Em-URGE-ing Voices

Clarissa

Major: Comparitive Women’s Studies
Hometown: Charlotte,NC
Favorite writer: Nicole Hannah Jones & Hanif Abdurraqib
Favorite sex scene from a movie/TV/book: The kissing scene from Wild Things featuring Neve Campbell & Denise Richards
Hidden Talent: I can balance books on my head.

Posts By: Clarissa Brooks

A Reflection On The Midterm Elections

The midterm elections were a tough time for anyone invested in seeing progress for reproductive rights. While most were focused on candidates, wins in the House of Representatives and the Senate, many narrowly missed reproductive rights amendments that passed that set states back years in regards to protecting the safety of those seeking effective reproductive rights legislation. Alabama and West Virginia both rolled back the rights of so many on November 6th. West Virginia’s Amendment 1, which blatantly states that “Nothing in this constitution secures or protects a right to an abortion or requires the funding of an abortion,” will roll back any and all state funding to abortion providers in the state in the future. Alabama’s Amendment 2 goes one step further by saying explicitly to “declare and otherwise… Read more »

A Look At The Wins: Shackling in Prisons

I grew up in Charlotte, NC in a neighborhood called Greirtown, known in the early 2000’s as one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Charlotte. To this day, it is the only place I’ve felt safe. Neighborhoods made to subjugate and disenfranchise black folks become safe havens for a community. Griertown taught me a lot about prison and how it was a carcel system meant to kill black folks. My mother taught me that I needed to be in constant fear of being incarcerated. What I am unlearning daily is just how dehumanizing prison and jails are and the way that the structural systems they are predicated upon are made to hurt the most marginalized. In this fight for justice, it can be hard to see through the smoke, most… Read more »