Power

My Favorite Racial Justice Pieces of 2018

My favorite racial justice pieces gave readers a window onto the resilience of communities of color.

[Photo: Two people smiling outside]
2018 has been a year in which women of color have led efforts to defend the rights and humanity of the most vulnerable people in the United States. Southerners on New Ground (SONG)

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As we close out 2018—a year filled with increasing intolerance and hate—I find myself reflecting on the work we’ve done at Rewire.News to lift up stories and voices you won’t see at many other outlets.

My favorite racial justice pieces gave readers a window onto the resilience of communities of color, whether through reclaiming traditional ways of caring for pregnant people, forming transformative partnerships that bridge gaps in advocacy work, building campaigns and organizations aimed at creating radical change, and calling out myths that only serve to pit vulnerable communities against one another. Other favorite pieces examined what drives inequity in health care—more often than not it’s state and federal policies or damaging budget decisions, as illustrated by pieces about diabetes prevention among Native populations and about how Black communities are addressing maternal and infant mortality.

Our racial justice reporting seeks to get at the root causes of oppressions, such as state violence against incarcerated women and mothersvoter disenfranchisement; and punitive school discipline, among other topics. It involves shoe-leather reporting to better understand, for example, the impact of work requirements on the families the safety net system intended to help.

Throughout 2018, women of color have led efforts to defend the rights and humanity of the most vulnerable people in the United States. At the same time, women of color are experiencing gender-based violence (and a missing and murdered crisis), preventable health disparitieshousing instability, and the list goes on.

At Rewire.News, we will continue to spotlight all of these experiences and report on racial inequality in 2019 and for years to come.