Category: Analysis

For pieces that have an analytical focus–whether its rhetorical, critiquing a certain policy or event, proposing a new ideological framework, or evaluating something like a piece of art.

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Your DNA is an Abomination

By Rudy Martinez. Republished from Sybil. Initially published in “The University Star,” the student newspaper of Texas State. This piece provoked massive right-wing backlash, resulting in the administration condemning the author and scrubbing the article from the publication. We republish it here for the crucial intervention it makes against white supremacy, and because fuck Texas State and angry whites. Read Rudy’s followup, detailing the backlash after this piece was initially published. Featured image by Alyssa Franks.

“Now I am become white, the destroyer of worlds.”

I hate white people. White people should hate white people. In fact, when I think of all the white people I have ever encountered, whether they’ve been professors, peers, lovers, friends, police officers, etc.—there are perhaps a dozen I would consider “decent.”

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Long Live The Intifada! Israeli Apartheid Week at UT

Autonomous Student Media: Gestures Towards the Ungovernable

 Last week, a series of on campus events demonstrated the strength of the Palestinian liberation movement at UT. The Palestine Solidarity Committee at UT hosted their yearly week of Israeli Apartheid Week actions, a chance to raise awareness about the struggles of Palestinians and initiatives like the Boycott, Divestment, & Sanctions (BDS) campaign. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, the mass displacement & ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948, and the beginnings of Palestinian resistance to occupation. To make up for the lack of reporting in local and campus news outlets, we have gathered a rundown of the events and their significance here.

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Crash The Party: Shitty Moments from Roundup

Vandalism on the gates of Fiji from April 2017

Autonomous Student Media: Gestures Towards the Ungovernable

CW: sexual assault, harassment, homophobia, racism

We’ve just made it through another series of hellish weeks, with SXSW and Roundup hitting us back to back. As we come out on the other side of Roundup, we wanted to highlight some of the moments from this weekend that made even clearer why Greek Life is, at its core, a racist, cisheteropatriarchal institution. We’ve captured some of the student discussions and other events of this weekend, including catcalls, insider secrets, and assaults. Remember that this is only a small sampling of the events and experiences of this weekend, and there are likely many more stories that remain untold due to fear, shame, stigma, or the normalization of the horrors of Roundup & Greek Life.

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Words from Texas Prisoners: Excerpt from “Prisons are Plantations”

Austin Anarchist Black Cross demo in solidarity with striking prisoners in 2016

Anonymously published document. Full document here. Originally spotted on Revolutionary Horizon‘s facebook page.

 We are republishing a collection of excerpts from a larger piece composed of interviews with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated folks from Texas, Illinois, and Florida. The original document uses interviews and case studies with prisoners, guards, and historical analysis to demonstrate how prisons are extensions of the plantation system and mirror pre-1865 slave codes. We’ve highlighted passages that reflect the experiences and conditions of inmates in Texas prisons. We hope this will give students and other non-incarcerated folks a better idea of the conditions and struggles of prisoners, and expose students to some of the worlds that we are isolated from. In particular, students should recognize the complicity of their own schools in this system. UT’s Investment Management Corporation indirectly invests in two of the largest private prison companies, Corrections Corporation of America and the GEO group [1]. The prison has long been the hidden underside of the University. While the University produces new citizens & professionals, the prison strips away citizenship and produces captivity. We hope the following excerpts will inspire greater awareness and energy for anti-prison organizing.

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Your ID is an Apparatus

By Kazi Nazrul, a member of ASN

On August 2nd, the University administration released new aspects of its plans to modernize the University for “security” purposes. These plans include restricted hours for building access and new surveillance systems with proximity card readers and video cameras. To raise awareness, the administration has adopted the cutesy slogan “Your ID is Your Key,” to encourage students to have their UT IDs on them at all times, in order to have access to buildings during restricted hours.

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