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Sometimes I like to think about how vibrant and bright the world was before color television. That’s not to suggest that it was more vibrant than it is now, just that it was equally bright, vibrant, and sharp as it is now. I don’t exactly remember the first time I realized my grandparents didn’t grow up with a grainy, grayscale world, but I still think about it from time to time and wonder: What sensation will young folks accidentally assume we didn’t have in the present?
I find myself daydreaming in this way because I like to imagine a world radically different from ours. I like to imagine worlds without prisons, worker exploitation, or gender- and sexual-based oppression. To some, these visions are as radical as a world that actually is black-and-white. To me, these worlds seem as reachable as anything else.
If we analyze our current conditions, avoid circular debates, stop waiting for heroes to save us, speak honestly about our past and present, and try to change today, we might just save tomorrow.
Here are 10 articles to help imagine that change.
1. Rev. Katey Zeh Is Done With Circular Abortion Debates
She hopes her new book, A Complicated Choice, helps Christians care more fully for people who’ve had abortions. By Betsy Shirley via sojo.net.
2. Politicians May Be Politicking, But Texas Teens Say Book Bans Are Pointless at Best
In the ongoing power struggle between conservative politicians, local school boards, teachers, and parents, library books have become, as the kids would say, iconic. By Bekah McNeel via The 74.
3. How Black Spirituality Has Shaped The Black Radical Tradition
Black churches have been key cultivators of those who practice in the Black radical tradition. By Dhivya Sridar via sojo.net.
4. Picking Winners
We pick heroes, and perhaps the strongest criteria we apply is everything we’re not. By Aarik Danielsen via Fathom.
5. Obery Hendricks Thinks Marxist Analysis Can Help Christians
The author of Christians Against Christianity on capitalism, unions, and why he stays in the church. By Josiah R. Daniels via sojo.net.
6. Is Your Bible Anti-Black?
Prof. Nathan L. Cartagena details the anti-Black precedent embedded in many Bible translations. By Nathan L. Cartagena via World Outspoken.
7. This Valentine's Day, Fair Trade Chocolate Isn't Enough
Perfect love challenges the idea that if we just buy different, better things, the world will be better. By Céire Kealty via sojo.net.
8. Native Rights Group Launches a Project Aimed at Protecting Indigenous Sacred Spaces
The Native American Rights Fund will develop new model protocols to protect Indigenous cultural and sacred sites. By Debra Utacia Krol via azcentral.com.
9. Kanye West Is Not Done Changing the World, for Better or Worse
Kanye’s story in jeen-yuhs can tell us a lot about art, faith, Blackness, maleness, materialism, mental illness, class, and love. By Da’Shawn Mosley via sojo.net.
10. Is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez an Insider Now?
After three years in the halls of power, she’s seen the “shit show” up close — and hasn’t given up on her vision for how to change it. By David Remnick via newyorker.com.
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