News & Commentary

The world has watched in horror as migrant families have been forcibly separated, placed into camps, and subjected to the cruel conditions of detention, as part of the Trump administration’s sustained assault on immigrant rights. The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) proposed

The images of Oscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his daughter Valeria, who lost their lives trying to seek refuge in the United States, have left us haunted. They serve as an ever-important reminder of the urgency of the fight for immigrant justice on our southern border and the need to stand up to the Trump administration’s policies denying humanitarian protection and basic due process to families fleeing for their lives. 

This Pride weekend, as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion, let’s march, let’s celebrate, let’s party. But first let us remember today and always that the lives of Black trans people, and specifically the lives of Black trans women, matter. Let’s recognize and memorialize

We are two months away from the 400th anniversary of the first enslaved people arriving in what would become the United States of America. It is time to renew the public discussion about reparations to descendants of Africans who were enslaved as our country was forming and growing rich.

Since January, politicians (overwhelmingly male) have passed laws severely restricting abortions in six states — Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio. These politicians have stopped pretending that their restrictions are about making abortion care safer. These laws are about taking away the right to abortion.

It has been a horrific week for transgender and non-binary people. Muhlaysia Booker, Claire Legato, and Michelle Simone are Black trans women who have been murdered in the past week. At least five Black trans women have been killed so far in 2019.

The Netflix series “When They See Us” reminds us that the power of a story isn’t its content or delivery. It’s more fundamental. The power of a story lies in who gets to tell the story and who listens.

When the ACLU of Southern California released a report revealing horrific living conditions in three Orange County-funded emergency shelters, the world paid attention.

The events that led to the murder of Willie McCoy by City of Vallejo police began with a 911 call came from a Taco Bell employee. In the recording, the employee sounds perplexed: “I have a person unresponsive to car horn honks in my drive-through,” he said. He then added, “He’s unresponsive. I’ve already had, like people try to knock on the window. I have no idea what’s going on.” The dispatcher sent out Vallejo police officers for what’s known as a “wellness check.” Officers arrived, saw that Willie McCoy was passed out in the driver’s seat of his car, and began to evaluate the situation. That this led to police to shooting and killing a Black man who had been sleeping in his car speaks volumes about deadly force and racial bias not just in California, but across the nation.