Audre Lorde’s ‘Your Silence Will Not Protect You’

Bridget Minamore The White Review
Audre Lorde (1934-1992) was one of the most significant U.S. writers of the last quarter of the 20th Century. She described herself as "Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet." This new collection of her poetry and prose allows readers to remind themselves of her thought and its significance.

‘The Calm in This Storm’: Reproductive Rights Leaders Reflect on Cecile Richards’ Legacy

Caitlin Cruz Rewire
Planned Parenthood under Richards took deliberate steps to improve its engagement with Black women and other women of color as an organization. But there is still work to be done: The next leader must be someone with the skills of managing a large multi-state organization, but also needs to be a leader who understands white supremacy and the role race plays in reproductive care

The Ugly Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike

DeNeen L. Brown The Washington Post
Jerry Wurf, the national president of the public workers union American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, considered the Memphis sanitation workers’ protest more than a strike; it became a social struggle, a battle for dignity. Wurf called the strike a “race conflict and a rights conflict.”

Opioid Makers Funneled Millions to Patient Advocacy Groups

Julia Lurie Mother Jones
The groups that received pharmaceutical funding—like the US Pain Foundation and the Academy of Integrative Pain Management—in turn issued guidelines minimizing the risks of opioid addiction, lobbied to change laws aimed at curbing opioid abuse, and sought to protect doctors sued for overprescribing painkillers, according to a Senate report released Monday by Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill (D).

Slavery and the American University

Alex Carp The New York Review of Books
From their very beginnings, the American university and American slavery have been intertwined, but only recently are we beginning to understand how deeply.