UPDATE: NYLAG confirmed Alexander was released last night.

“Six people have died in ICE custody in California since the start of 2025 — four at Adelanto and two at Imperial Regional Detention Facility. In all of the Adelanto cases, family members alleged that the facility's medical response was inadequate, the report said.”

ICE broke into a DACA recipient’s home in Tucson to arrest her. Karla’s “crime?” Being brought to the U.S. as a one year old. Our communities deserve better than this. I’m grateful for Rep. Grijalva’s leadership finding where ICE took her and now fighting for her release.

“The 61-year-old retired police officer spent 37 days behind bars before authorities dropped the felony charge against him in October.”

A **majority** of those arrested for the Jan 6 attack were white small business owners with past histories of bankruptcy, liens, and tax problems. An attempted coup carried out by realtors, auto dealers, and former cops.

Unfair, but not unprecedented. And not limited to the United States. I’m thinking of European slaveowners who were compensated “for their loss” with the abolition of slavery in territories they colonized. British slavers were paid, but not those they enslaved. talkafricana.com/slave-compen...

#tdih 1975, protest of police beating of Chinese American Peter Yew, who'd intervened to stop NYC police beating a teen. Demands for end to discrimination in housing, education, employment, health, more. Chinatown businesses: “Closed to Protest Police Brutality.” #StopAAPIHate #AAPIHeritageMonth

"Don't draw conclusions," the mayor says. "Ignore the video on Facebook of a 75-yo Black woman being beaten to death," says the mayor. The mayor adds, "The police who just killed a guy yesterday for being too crazy for them have the real video that will make it clear she needed to be beat to death."

The opposition to reparations for slavery isn’t just coming from the White House. Reparations to Black people are opposed by many, including progressives and leftists.

Somewhat related...

They tortured her, cut her child out of her, and made her watch as they murdered the baby

The word “Black” has been almost completely removed from a package of bills that have long been viewed as Congress’ main legislative vehicle to address the Black maternal health crisis, frustrating some advocates who feel Black women are being erased from the policy.

A lot of ppl are very upset that Colbert's last show is this week - and I get it. Censorship is alarming and media giving into a bully potus is terrible. However, I ask that you also remember that over 300k Black women were unceremoniously let go under this same potus. Colbert will be fine.

Quick sketch of Sinéad O'Connor

Reminds me of the time I met Kim Fowley at SXSW. We spoke for no longer than a minute and I walked away thinking, "Oh, *that's* what the adjective 'reptilian' *really* means."

Happy birthday to Grace Jones

Happy book release day to @redgoldsparks.bsky.social for GENDER QUEER: THE ANNOTATED EDITION! This is a wonderful expansion of the original memoir, with notes from Maia and other queer luminaries (including me!)

TUES, MAY 19 @ 7PM ET / 4PM PT: Sinister Wisdom's Sapphic Classic series with Cheryl Clarke, celebrating Clarke's new collection Acts of Resistance: Essential Essays, Archival Encounters, and New Poems. Online via Zoom. www.sinisterwisdom.org/events #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #BlackWomen #ReadBlackWomen

On my morning commute, I saw a bearded six-foot-plus subway rider wearing hot-pink lace stockings and red patent-leather heels and I really, truly think this person is winning at life. 👠 #transit #PublicTransit #NYC

IT’S HERE! The first new Amtrak Cascades train set arrived in Seattle today!

Save the date and join Densho for a zine-making workshop at the Seattle Public Library, part of their programming for One Book, One Coast.

If they can revoke your passport for any debt … it’s a LOT of people who won’t be able to leave the country eventually.

There’s a massive immigration operation in Memphis right now, but you may not have heard about it. Why? Community members face retaliation for trying to spread the word out, a lawsuit alleges.

It’s not just handing out cash to insurrectionists. It’s part of a project that started with the mass funding of ICE to use stolen public funds to create spoils for loyal foot soldiers that exist beyond any accountability. It’s how these things work and it will grow as the economy craters.

Remember when the Supreme Court said a president lacked the power to forgive $20,000 of student debt for Pell Grant recipients and the White House just said "Oh, okay"

We’re thrilled to introduce the 2026 cohort of the ProPublica Investigative Editor Training Program. 👋 Meet the journalists:

someone defaced every ad on this train car just like this

I promise you none of the people who manage your local bookstores would say the same. www.nbcnews.com/business/ceo...

Lorraine Hansberry, writer most famous for "A Raisin in the Sun" was born in 1930. Yuri Kochiyama, Japanese civil rights activist who was held in an internment camp during WWII & also a close friend to Malcolm X was born in 1921. Born in 1925, Malcolm still looms large. They all share a birthday

Remembering Malcolm X on his birthday 🎂 📷 Eve Arnold, 1961 "Malcolm’s power was more than embodied charm, and he need not rise from the dead. His diagnosis of calamity is enough to guide us." - Michael P. Jeffries

The woman in these photos of James Baldwin dancing is often misidentified online as Lorraine Hansberry. In reality, Baldwin was dancing with Doris Castle of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality). Steve Schapiro took the pics of Baldwin and Castle during a light moment in New Orleans, 1963. #photography

On this day in 1896, the Supreme Court delivered its decision in Plessy v. Ferguson establishing the 'separate but equal' doctrine as national law and authorizing discrimination in public accommodations.

Alito said racism was over. Southern states are now rushing to revive Jim Crow.

Recently, FamilySearch digitized and uploaded tons of microfilmed records, including many from 18th-century Massachsuetts. They're using some sort of AI to transcribe/summarize the handwritten documents. I've noticed that the AI strips out references to race and enslavement in 18thc documents.

The Church of Scotland hasn’t just apologised, it also set up a Masters scholarship at Edinburgh. In England reparative justice is being resisted by a well-connected political lobby: alanlester.co.uk/blog/the-arg... Church of Scotland apologises for role in slavery www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This summer is going to be long and hot. Remember kids when youre out there abolishing the state, wear a mask and cover any and all identifying tattoos, use the buddy system/go with a group of friends, and have fun out there.

I’m late to the party, but it’s finally hit me that too many people equate wealth with intelligence. Get serious, people! No, I do not think you’re particularly smart or qualified to run a government because you’re a billionaire.

For every year that Clinton was out of the White House we have gotten 500 million stories about how Democrats are “out of touch with rural America” and we’ve never gotten stories about how republicans do badly in many suburbs and absolutely get blown out in cities where the mass of people live.

I knew we had to talk about mental health impact of the administration's ongoing attack on immigrants. We do that. What I didn't expect was Cristina Jimínez, a MacArthur fellow and expert, to be so positive about what Minnesotans taught the country about how to come together. Hell of an episode.

HUGE NEWS: ICE’s courthouse arrests have been STAYED by a New York district judge. That means that ICE will have to stop arresting our immigrant neighbors on the spot when they show up to court at places like 26 Federal Plaza, 290 Broadway, and 201 Varick. (1/2)

This is honestly something I've never thought about. I'm actually much more concerned about accidentally dropping my keys down the trash chute. 🔑 #ApartmentLiving

Well, at least Mark Fuhrman has died. 💃🏾

My older son, talking to a wrecka stow clerk today: “This is ‘Black Unity.’ It is one long song by Pharoah Sanders. He made it in front of an audience, and they clap at the end. I listen to it at bedtime when I’m at Daddy’s place and Mommy’s place. I like when the trumpets throw tantrums…

"While the man born Herman Blount in Alabama (though he would later cite Saturn as his true home) left his terrestrial form back in 1993, the influence of Sun Ra on musicians both hugely popular and deep underground is so vast that his gravitational pull goes well beyond the confines of jazz music."

In like, five years I am going to be reading somebody's book called How Bed-Stuy Became White 😞

Meanwhile in NewYork City…

“We have the power to say, hey, this country is a work in progress and if we are willing to really listen and grapple with that, we can create something better for all of us.” Penn professor Sarah Jackson explains her newest book on radical Black media-makers. https://bit.ly/49LhKsw