Photo by Lionel Thévenaz on Unsplash
I am truly out of words. A 2mo old baby is being held in a concentration camp in Texas, experiencing life-threatening health issues. A baby who has been in detention for half of his life.I don’t know how to talk about science when people are in concentration camps. I don’t know how to care about a paper or grant when people are being killed on alleged “drug” boats, while RFK Jr is boasting about snorting cocaine off toilet seats. I don’t know how to be outraged about cuts to science funding when all my rage is spent on the atrocities against women and girls in the Epstein files.
Many people will say that we have to focus on the science, it’s more important now than ever. And part of me agrees. But science has a long history of being weaponized to justify all kinds of cruelty, from racism and medical exploitation to colonial exploitation and weapons development. Those kinds of ideas are in plain sight in the Epstein files, from eugenics and race “science” to controlling the scientific narrative and claims that women are less intelligent than men.
So I invite you to push back attempts to silence criticism or calls to just focus on science. As we keep our scientific work going, we must ask ourselves every day - “what am I doing to fight fascism?” and if the answer is nothing, we are complicit too, Fannie Lou Hammer famously said “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free,” and that certainly applies to science.
What a week... lets get into it.
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Upcoming rallies:
Lessons in organizing against authoritarians, from nurses, labor organizers, and survivors of the brutal dictatorship in the Philippines
Women Engaged’s February newsletter celebrates some of the Black women whose leadership has sustained movements for citizenship, economic justice, and civil rights. Sign up for the Women Engaged newsletter and support their fantastic work.
weekly win
The US Department of Education has to roll back its attempts to destroy Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility initiatives
check it out
As we mentioned in a newsletter a couple of weeks ago, the company Ring is planning on using its AI-powered “Search Party” to enable broader surveillance and turn over data to the police.
A man fleeing from ICE led to a deadly accident that took the life of teacher, Dr. Linda Davis, in Georgia.
A seventh person, Lorth Sim, died in ICE custody this week.
around the world
Israel continues its oppressive attacks on Palestinians as Ramadan starts
Large parts of Johannesburg are without water again. Day Zero water shortages are not just concerns in Cape Town, South Africa, but lots of other places across the globe.
more of this please
California and Connecticut are collaborating in support of climate regulations
This year’s Olympics are the most gender-balanced in the games’ history with 47% female athletes.
India’s Supreme Court rules menstrual hygiene a fundamental right.
longer reads
Amy Westervelt from Drilled does a fantastic job connecting the climate crisis to all the other crises we are now experiencing, from tech bros enabling fascism to the Epstein files to Venezuela and the new era of imperialism, Gaza, and Greenland.
book nook
Survivor and truth-teller Gisèle Pelicot’s memoir is out A Hymn to Life, read more about her story here.
How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective, Edited by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
all ears
UnF*ck Your Brain: Feminist Self-Help for Everyone
watch this!
Capturing our hearts, a dog goes for gold in a women’s cross country qualifying round earlier this week in Cortina, Italy.
🙃
Would you want AI to teach your children? Neither would we.