What we're reading

A few picks from AFSC staff this week:

“Black Lives Matter movement notches major win in Chicago race,” by Kim Bellware, Huffington Post

A Chicago state’s attorney is ousted in the election after she waited more than a year to bring criminal charges against the Chicago police officer who shot teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times. Organizers with Black Lives Matter, the Black Youth Project 100, and Assata’s Daughters worked tirelessly to bring the issue to light. “‘Sixteen shots and a cover-up’ became a rallying cry from both Chicago residents and community leaders who called for the jobs of both Alvarez and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, whose office was also accused of suppressing the video until a court order forced it into the open.”

“This former prisoner is writing for life,” by asha bandele and Akiba Solomon, Colorlines

Colorlines interviews formerly incarcerated activist Shaka Senghor about his new memoir, “Writing My Wrongs.” According to Senghor, “We’ve opted to not exercise our human compassion and empathy. Our primary model for resolving conflict is to further diminish, demean, and punish people. We’ve chosen to throw people away. But as long as we continue to see people as statistics and data, we’ll never arrive at a point where we really know what’s happened to the fathers and mothers and sisters and brothers—or their children left behind. I hope that what I’ve been able to do is pull the lid off of a clandestine environment. We have 2.2 million people locked up and we really don’t know what those environments are like or really understand anything that goes on inside. I am not going to allow that on my watch. We’re all going to have to grapple with the hard stuff and talk about the things that make us uncomfortable, because that’s the only way we’re going to arrive at a place of true justice.”

“Meet the Yemeni woman using creative direct action to resist the country's brutal war,” by Sarah Lazare, Alternet

Yemeni photographer and feminist Bushra Al-Fusail organized women’s bike rides in Sana’a to protest the bombings. “‘It was like another world,’ Al-Fusail continued. ‘We completely forgot the war and how many ugly things we had seen during that period. The women were so happy and empowered. Even if there are airstrikes, biking will let us keep our lives easier with transportation. This was our resistance to the war.’”