in the sun with tourists smiling next to it.

Somebody told me that a group of people vandalized the fist by painting it white. This fist has a story to tell. And I guess some people are more interested in worshipping the bruises of white supremacy than understanding the resistance to it.

(via bigbadcolored-deactivated201104)

{ LINK: Detroit Digital Justice Coalition: Welcome to the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition Tumblr! }

detroitdjc:

Here are our principles!

Access

  • Digital justice ensures that all members of our community have equal access to media and technology, as producers as well as consumers.
  • Digital justice provides multiple layers of communications infrastructure in order to ensure that every member of the…

(Source: communicatinginthed, via bigbadcolored-deactivated201104)

readnfight:

positivelypersistentteach:

cheatsheet:

Detroit has been ordered to close half the city’s public schools and consolidate students as part of an emergency plan that would eliminate the district’s $327 million deficit by 2014. The plan also means that class sizes in Detroit will jump to 60 students per class.

60 kids per class???  Does this include primary classes?

Will teachers be given more planning time and compensation?

OH MY GOD. Having more than 18 of my kids yelling at me at once pushes me towards flipping out. I cannot imagine 60.  This is fucked. For real, teachers better be getting huge raise for that amount of added difficulty.

(Source: cbsnews.com)

{ LINK: Liquor&Spice: Drastic Cuts Proposed For Detroit Schools Michigan Officials Want... }

Drastic Cuts Proposed For Detroit Schools

Michigan Officials Want District To Balance Budget By Closing Schools

State education officials have ordered the emergency financial manager for Detroit Public Schools, Robert Bobb, to immediately implement a plan that balances the district’s books by closing half its schools.

District spokesman Steve Wasko said state Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan has approved a debit elimination plan created by Bobb that includes closing schools, teacher and staff layoffs and increasing the number of students in a classroom to nearly 60.

[…]

Angela Goines is the mother of two DPS students.

“It puts a lot of agony in my heart because these babies are really not having a full opportunity to a fair education”

I keep hearing people talk about this and it’s not even sinking in. I don’t even know where to go to find out how to help stop this. I’m just… ugh.

(Source: blackraincloud, via dancingonembers-deactivated2011)

{ LINK: Feb. notes #9: A Black Radical’s Notebook }

readnfight:

Wow! This looks great. I mostly only know about Jimmy Boggs from reading Grace Lee Boggs’s autobiography (which I didn’t finish, but it was great vacation reading on the beach, srsly. I do not rest.). He was a labor organizer in Detroit, and unlike many organizers who come in from outside, as academics or writers but not people whose experiences are those that they’re writing about and making a name for themselves off of, he was just a guy who worked in different factories in Detroit, had lived there forever, and paid attention. And then he started writing revolutionary workers’ rights pamphlets, from a standpoint of writing in a way that was accessible but not patronizing, that was rooted in black industrial workers’ lives there.

Grace Lee Boggs’s autobiography, Living for Change, is amazing by the way, and I am not good at reading biographies. Finishing it is on my long to-do list.

By Paul Abowd

‘Grace and Jimmy have said their experiences in struggle taught them that the struggle to create revolutionary change cannot just be for things—for material conditions. People and communities have to be transformed.’
 SHARE THIS ARTICLE |    

Pages from a Black Radical’s Notebook: A James Boggs Reader is the first volume to compile the writings of tireless Detroit revolutionist James Boggs. The book’s contents comprise half a century of Boggs’ writing and document his evolution as a rank-and-file autoworker, a leader in the civil rights and black power movements, and a visionary thinker about how Detroit’s post-industrial crisis might spark revolution.

Boggs, author of the 1963 book The American Revolution: Pages from a Negro Worker’s Notebook, was married to his collaborator—feminist, activist and author Grace Lee Boggs—for 40 years before his death in 1993. As the matriarch of Detroit’s activist community, she continues their work today at age 95.

In February, I discussed James Boggs’ legacy with University of Michigan Professor Stephen Ward, who edited the compilation.

“The other city is New Orleans, where 70 percent of the students attend charter schools, the highest proportion in the nation. New Orleans and Detroit have something else in common: They have lost more population than any other U.S. cities. And if that is not by design, then why are so many rich white people so happy about it”

—

Torturing Detroit’s Kids for Racist Fun and Profit | Black Agenda Report

I agree with this analysis. But I have to say. destruction is not inevitable. People are fighting this shit. *students* are fighting this shit, and have been for a loooong time. (students have done walk outs, organize at the Allied Media Conference, created a CD and a radio station…)—this would be a *great* time to *showcase* those actions/organizing so that people can join the movement!!! 

DESTRUCTION IS NOT INEVITABLE. WE ARE RESISTING!!! 

(via bigbadcolored)

(via blackamazon)

“Godboldo has not seen her daughter since her arrest, but expects to arrange supervised visits at the Northville psychiatric services agency where her daughter is being held, Evans said.
Barbara Ann Polizzi, a 44-year-old mother, drove 13 hours from New York with her 15-year-old son, Michael Polizzi, to attend the rally and support Godboldo’s cause. Michael was once given Risperdal by doctors to treat behavioral problems. The drug, which had also been prescribed for Godboldo’s daughter and is commonly used to treat schizophrenia, left the boy debilitated by visual and auditory hallucinations, severe anxiety and rapid heartbeat, Polizzi said. She fought for six years to get her son back after he was taken by authorities and placed in state-run residential schools.
“I know what it’s like to put my head down on a pillow every night and worry about what might happen to my son,” she said.
The mother and son both cried when they learned about Godboldo’s plight, she added.
“The hospitals never really tell moms what goes on behind those locked-up, closed doors,” Michael told the audience.”

—

Parents, civil rights groups support Detroit mom jailed over daughter’s meds | detnews.com | The Detroit News

a mother in detroit was trying to wean her kid from Risperdal (with the help of a medical team) when CPS stepped in and threatened her with the loss of her child if she didn’t put the child back on Risperdal. The mother refused the orders, with the result being a ten hour military style police stand off against her when she refused to leave the house or turn her daughter over to authorities. 

There is a lot of conjecture going on in the reporting about this case. Autism sites are reporting it as a mother courageously resisting vaccinations linked to autism, the linked article is speculating that the daughter had a bad reaction to a “cocktail of immunizations” without really explaining what that means.

There’s a lot of stuff going on that Ithink in the end, are incredibly unimportant to the *issue*—which that the government took away a girl of color from her mother of color *because of a medical decision the mother made*. It was an informed medical decision made together with doctors that supported her decision. It was *also* a decision based NOT on religion beliefs, but on the *moral* belief that what a particular drug was doing to a child (who is a black child and a girl child) *was unacceptable* and affecting her quality of life. A mother was standing up for the right of her (girl) child to have a high quality of life. For those that don’t know, Risperdal has *tons* of side effects. And from what I can see, has faced legal challenges over its effectiveness and quality. 

The child was on the drug and her quality of life diminshed because of it. So a mother of color decided it would be better for her child to get off of it. 

And a state that requires parental consent laws for abortion because “parents know best” decided that she didn’t.

And now she is being prosecuted for it.

Here is where you can show support: her: http://justice4maryanne.com/

And here is where you can find information about how it is *profitable* for the state to take children away from parents:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=5998

Also—if you decide to reblog this/write about it: please remember—you are writing/blogging about real human beings who come from an extremely vulnerable city and an extremely vulnerable population. I think it’s vital to interrogate your position in relation to black women, black mothers, black girls, black health, and black cities before you comment. For example: what does it mean that a black mother protecting and defending her child’s right to high quality of life is not only criminalized—but subjected to military like interventions? What does it mean that there is seemingly nothing a black mother can do that makes her a good mother in the eyes of the state? What does it mean that a black (presumably) disabled girl child is understood as being better off under state care—every single time? Why is this idea that the state can take better care of a black girl than her mother so normalized in today’s culture? What does it mean that military style police interventions are so normalized against black populations? What does it mean that black women (and women of color in general) face military style interventions over their mothering—and nobody but the local community notices? Will there be mass mobilization over this like there was for Oscar Grant? And what does it mean that a black (presumably) disabled girl child is being *forced* to submit to the will of a medical community that has historically felt the best place for her is institutionalized (whether in prison or institutions), sterilized and medicated?

(via bigbadcolored)

Signal boosting this story, trigger warnings apply.

I need to chew on it yet, but…if you needed an example of Why I Don’t Find Abuse Of The Psychiatric System An Acceptable Plot Device, here it is.

Particularly when that abuse is used to justify continued disenfranchisement.

(via rhivolution)

(via rhivolution)

{ LINK: Human Rights Petition: Free Ariana NOW! | Change.org }

re-reblogging to help keep this circulating — please do this and pass it around, if possible.  thank you.

NOTE: bfp commented on this also (link to a reblog of what she said, since i can’t find her tumblr here anymore).

nicocoer:

On March 24th Child Protective Services (CPS) went to the home of Maryanne Godboldo and demanded that her child, 13 year old Ariana Godboldo, be released into their custody. Maryanne was accused of medical neglect for not continuing to give her child Risperdal - a drug used to treat the symptoms of schizophrenia - even after Ariana displayed harmful side effects. While her 13 year old daughter was not officially diagnosed with schizophrenia - state doctors maintained that Ariana needed the drug and without it she was a danger to herself and others. Right now Ariana is in the Hawthorn Center, a Michigan state run mental health facility - away from her family and friends. And while she has not been given the drug since she was taken into custody - she has not yet been returned to her mother or released to family members that have been willing to take her in since DAY 1. How can the State of Michigan and CPS demand that a mother force her child to take a harmful drug without, they themselves, being forced to show proof that she needs to be on the drug. If the last 23 days have been any indication of Ariana’s ability to function without Risperdal.. then LET HER GO HOME! Please sign this petition and URGE the STATE of Michigan to release Ariana back to her mother. Urge government officials EVERYWHERE to take a hard look at the way the Department of Human Services and CPS handle issues of removing children from their homes. Ariana’s family just wants her back at home where she is loved and well taken care of. For more information please visit our webpage at http://justice4maryanne.com. ~The Justice for Maryanne Action Committee

Other ways to Help:

Ways to help Mom under attack for refusing to allow the state to force-medicate her daughter: 

-> Check http://www.facebook.com/l/5f1c7ezbAw23dlwCdalJ3xs3Ktg/justice4maryanne.com 
-> Call & email individuals on the list to let them know what’s happening to Maryanne and Ariana needs to stop. 
->Share our link with all of your friends and contacts and urge them to do the same. Contact community leaders and politicians in your area and urge them to get involved so that we can actually change CPS policies on a national scale.
-> Sign the petition and have others sign it at: http://www.facebook.com/l/5f1c7pc8-eP1st4__7czxKDhBNg/www.change.org/petitions/free-ariana-now
-> Raise money for Maryanne’s legal defense at: http://www.facebook.com/l/5f1c7TNFB9vAfUnxPBm7-g60Bag/justice4maryanne.bbnow.org/donate.php
-> Organize a demonstration of support in your local community in May.

contact info for the Detroit, Michigan Representatives to contact for the justice4maryanne.com Calling Campaign:

Fred Durhal:

Shanelle Jackson:

David Nathan:

Jimmy Womack:

Lisa Howze:

free internet faxing places:

sorry, i know i need to find a better internet faxing site.

{ LINK: http://justice4maryanne.com/ }

if you cannot do any of these things, passing this around is also very helpful, if you can do that.  thank you.

(read about this first on bfp’s tumblr, which i cannot find anymore [link to reblog of what she said about this case])

Upcoming events

-We welcome your presence at all of these events. There is power in number.-

Friday - April 8th *Ongoing* - Calling Campaign (more info in the “EVENTS”  section)

Thursday - April 28th All-U-Can-Eat Fundraiser

MINIMUM DONATION: ADULTS: $15 CHILDREN 12 AND UNDER: $10 (Under 3 Free!)

WHERE: The TOURNAMENT ROOM at ALL THE KING’S MEN CHESS STORE 27170 DEQUINDRE ROAD WARREN, MICHIGAN 48092 — Info - call 313-867-4841