Despite the state of the world, I am excited to be back at Black Youth Project. This platform has always been here.
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by Jenn M. Jackson, PhD
Almost a decade ago, I said goodbye to my editing position here at Black Youth Project. I was 33 years old, working on the final edits of my dissertation at the University of Chicago titled “Race, Risks, and Responses: Mapping Black American’s Reactions to Policing in the United States.” My study was focused on the ways that young Black Americans between the ages of 18 and 35 navigate unwanted encounters with police and with other outgroup members who behave as pseudo-police via race, class, and gender norms. Since that time, I have finished my Ph.D., published my first book, and converted that dissertation into a new book titled Policing Blackness: The Political Stakes of Intersectional Threat. These accomplishments have been hard fought given the state of the world.
The world has also changed dramatically during this time. We have endured the two elections of Donald Trump to the highest office in the nation. Collectively, we have witnessed the atrocious killings of Palestinians during the ongoing genocide of Gazans and other native populations along the Gaza Strip. We have struggled to wrap our arms around the impacts and consequences of failed responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in the mass deaths of millions of people around the globe. And, we have united behind Black communities in the wakes of the police killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and so many others. The protests in response to Floyd’s killing remain the largest in history.
Photo courtesy Flickr
In the past year, we have been subjected to an authoritarian regime characterized by ICE raids and abductions, the erasure of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) standards in education, the forced removal of more than 600,000 Black women from the workforce, and the thoughtless and intentional attacks on queer and trans people in public life. In academia and higher education, attacks on free speech have fundamentally shifted our pedagogy and the way we teach. Many Black organizers are facing burnout and anxiety as they attempt to remain on the freedom side. Journalists have been fired and liberal media gutted.
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In recent weeks, ICE agents have descended upon Democrat-led states across the United States like Maryland, California, New York, and Minnesota. In January alone, ICE agents murdered Renee Good and Alex Pretti in cold-blood, while others killed by ICE have gone largely unrecognized by mass media. For example, Keith Porter, Jr. was killed by an off-duty ICE agent over the New Year’s Eve holiday for shooting his gun in the air in celebration. These killings spurred national public outcry from many white Americans still struggling with their own position in the larger political unrest. In some ways, these ongoing and repeated atrocities have both desensitized us and collectively shifted us toward despair.
There are countless issues and concerns I can point to that articulate the seriousness of this moment in history. To say we are in a crisis is an understatement.
Despite the state of the world, I am excited to be back at Black Youth Project. While I never suspected that my intellectual work – focused on policing, threat, and social movements – would be as relevant as it is today, this moment reminds me that we never truly know where the work will lead us. Sometimes, it leads us back home.
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Black Youth Project has always been here. For more than 20 years, this community has existed in this space to tell the truth about the experiences of diasporic Black people. Rather than build a media community that is unresponsive to the diverse needs and concerns of vulnerable populations, we intend to center those individuals who are too often left out of public policy, popular media, and public society.
As we relaunch this site, it is our goal to tell the truth about the world as it is today. No holding back or performing for the white gaze. No reductionist logic or arguments. We are here because we fundamentally believe in the power of our voices to make lasting and sustained change.
We are so happy that you will be joining us on this journey.
Jenn M. Jackson, PhD (@jennmjacksonphd) (they/them)is a queer, androgynous Black woman, an abolitionist, a lover of all Black people, and an Assistant Professor at Syracuse University in the Department of Political Science. Jackson’s research is in Black Politics with a focus on Black Feminist movements, racial threat and trauma, gender and sexuality, policing, and political behavior. They are the author of BLACK WOMEN TAUGHT US (Penguin Random House, 2024) and POLICING BLACKNESS (expected in 2027). Jackson has written peer-reviewed articles at Public Culture, Politics, Groups, and Identities, Social Science Quarterly, and the Journal of Women, Politics, and Policy. Jackson received their doctoral degree from the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago in 2019 where they also received a graduate certificate in Gender and Sexuality Studies. Jackson teaches courses on Gender and Politics, Black Feminism, Black Politics, and the Politics of Racial Threat.
