There is a temptation in the U.S. to compare international events to current events domestically, and the recent Iranian protests are no exception. Protests against the oppressive laws that women have endured for over forty years in Iran have happened only months after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, throwing many U.S. states back into 20th-century policies. The comparisons are easy to make, but before we compare, it is important to better understand the context behind Iran and why these protests are unprecedented.
Read moreRecounting Stories of Black-Led Resistance: In Conversation with Professor Winston Grady-Willis
Black-led resistance to state and white vigilante violence is not new. Professor Winston Grady-Willis, chair of Black Studies at Skidmore, recounts stories of Black-led resistance from another period of widespread rebellion in U.S. history, the 1960s, in his book “Challenging US Apartheid: Atlanta and Black Struggles for Human Rights, 1960-1977.”
Read more401 Years and Counting: The Story of Modern Slavery in America
The thirteenth amendment to the US constitution states that slavery and involuntary servitude be abolished, “except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” This one phrase is what allows for slavery to legally continue in United States prisons, and is what makes it possible for people to continue to profit off of slavery today.
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