Essay Archives – Scalawag

State conspiracies and censorship of the incarcerated in prison.

SOUTHERN POLITICS

Conspiracyz, Scum Pigz, & the Dept. of Censorship

by G. Z. June 21, 2023September 27, 2023

Stolen, censored, and banned: A lyrical essay from the inside on the state's myriad methods of silencing used to effectively vanish people in prison, from prohibiting books and stealing original writings to fabricating entire charges and cases.

Tina Turner performs onstage at the United Center, October 1, 2000. (Photo by Paul Natkin/Getty Images) How Tina Turner's abuse and trauma remains a hip-hop trope.

How Tina Turner's trauma remains a hip-hop trope—and why we need to abolish it

by Justin A. Davis May 25, 2023November 13, 2023

Victim or survivor? The language of patriarchal violence. Assigning language of victimhood or survival to those who have experienced gender violence is dehumanizing—not empowering.

Who said we all survived?

by Breya M. Johnson May 25, 2023May 24, 2023

The Captive Maternal is a function, not an identity marker

by Joy James April 28, 2023November 21, 2023

How Atlanta’s tradition of compromise betrays Black revolutionary violence: a critique of Black Political Action and the bargain of freedom. A critique of the state's appropriation of John Lewis' legacy to quell the radical demands for Black Power at its heart.

What's Next for the Captive Maternal, Part II: Notes on a Rebel(lion) without a Cause

by Tea Troutman April 27, 2023November 21, 2023

How Atlanta’s tradition of compromise betrays Black revolutionary violence: a critique of Black Political Action and the bargain of freedom. A critique of the state's appropriation of John Lewis' legacy to quell the radical demands for Black Power at its heart.

What's Next for the Captive Maternal: Notes on a Rebel(lion) without a Cause

by Tea Troutman April 26, 2023November 21, 2023

Is abolition a love language? On Black love as a form of resistance in the case of the first Black Bachelor Matt James. Revolutionary Love challenges the erotic logic of racial fetishism. An examination of romance and the politics of Black masculinity.

Oshun's Suicide, Part II: Eros, Repetition, and Reprieve in Black Popular Culture

by Jordan Mulkey April 21, 2023November 21, 2023

Is abolition a love language? On Black love as a form of resistance in the case of the first Black Bachelor Matt James. Revolutionary Love challenges the erotic logic of racial fetishism. An examination of romance and the politics of Black masculinity.

Oshun's Suicide: Eros, Repetition, and Reprieve in Black Popular Culture

by Jordan Mulkey April 19, 2023November 21, 2023

Black Poetics and the Captive Maternal: Joy James asks poets to confront Black violence, using poetry as a means of survival and liberation.

On the Tensions and (Im)Possibilities of Black Poetics: No Shame, No Devil

by Jon Jon Moore Palacios April 14, 2023November 21, 2023

Reproductive justice and the fight for bodily autonomy in the state's war on Black women's abortion “rights,” labor, bodies, and caretaking.

Reflections on Reproductive Justice and the Captive Maternal

by Breya M. Johnson April 12, 2023November 21, 2023

Black educators' undervalued labor and the need for community support and Revolutionary Love against schooling-as-colonial-indoctrination.

Radical Care Work in the Project of Schooling

by Anna Almore April 7, 2023November 21, 2023

From Caretaker to Rebel: The dialectical relationship between Black motherhood and captivity and the role of love as a tool of political will.

Love and War: Dialectics and the Stages of the Captive Maternal

by Ziyana Lategan April 5, 2023November 21, 2023

Da'Shaun Harrison on death and revolution in the struggle for freedom. Dying is a part of struggle. Revolutionary Love is the catalyst.

The Stakes of Revolution and the Death of Desire

by Da'Shaun Harrison March 31, 2023November 21, 2023

The Captive Maternal's Revolutionary Love. The transformative power of Black love in the face of oppression.

At the impasse of Revolution and Revolutionary Love

by RAW Wilcox March 30, 2023November 21, 2023

Contradictions and Convictions: Megan Thee Stallion and why abolition can't wait

by Da'Shaun Harrison February 14, 2023May 25, 2023

There is no healing in an antiblack world

by Da'Shaun Harrison February 1, 2023February 1, 2023

In the soil, in the sound: Houston's Jamal Cyrus gets to the root of Southern Black aesthetics

by Alysia Nicole Harris November 17, 2022November 17, 2022

SCALAWAG UPDATES

Anita Hill: Ketanji Brown Jackson's nomination to the Supreme Court signals historic change

by Anita Hill February 28, 2022July 1, 2022

Contraband Books: What Texas prisons have against Michelle Alexander, Frederick Douglass, and Alice Walker

by Julie Poole September 28, 2021September 28, 2021

You're swamped? Join the club.

by Ko Bragg and Virginia Walcott September 17, 2021September 27, 2023

The old devil and the new details

by Mab Segrest March 29, 2021April 29, 2021

White tears will never be the solution

by Matt Hartman March 19, 2021April 1, 2021

'T-Pain was important because he was ours'

by Israel Daramola March 8, 2021March 8, 2021

This is damn sure not our grandparents' rhythm and blues

by Marcus K. Dowling February 16, 2021February 16, 2021

Pauli Murray: Black revolutionary

by Dolores Chandler January 29, 2021November 13, 2023

SOUTHERN POLITICS

What the Capitol riots show us about the white illusion of civility

by Lovey Cooper and Katherine Webb-Hehn January 15, 2021January 15, 2021

SCALAWAG UPDATES

It's time we abolish the Fourth Estate

by Cierra Hinton January 15, 2021

When God Calls My Name

by Ashley M. Jones January 11, 2021October 4, 2021

The media's extractive telling of Appalachia

by R. Garringer December 15, 2020January 5, 2021

'I wanted to wear a purple ball gown with a crimson silk cape'

by Cynthia R. Greenlee November 3, 2020November 3, 2020