The Emancipator

📣 We're hiring a Senior Audience Engagement Editor! We're looking for a driven, nimble collaborator to lead our cross-platform audience engagement and brand growth. We’re seeking someone passionate about reaching audiences where they're at. This digital leader will help us target our audience and develop new approaches to grow our resonance. The ideal candidate has strong attention to detail, and experience distilling and illustrating complex issues and themes. Strategy, creative and critical thinking, and entrepreneurial skills are essential for success. Come join our incredible, award-winning team! Apply here: https://lnkd.in/d5gx7_qc This is a grant supported role. Thank you to the Ford Foundation for believing in our work.

We’re excited to announce that The Emancipator won an Edward R. Murrow award for our Prison Banned Books Week series! Last October, we partnered with PEN America to amplify the experiences of those who are too often silenced, publishing a series of personal essays by three, award-winning incarcerated writers during Prison Banned Books Week. These pieces pulled back the curtain on the prison system’s opaque and undemocratic approach to censorship, revealing the devastating impact book bans have on incarcerated people. Thanks to writers Kwaneta Harris, Tomas Keen, and Daniel Pirkel for their powerful stories and to Toni Demuro for the illustrations that brought their essays to life. And thanks to the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) for recognizing our work. If you haven’t yet, make sure to read the series here: https://lnkd.in/eCS3w8sT

Kamala Harris officially accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for president on Thursday, capping off four days of speeches and celebration at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and becoming the first Black woman and the first person of South Asian descent to accept a major party nomination for president of the United States. In her night two speech, Former First Lady Michelle Obama summed up the mood when she said, “Hope is making a comeback.” Meanwhile, protesters who hoped to see a shift in the party’s policies toward Israel’s U.S.-backed war and the humanitarian disaster in Gaza showed solidarity with Palestine by disrupting DNC proceedings inside and outside the arena. More than 70 people were arrested by Chicago police, including at least three journalists, per The Intercept. The Emancipator has been in Chicago all week to bring you on-the-ground reporting and analysis by Editor-in-chief Jamil Smith and exclusive sights and sounds from our video journalist Tami Nguyen. Check out our coverage on our Instagram account: https://lnkd.in/ev_ZJ5Fs

How can civic engagement protect fundamental reproductive rights? Join Rep. Ayanna Pressley at SXSW to learn more about her personal journey in fighting for and defending abortion care. Vote for our panel! https://lnkd.in/eB8tnwu7 

“Many Indigenous youth are in the process of trying to reclaim the cultures and languages that were stolen from generations before, but are confronting the reality that a warmer Earth could prevent many traditions from persisting,” Anita Hofschneider writes for @Grist. Becoming plaintiffs in climate lawsuits is a way of combating that grief and turning it into something productive. Read more about their fight for the future: http://spr.ly/6043lzAVx

Athletes, coaches, and leading voices in sports and media have a unique platform to speak about social justice. The Emancipator’s editor-in-chief, Jamil Smith, led an urgent conversation on the fight for racial equity at the second annual Disruption Dialogue Series hosted by The New Commonwealth Fund on August 4. On the panel were Paralympics gold medalist April Holmes, three-time Super Bowl champion Devin McCourty, and journalist Jesse John Washington. Stay tuned for more photos and video from the event!

Help send us to SXSW with your vote! AI is infiltrating every arena of life – education, housing, employment, healthcare, and more. It’s cheaper than human services, but accessibility and value come with AI’s propensity for replicating discriminatory human behaviors it’s trained on. The onslaught of bots and algorithms also turns life-altering interactions with real therapists or loan officers into premium commodities — out of reach for low-income individuals, overwhelmingly people of color. AI has the potential to isolate and dehumanize our most vulnerable populations. We must stop what’s turning into a digital Jim Crow. Let's talk about it with Jamil Smith, Sydette Harry, Tawana Petty, and Ron Morrison. Vote for our SXSW panel: https://lnkd.in/e88YRXch

Black Americans currently own less than 1% of U.S. farmland, and Indigenous households possess just 8 cents of wealth compared to every White dollar, Brea Baker writes in her book, “Rooted: The American Legacy of Land Theft and the Modern Movement for Black Land Ownership.” When Jamil Smith recently asked Baker why we should care about land theft that happened generations ago, she connected the land to the people in a way he didn’t expect. https://lnkd.in/exgtgPVR

We won first place in the Society for Features Journalism Awards in the "first-person narrative" category for Amanda Joy Calhoun, MD, MPH's "A Patient Called Me a Racial Slur." "This essay stands out for its powerful and raw portrayal of racism in medicine. It conveys the emotional and psychological impact of being subjected to racial slurs and the broader systemic issues within healthcare. The author's clear and candid writing style makes it a strong and impactful piece," one of the judges wrote. https://lnkd.in/eDtiU_fU

In an interview with Innovation in Focus from the Reynolds Journalism Institute, our social media producer Melissa Clavijo explained the strategies that have contributed to The Emancipator's audience growth. "Over the years, Clavijo has accomplished various strategic goals and found ways to improve The Emancipator’s social media presence on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter (X)," writes Kendall Williams. https://lnkd.in/eqp68m8G