Damayanti Wallace, a queer Black poet, community organizer and Chicago native, recounted police disrupting recent open-mic nights where queer youths of color often found sanctuary.

“I was able to be around these adults who were queer and in queer relationships and it was so loving and so welcoming and so beautiful and, also, so messy,” they said. “I remember [when] cops would come into the open mics and try to stop whatever we were doing or [when] my mentors [had] to go stand at the door so the police wouldn’t come in.”

Wallace is a co-founder of GoodKids MadCity, a non-profit youth organization fighting to end inner-city violence, call for community resources and to abolish police. Through both their work and their experiences as a queer Black person, Wallace has seen the individual struggles of each identity, as well as the unique tension with police born from this intersection.

“Policing is inherently violent to a Black queer person because it’ is the embodiment of all of the things we are running away from or fighting on a day to day basis,” they said. 

To Julian Mohammed, a Black gay man based in Harlem, the tension is unsurprising. With two police officers for parents, Mohammed grew up around law enforcement. This closeness helped illuminate more overarching issues within the force, he explained.

“I know for a fact they do treat minorities different,” he said. “I’ve heard that from their mouths, that if a minority walks up to them they’re gonna be more likely to perceive it as a threat. That’s more common, I guess, in the neighborhoods they’re in.”

The issue, to Mohammed, is that police officers simply do not care about certain communities.

“I’ve seen a lot of cops say ‘f——’ and I don’t know if they’re just saying it because everyone used to say it back then,” he said. “But I feel like if you were hate crimed  or anything, it’s gonna get brushed under the rug.”

Police discrimination may be a driver of poor health outcomes and inequities among Black LGBTQ+ people, according to a 2020 paper published in Social Science & Medicine. The same paper found that four in ten Black LGBTQ+ men claimed they’d faced police violence in the last year. Another study found that Black transgender people are 50 percent more likely than their non-Black counterparts to be arrested following a police stop.

The singularity of these difficulties has left Wallace disillusioned with policing.

“You place black and queer together and it’s almost like you’re placing yourself in your own special kind of hell,” Wallace said.

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“We always recognize and see how Black death is a part of our society, and it’s something that we’re desensitized to,” said Marshall, a third-year student at New York University. “It seemed like everyone was all of a sudden, caring.” 

She’s referencing the summer of 2020 and global outrage following the killings of many Black Americans at the hands of law enforcement. This period prompted an awakening, where some individuals unpacked racism for the first time. Despite society’s new cultural competency, not much changed for Black people. 

“It was this feeling of being super visible, but no one’s really having care for me or recognizing how this moment was for so many black people,” Marshall said.  

This torrent of emotions evolved into “Philosophy,” a poem about the value of Black life, that earned 27.6k views when performed on Marshall’s Instagram page, and a feature from NowThis News. The poem came with no intention of acclaim, instead, it was a means of survival— a release.

“What the poem was, was just me being upset,” Marshall said. “It took a life of its own, which is crazy.”

Such is the case of many movements that gain traction on social media; nearly instantaneously they explode into an entity. In the past five years, youth activism has done the same. 

“It’s really important for young people to understand that they have rights, and how to exercise them in various situations,” said Kenny Nguyen, youth programs manager for the ACLU of New York’s Education Policy Center. “They do have a voice, and what they’re experiencing does matter.” 

The saturated online market for activists can be intimidating, but as a community broadens, so does the consideration of what an activist can be and achieve. 

 “Being an activist really is dependent on who you know, your network, your community,” Nguyen said. “It’s just about doing what you can and gaining the skills from that. Realizing that every single action or thing that you do when it comes to activism, you’re gaining a skill.”

Marshall sees beyond political action as the sole component of activism, now she’s focused on cultivating community and what she calls “the imagination.” She explores this in a path of study that she devised “poetry, prose and community organizing.” Whether she’s mobilizing the fellows of the Homegirl Project or planning her newest outfit, her activism is inspired by a desire to be utterly herself. 

“I love to be loud,” Marshall said. “My presence is to be disrupting the things that be, or taking up space, being loud and bright, and kind of just demanding attention in that way.”

Ava Marshall’s rebellion is as vivid as her candy-colored, red braids. Her liberation resides in the hobbies she pursues; in the feeling of music tantalizing the body, as she dances on video for her Instagram story. It lives in vinyasa yoga flows and deep, intentional breaths. No matter what space she occupies, Marshall encourages others to come as they are when it comes to activism. She is vying for a different kind of radical revolution, one of jubilation. One where self-care can be the most liberatory. That’s her philosophy.

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He smiled widely as a J. Cole song played in the background, laughing at some joke as he weighed out half an ounce of weed, a blunt hanging from his lips. However blasé he may seem, counting out dime bags, he is steadfast and serious when he talks about the risks he faces dealing. He dropped his charismatic grin as he talked about his worries about how marijuana legalization will impact his income or legal wellbeing.   

“Back up in California when weed was first legalized in 2016 I saw how quickly the process completely changed the dealing game,” said Short, whose name has been changed to protect his identity. “Immediately small time dealers like me and my friends were cut out so we had to start selling our products for way cheaper in order to compete with dispensaries, which obviously didn’t make us a whole lot of cash.”

While the recent news about New York State’s decision to start penning legislation to legalize and decriminalize cannabis may seem like a victory for users, some individuals, like Short,  believe that the start to this legislation may not be a reason to celebrate just yet. As of today, the legislation is not formalized. Meaning while there are laws in place protecting those who possess smaller amounts of marijuana won’t be arrested, those who deal in large quantities illegally are not protected. And those who currently illicitly deal don’t think they have the means or support to transition to distributing weed legally.

“It seemed like it was so impossible for people who had been dealing illegally to start joining the legal process of distribution,” said Short. “It was clear to me that only people who were already wealthy had the ability to acquire the permits and stuff that would allow them to open up shop and that was just something myself and my homies couldn’t afford to do.”

Current laws, some activists believe, still over-police cannabis users and dealers especially if they are people of color. Currently, Black and white individuals use marijuana at the same rate, but Black individuals are four times more likely to be arrested for a cannabis-related crime.

Once the legislation was announced on March 31, the NYPD was given blanket instructions to stop arresting individuals for marijuana use or possession, however they can still issue arrests for drivers who are under the influence, or individuals with intent to distribute cannabis, but only if they also have large amounts of cash with them.

“At any given time I could have up to seven years prison time in my backpack,” said  Short. “I have been dealing ever since I moved here from California a couple years back, and it is my only source of income at the moment.”

Short works with an underground marijuana distribution service. 

“It’s kind of like Doordash but for weed,” he said . 

The service allows users anywhere in the city to text a number for a daily “menu” of cannabis products – ranging from flower, to edibles to dab cartridges. 

Each day the delivery personale, in this case Short, goes to a main distribution center to pick up a daily supply of product. Then, throughout the day Short and the other delivery personnel will receive text messages with addresses for delivery and will serve customers. 

“Because of the distribution and intent to distribute law, we can’t carry any cash with us. It is a  huge liability,” he said. So the service he works for deals solely with virtual transactions through apps like Venmo or Cashapp. “That has made it a bit trickier because now we can’t hide behind the anonymity of cash, so all our transactions are digitally logged and we could get in trouble for mass distribution of a still unregulated product.”

While decriminalization and legalization of marijuana is a big step in restorative justice – especially if New York State expunges the records of those with petty marijuana related arrest records – there are still obstacles in the way of those who want to get involved legally in the cannabis industry.

Another dealer, Marcus Smith (name changed for anonymity), works on a much smaller scale than Short. He and a few friends of his get their cannabis shipped directly from California. and distribute on a much smaller scale. He said he is really interested in continuing to work with marijuana, but the requirements needed to sell legally are nearly impossible for people like him.

“I’m a Black man in Bedstuy with two prior arrests,” said Smith. “There is no way they are gonna give me a license to sell and even if I can get my records erased, purchasing a legal selling license, getting a storefront, finding distributors is impossible for someone like me who doesn’t have the connections or the money to do that. So it is looking like I’ll just have to keep selling illegally, even though I don’t want to.”

A similar issue occurred in both Colorado and California when both states independently legalized marijuana distribution and consumption. 

“I had been trying to get my marijuana license for so long when weed was legalized in 2016, but it seemed impossible,” said Reese Benton, owner of Posh Green Retail in San Francisco, California. Posh Green Retail is the first Black-female owned and operated cannabis dispensary in the city and just recently had its grand opening on April 20. 

“The licensing process was so convoluted and so expensive and there were so many times I just wanted to give up my dream,” she said. 

But Benton said that all changed in 2018 when California enacted the Cannabis Equity program which gives licensing priority to those who had been affected by drug-related arrests or incarceration. Benton’s father served time for marijuana distribution when she was in high school, so this meant she would be eligible for the equity program. 

“Everything changed for me right then and there,” Benton said. “I was able to get some financial help, people to help me with my licensing process and just a couple of weeks ago I finally opened up shop.” 

While New York state legislators continue to hash out the details of the bill, many remain cautiously optimistic that the state will adapt similar record expunging and equity programs other states have. 

“I just hope that I can continue to break through and do what I know best,” said  Smith. “And I hope that I can do it legally, and I hope that people like me are included in the conversation while this law continues to get written, because my people are the ones who have been hurt the most by the criminalization of this plant.”

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 Disappointed and shocked, he considered returning to Colombia, but he had come to America for new opportunities, and this setback wasn’t going to change his plans. He vowed to save enough money to one day buy a home of his own. In 2006, after six years of renting, Lopez had accumulated enough for a down payment and applied for a mortgage.  While he wanted to buy a co-op, the bank encouraged him to instead purchase a two-family house and take on a renter as an additional source of income. 

 Although Lopez didn’t want to be a landlord, the bank was adamant, so he bought a yellow, flat roofed duplex in College Point, Queens and looked for a renter. He remembers thinking that this was simply what you did in America. 

  “You purchase a house, a two-family house and rent one unit,” Lopez said. “That’s what middle class people do in America.”

 Eventually, Lopez started to see the house as an investment, and he took out a second mortgage so that he could move and start renting both floors of the duplex. The plan worked until both of his tenants stopped paying rent. Now, Lopez finds himself bracing for foreclosure. “It’s devastating,” said Lopez. 

  Single property owners make up only 13% of New York City landlords; according to Housing Preservation and Development data compiled in 2018, the average lessor in New York City owns 21 to 60 rental properties. When it comes to lost rental revenue, large landlords have experienced a greater total loss, but Mom-and-Pop landlords have been impacted more severely because they have less of an ability to weather a loss of rental income. “If you have a smaller portfolio, it’s probably less diversified,” said Furman Center housing policy expert Charles McNally. “There’s a much greater risk in terms of the stability of your assets.” 

 Additionally, small landlords are also more likely to rent to economically vulnerable tenants.  “Our early analysis showed that households that worked in industries likely to be shut down due to [Covid measures] were disproportionately concentrated in smaller buildings, which tend to be owned by Mom-and-Pop landlords,” said McNally. 

The average New York City landlord owns between 21-60 rental properties. Mom-and-Pop landlords are in the minority. Photo courtesy of JustFix.nyc

 Lopez’s tenants are among approximately 185,000 New York City households that are behind on rent. This estimate, which was based on a poll conducted by the Community Housing Improvement Program (CHIP), accounts for around half of the rental properties in New York City. While CHIP estimates that New York City renters owe $1 billion, the city-wide total is probably closer to two-billion. 

After Lopez’s tenant Claudia didn’t pay rent for a few months, Lopez hired a lawyer to serve her with an eviction notice.  The timing was unfortunate for him; a week after he’d filed his claim against Claudia, a city-wide shutdown brought New York City to a halt.  

 Governor Andrew Cuomo issued a 90-day statewide eviction moratorium on March 20, 2020. Suddenly, a tenant who had stopped paying rent before the pandemic was now protected from eviction indefinitely. By April, Lopez’s other tenant, Daniel, also started to withhold rent. Lopez pleaded with both tenants to pay their share. They claimed that they were unable to, but Lopez has his doubts.  “Claudia bought a new car; she has a better car than me,” Lopez said. “How can she say she doesn’t have money to pay rent?”

 The New York State legislature has extended the eviction moratorium each time it expires. The current mortarium is in place until May 1, 2021. The housing courts are technically open, but only certain emergency cases – eviction of violent tenants and hearings against landlords who lock renters out – are being heard. A huge backlog of cases is piling up. Meanwhile, landlords like Lopez are left with no income to pay a looming monthly mortgage. After more than a year of non-payment, Lopez has lost $47,600 of rental revenue. The loss comes at a difficult time. His hours as a sanitation engineer for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection were cut in April 2020. 

 He hasn’t made his $3,000-a-month mortgage payments in almost a year. While the bank gave him a six-month forbearance to delay a foreclosure, his debt is mounting.  He knows the bank will foreclose on him as soon as they are able. 

 While Lopez fights to hold onto his only rental property in Queens, a Brooklyn landlord is facing similar difficulties. 

 Clarence Hammer, 46, grew up in Brooklyn where his parents always owned a house. He witnessed first-hand the stability that comes with homeownership and wanted the same for his family, so in 2007 he bought a two-family house in Brownsville. For 12 years he lived on the bottom floor of the duplex at 618 Rockaway Ave. with his wife, son, and daughter and rented out the top floor. 

 In May 2019, keeping a promise to his wife that they would someday leave the city, they moved an hour north to Harriman, New York. Keeping the Brownsville apartment as an investment, they found a renter, Chantel, for the bottom floor of the red brick rowhouse.  Starting that summer, Chantel paid only half of her $3,250 rent. In September 2019, she paid nothing.

 Hammer filed for non-payment litigation in New York City Housing Court and had three court appearances: November 2019, December 2019, and January 2020.  By March 2020, Hammer was confident that he was nearing legal recourse. Then, the pandemic halted his litigation.

 Today, Chantel owes Hammer more than $58,500, leaving him unable to make his $5,000 monthly mortgage payments. Other financial obligations are falling to the wayside. Taxes and bills sit unpaid as he struggles to pay off what he can.  “I’m constantly getting harassing phone calls from the financial institutions that chose to lend me the money,” Hammer said. “And I don’t really even blame them, I understand. It’s really embarrassing.”  

 Hammer purchased his Brownsville apartment in an attempt to establish intergenerational wealth. “This was something that I thought I was going to pass on to my kids to establish financial stability,” Hammer said.

 In New York City, only 27% of Black households and 17% of Hispanic households own their homes, according to The Furman Center at NYU. 

 “Homeownership is a key wealth generation strategy,” McNally said. “In the wake of the foreclosure crisis [of 2008] we saw a huge destruction of Black and Hispanic wealth. That’s a real concern here as well.” 

 Black and Hispanic landlords are disproportionately affected by the Covid-19 housing crisis that is reaping havoc on their primary investment. As their eviction cases sit stagnant, these landlords are left waiting in limbo, hoping for financial relief, but dreading the inevitable. “I’m going to lose my home,” Hammer said. “That’s the reality.”

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Event attendees gathered in New York City’s Hudson River Park to hear from community activists, watch live performances and drag shows, eat, dance and socialize. 

Ts Candii, founder of Black Trans Nation, a nonprofit organization that provides emergency financial assistance and other support to sex workers looking to avoid the streets, said that the event was aimed at promoting joy. 

“The main purpose of this event was for Black joy, Black trans joy, Black trans liberation…to uplift and celebrate Black trans women while we are alive, because every hour, every day, at every turn, there is a Black transgender woman brutally murdered,” she said. “So due to all of the pain and suffering, we thought there was a need to have some kind of laughter.” 

The event was co-organized by nine different organizations, including Black Trans Nation, Housing Works, and The Brooklyn GHOST Project. Amongst the guest speakers was Tanesha Grant, founder of Parents Supporting Parents NYC, an organization providing parents with resources during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The event comes at a time when violence against the Black trans community is at an all-time-high, with the Human Rights Campaign reporting 27 known transgender or gender non-conforming murder victims this year in the United States as of September 2020. Last year there were 26 known victims. The Human Rights Campaign also reports that transgender individuals frequently face mistreatment from law enforcement and high rates of assault while incarcerated. 

“The criminal justice system was not created to protect Black lives, and it sure as hell wasn’t created to protect trans lives,” said Candii. “We are ants under their feet…they don’t care about our lives.” 

Dianne Morales speaks with an event attendee, September 19, 2020. Photo by Tori Luecking.

The Trans Liberation Now Celebration conveyed the importance of voting by having volunteers register attendees to vote in upcoming elections, and by hosting New York City mayoral candidate, Dianne Morales. 

Morales, originally from Brooklyn and the daughter of Puerto Rican parents, spoke of her campaign’s emphasis on giving voice to marginalized communities.

With tambourine in hand she said, “ I am running for mayor of New York City because it is time that we center and elevate the voices of those of us who have historically been silenced.” 

Candii believes that Morales is the candidate most ready and willing to fight for the rights of Black and transgender individuals. 

“She is on the ground with the most marginalized doing the work. When she gets into office I know that she won’t forget about me like the rest of the candidates,” she said. 

Attendees at the Trans Liberation Now Celebration, co-organized by Black Trans Nation, Housing Works, and The Brooklyn GHOST Project, September 19, 2020. Photo by Tori Luecking

The celebration is just the first of many more to happen annually, according to Candii. But between the celebrations she hopes to see more allies of the Black trans community consider the need. 

“Donate on a consistent basis, make Black trans people, Black Trans Nation, a part of your budget, and give us funds so that we can continue to invest back into the community,” she said.

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Ernesto Xavier, a Black actor, anthropologist and editor in chief of GQ Magazine in Brazil often posts in social media about race. His posts are getting more hits than ever.

“The difference is remarkable,” he said. “Because of the Black Lives Matters protests in Brazil, I gained 2,000 followers from one day to another. People seem to have woken up.” 

The legacy of racism in Brazil has been brutal.

The country’s population is  of 55.8 percent black and “pardo” (brown skinned) people. According to official numbers of a Brazil’s human rights report hotline, 615 complaints related to racism were registered in 2018.  Racism is considered illegal in the Brazilian constitution,  but the evidence of rampant racism in the country are overwhelming.

“It is important to follow the news to know if we are being discriminated against,” said journalist, Silvandira Costa. “We must know our rights so that we can pursue justice and a better future, consequently. It’s sad that this movement is only happening now after the death of George Floyd, but it’s better to happen now than not to happen at all. We can’t breathe.”

Brazil enslaved more than four million Africans.   That’s ten times more than the number of slaves brought to the U.S. and raced based inequalities are deeply felt by its Black citizens. 

Black people were seen as possession because of slavery,” Xavier said. “There were several public policies to eliminate us [Blacks] and to whiten the population, like when Portugal brought Europeans and gave them land in Brazil to populate the country. White people were the ones who created the term “negro.” 

The same issues that plague African American can be found in this majority Black country, ruled by a white president. Blacks make up 64 percent of the prison population, earn 57 percent less than whites and suffer from police brutality. Access to education, jobs, and income inequality also mirror the problems African Americans face in the U.S.

“Just a few years ago, when I went into stores, shop assistants used to follow me every time, afraid that I would steal something because I’m black,” said Silvandira Costa, a retired  housemaid. “I have also suffered several types of discriminations because of my skin color in several other situations in Brazil.”  

Dr. Luiz Herculano, a Portuguese professor at the Federal University in Santa Catarina, has also experienced racism. While traveling on behalf of the congress to Columbia, he was met with scrutiny at the airport.

“She triple checked my passport and all of my documentation when I was checking in,” he said. “She was not used to seeing a Black man travelling on business class, so she was suspicious.”

And because of poor health care, people are contracting and dying of COVID-19 in far greater numbers than whites. Brazil is quickly emerging as the next epicenter of the virus and expected to surpass the U.S.

“Racism is a system of oppression that kills, discriminates and maintains white privilege,” said journalist, Sayonara Oliveira. “It prevents Black people from having a job, opportunities, a place at a university or even be morally or physically abused.”

Xavier said the fight against racism is everyone’s fight. 

“People don’t realize that racism impacts all social relations in society,” he said.  “If a country has a significant level of poverty, or criminality, or low levels of education, it affects everyone. To recognize white privilege is a question of humanity and civility.”

 Brazil’s black citizens have long suffered from systematic racism  which  means racism is essentially everywhere in their lives, from lack of representation in big corporations, universities, housing and in every aspect of Black life. Racist jokes are also a common practice in Brazil. 

“We are often referred to in racist jokes so that we won’t reach the top,” Herculano said. “You inferiorize in order to maintain a white domination and privilege.” 

He said in Brazil, the deaths of Black people and children, such as Agatha and João Pedro have shown that black people are often not treated as citizens in the country.

But Oliveira, is  hopeful that because of the attention on racism now, will mean a better future. 

“I’m seeing a lot of white people who never showed any interest in racism asking me about it,” she said. “Friends are asking me for book recommendations , my opinions on certain matters. I’m optimistic that the future holds a better situation for Black people in Brazil.”

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Sydney Fishman is a graduate student in Reporting the Nation/NY in Multimedia.

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The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City has an African American student population of less than seven percent. Even worse, designers of color represent less than one percent of designers available in major department stores. It isn’t that black people just aren’t designing. The answer might not be as simple as most people think.

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Four generations of the Lettsome family holds up the flag of the US Virgin Islands at the 2013 Inauguration. Photo by Breana Jones

WASHINGTON,D.C.-Amoya Lettsome will not remember this morning. She won’t remember the cold, the technical difficulties, or seeing President Obama sworn into office for his second term. At barely a year old, she won’t remember anything at all but her mother Stacy Lettsome, 40, of Atlanta, Ga. still wanted her to be present for the 2013 Inauguration.

“I will take the pictures and show her she is apart of history,” said Stacy Lettsome, “I was here four years ago so I’m honored to be back. It’s a great celebration and it happened on a perfect day, MLK day.”

Five other members of their family joined Stacy and Amoya Lettsome at the National Mall.  The Afro-Caribbean family was one of more than an estimated 700,000 present for the Inauguration. The crowd was nowhere near the size of the 1.8 million that gathered in 2009, and the majority of the crowd was black. The strong presence proved the significance of the President’s two term hasn’t been lost on the black community.

Amoya, 1, was the youngest and at 71, her great-great-aunt Lynn Igwemadu made four generations present. Tracy Lettsome, her sister, brought her children back for a second time, hoping they’d gain more understanding four years later.

“They’re in middle school now, so I want to discuss how we got here, why it’s so important,” said Tracy Lettsome, “and that because he’s in the White House, he might be dealing with a lot more challenges than presidents in the past because of who he is and where he is from.”

For Clarence Davis, 56, having so many generations of his family together was a special moment for the Virgin Islander, who said as an Afro-Caribbean seeing a black man sworn into the presidential office twice was a strong moment for him.

Stacy Lettsome said while she is happy her baby will grow up in a time where a black president is a reality instead of a lofty goal, she will be sure to teach her the history it took to get here.

“I want to make sure she lives to her full potential, that’s number one, and this is just another example of that history that she can reach any goal she wants,” said Stacy Lettsome.

“We’ve had a new addition since the last Inauguration,” said Davis. “The minute Obama won back in November we decided we were coming back to bring baby Amoya.”

Lynn Igwemadu, 71, came to the United States in the 1970’s to work for the US Virgin Islands’ first delegate in the House of Representatives Ron de Lugo. Working on Capitol Hill for so long, she said she’s seen a lot of inaugurations over the years but this one was the most important because President Obama was re-elected.

“This is history and we are writing history right here,” said Igwemadu, “I missed the first one but I wasn’t going to miss this one. The change is so phenomenal. I’ve seen so many changes, good things and bad over the years. To be here with my family, it is a pleasure and a joy.”

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