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Hammer&Hope

NO. 6

Spring 2025

It’s morning again in America. Federal agents snatch students off the streets. The White House boasts of banishing hundreds of people to a Salvadoran prison. Head Start and domestic violence shelters await the chopping block. The Trump administration is repurposing antiracism into a grenade and lobbing it at the remnants of the welfare state. But regular people are providing the varied, creative, noncooperative opposition to the neo-fascist administrative takeover that we need.

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Spring 2025
Illustration by Stephanie Santana. Photograph by Marion S. Trikosko, via Library of Congress.
White Supremacy Is Apocalyptic for Everyone

White Supremacy Is Apocalyptic for Everyone

Hammer & Hope

Across the world, the right wing is blowing up everything and incinerating the planet.

Between Fires in Los Angeles and Fascism in America

Between Fires in Los Angeles and Fascism in America

Robin D. G. Kelley

Altadena’s vision of regeneration is the antidote to the political conflagration that threatens us all.

America Is Demolishing Antiracism Five Years After the George Floyd Uprisings

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor,

Brittany Alston,

Charisse Burden-Stelly,

N. D. B. Connolly,

Kamau Franklin,

Jacqui Germain,

Rhiana Gunn-Wright,

Mary Hooks,

D’atra Jackson,

Maurice Mitchell,

Rosemary Ndubuizu,

Sandy Nurse,

& Asha Ransby-Sporn

Hammer & Hope asked Black organizers, academics, and writers to consider the state of Black politics five years after the 2020 uprisings and with the re-election of Donald Trump. Their responses, some written before Trump’s inauguration, offer ideas for where we go from here.

America Is Demolishing Antiracism Five Years After the George Floyd Uprisings
Momodou Taal, a Persecuted Pro-Palestine Activist at Cornell, on Black and Palestinian Solidarity

Momodou Taal, a Persecuted Pro-Palestine Activist at Cornell, on Black and Palestinian Solidarity

Momodou Taal

& Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò

“As someone who’s from the African continent and knows what colonialism has done to the continent, I see this as a crystal-clear example.”

Why “One of Them Days” with SZA and Keke Palmer Is Such an Anomaly

Why “One of Them Days” with SZA and Keke Palmer Is Such an Anomaly

Sesali Bowen

The end of an era for Black Hollywood.

Who Is Geraldine Pointer?

Who Is Geraldine Pointer?

Tiana U. Wilson

A former political prisoner in Buffalo seeks to clear her name so she can finally "feel free."

A Spark of Hope From Scrappy Federal Workers

Hadas Thier

As federal unions engage in lengthy legal battles, the growing Federal Unionists Network has provided a fulcrum for rank-and-file members who don’t want to wait to resist.

A Spark of Hope From Scrappy Federal Workers
Donald Trump and the Far-Right Insurgency in Europe

Donald Trump and the Far-Right Insurgency in Europe

Gary Younge

On both sides of the Atlantic, a belligerent sense of whiteness and national identity, beset by economic insecurity, is winning elections.

Creativity Is Essential to Building the Power to Defeat Fascism

Creativity Is Essential to Building the Power to Defeat Fascism

Maddy Clifford

I use TikTok to spread big leftist ideas. No matter what tool I use, I’m determined to channel our energy toward world-making.

Afro-Cubans and Cinema After the Revolution

Afro-Cubans and Cinema After the Revolution

Yasmina Price

Sara Gómez and other Black filmmakers challenged the colorblind vision of a newly socialist nation.

Why Is Beyoncé a Political Symbol in Brazil?

Jenifer Pimenta,

Bruna Rocha,

Mônica Santana,

& Hammer & Hope

Three young Afro-Brazilian intellectuals explore how Queen Bey became an icon on the left, despite her class politics.

Why Is Beyoncé a Political Symbol in Brazil?
The Climate Movement Should Become a Human Movement

The Climate Movement Should Become a Human Movement

Rhiana Gunn-Wright

& Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò

It needs to tap into our emotional life in ways that will link us to material struggles rather than distract us from them.

Witnessing the Grief and Loss of the Los Angeles Fires

Witnessing the Grief and Loss of the Los Angeles Fires

Gabriella Angotti-Jones

After seeing the destruction of the Eaton and Palisades fires, a photographer contemplates whether her version of Los Angeles is ending.

South Africa’s Black Working Class, Donald Trump, and Elon Musk All Oppose the New Land Reform Law

Zandile Nsibande

& Hammer & Hope

Grassroots organizations condemn Black elites in the African National Congress for imposing the law on poor people while ignoring their calls for communal land ownership.

South Africa’s Black Working Class, Donald Trump, and Elon Musk All Oppose the New Land Reform Law
sounded through

sounded through

Taylor Johnson

A poem.

Enslaved Africans Created Their Own World in the New World

Enslaved Africans Created Their Own World in the New World

Ana Lucia Araujo

& Brenda E. Stevenson

By recovering the voices of women and recentering Brazil in the Atlantic slave trade, a new book shows how both violence and resistance were essential to the history of slavery in the Americas.

The Struggle for Food Sovereignty While Incarcerated

The Struggle for Food Sovereignty While Incarcerated

Nylah Iqbal Muhammad

Prison food has become a tool of carceral control.

Thank You

Thank You

Hammer & Hope

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