Joy In Justice

“We’ve Been Here Before”: Reconstruction was dismantled on purpose. So is what’s happening now. And people organized their way back before. Hey, friend. The hardest thing about this week’s theme — for me, anyway — is sitting with the knowledge that we’ve been here before, and that “before” didn’t end well. Reconstruction was one of the most radical democratic experiments in American history. Black men served in Congress, as governors, as sheriffs, as judges. And then it was dismantled. Violently.

White supremacy has always been most dangerous when it goes institutional — and has always met organized, joyful, potato-throwing resistance Hey, friend. Here’s something we both know but that I sometimes forget because things feel uniquely bad right now: organized hate is not a new phenomenon, and neither is organized resistance to it. What varies is the scale, the tactics, and — crucially — whether hate is operating at the level of street violence or state policy.

Hey, friend. I planned out this series without thinking about today being Juneteenth, but it feels important, since Juneteenth is about people trying to withhold information in order to retain power, and Black people claiming both that knowledge and that power, as part of a seemingly constant cycle. Joy In Justice is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Black Wall Street didn’t fail. It was burned.

Hey, friend. Welcome back to my twenty-week series about how we reclaim our stories, tell the stories that matter, and create together the story of what can be. It’s M-Sat in reels you can follow on facebook, instagram, linkedin, bluesky, and tiktok, but every Friday I pull all that content together in one place — this newsletter, with citations.

Hey, friend. Thanks for being on this twenty-week journey with me. I want to extend a little sympathy up top: when the news is this relentless and the stakes are this high, it can be hard to know what to do with the information we’re taking in, or whether taking it in is even worth the cost to your nervous system. I think about that a lot. That’s why I keep coming back to history: not because it makes the present feel smaller, but because it makes me feel less alone in it.

And a simple thing you can do THIS WEEKEND in the fight for good Hey, friend. You’re going to be hearing a LOT from me over the course of the next twenty weeks, so I wasn’t going to write up a newsletter this week, but just so you know what’s coming… [OH, AND MAKE SURE TO GO TO THE END; I HAVE A RELATIVELY SIMPLE BUT REALLY IMPORTANT ASK OF YOU IN RE: ICE] In 2024, I did a months-long series on what was at stake for democracy and basic liberties.

Hello! There has been so much going on since I last wrote. I hope you’ve been finding ways to plug into the work of justice, and if that’s all felt like too much, I have a quick (Claude-assisted) list as the last piece of this newsletter. You might find a good idea or be reminded you actually are doing something and consider whether you have the capacity for another small thing.

A quick update before jumping into anarchism for the day :) I got back last week from three weeks in India with my partner, to introduce him to my family and show off my favorite places in Kolkata as well as going back to my family’s town and ancestral villages. More on that down the road, I promise.

Hi, friend. Today is my fiftieth birthday. I’m thinking about how lucky I am to have had parents who never stopped investing in me and who taught me the basic ethics of respect and justice. And how lucky I am to have encountered — at every point in my journey — people who function out of those ethics and who also taught me about worlds and experiences I didn’t already know, and who pushed and stretched and loved me.

Hey, friend. I hope you’re finding some sources of hope and encouragement in this strange season of in-betweenness, with still too much violence while we continue to work for peace for all people. I try to provide you with useful content, with citations and links and stuff like that, or with helpful tips on how to do little pieces of justice in your workplace or community group or family.