As the second week of the 2016 Summer Olympics winds to a close in Rio, we take a look at some of the best writing on the web exploring the intersections of sports, oppression, and social justice.
From Fencing in a Hijab to Swimming for Refugees, These 5 Olympians Inspire Us, by Liza Bayless, via YES! Magazine
Matthew Lowen serves as the Associate Program Director for AFSC’s Arizona office, and has worked with AFSC since 2005. During that time he has led the effort to end the use of solitary confinement in Arizona prisons. In this capacity he has collaborated closely with partner organizations and community groups across Arizona on issues of mass incarceration, immigrant detention, Operation Streamline, and criminalization. More.
Nearly every weekday in Tucson, Arizona, up to 70 men and women from Mexico and Central America are brought before a judge in the Evo A. DeConcini Federal Courthouse. They are handcuffed and shackled around the ankles. Some are wearing the same clothes they crossed the desert in, sometimes limping or otherwise visibly injured.
Last month, youth filmmakers who are active in their communities gathered in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore to explore issues of militarization and grassroots resistance and to screen their films at the Humanize Not Militarize Youth Festival premiere event. Participants—who came from Los Angeles; Chicago; Indianapolis; Greensboro, North Carolina; and St. Louis—shared the lessons learned over the three-day gathering.
Here are their reflections, with additional information from AFSC staffer Debbie Southorn.
From privatized medical services to court costs and fees, private companies are finding ways to make money off mass incarceration, with devastating consequences for prisoners, communities, and taxpayers. For a detailed look at who profits from the prison industry, check out our Investigate screening tool.
By Gloria Fortuna
As convention season winds to a close, we look at some of the important issues that activists have brought to the convention floors and to the streets of Philadelphia and Cleveland.
Protesters call on Clinton and Democrats to end deportations, close family detention centers, by Andrew O’Reilly, Fox News Latino