As the United States sits on the precipice of yet another election that could ‘determine the fate of democracy’ (cue dramatic music), many Black Americans, myself included, have started to veer away from the question of, “Who are we voting for?’ and toward, “Where are we moving?”

In the years following the heavily documented rise in police brutality, killings, and assaults against Black people, coupled with the polarizing political environment, more and more Black Americans have grown tired of the status quo and are considering options elsewhere as we await the outcome of the upcoming election and what it could mean for our future in the States.

But this isn’t a new story. For decades, Black people have sought an escape from ever-present racism, discrimination, and oppression in the United States. Notable figures throughout history – artists, musicians, and free thinkers like James Baldwin, Josephine Baker, and W.E.B DuBois all pursued a life abroad at some point.

For many, the choice to leave or stay likely comes down to economics – will they be able to find work and provide for themselves and their families if they uproot for an entirely different country? It also comes down to a willingness to take a leap of faith.

Event occurred in January of 2022

Stacking rocks. That’s how Diné and Mexican rainwater harvester Carmen Gonzales plans to rewater the high desert of Dziłíjiin, or Black Mesa, the roughly 256,000 acres of juniper-and-pinyon-dotted hills of northwest Arizona that span Diné and Hopi lands.

Through her organization, Indigenous Water Wisdom, Gonzales implements low-tech erosion control structures that draw on ancestral techniques and permaculture designs. These structures often look like stacks of rocks laid across desert washes in swirls, bowls, and waves, all designed to slow the flash floods that wash out main roads and carve arroyos into canyons.

Gonzales returned to her Diné homeland to lead an erosion-control workshop in July, kicking off a water restoration project that will last decades. Bringing water to a desert may seem impossible, but historically, seeps and springs bubbled up to water sheep herds, households, and farms. She intends to recharge the shallow springs across the land.

More about Freedom Riders

Canonical YouTube link

I believe it was inspired by a fairly recent controversy with the Royal British Columbian Museum (RBCM) on how it treated Indigenous staff and it's Indigenous "artifact" collection. Of course the idea for this movie could have been much earlier because I assume the racism of the RBCM would be obvious to Indigenous people.

https://viff.org/whats-on/great-salish-heist/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ9JpUzda0c

Archive.org link

Some key highlights (I would highly recommend reading the whole article, though):

Recently I saw a TikTok from a Black woman who said that when she changed her race to “White” on Hinge, she was presented with better men. I immediately gave it a try and was shocked to find that in addition to the guys I usually saw, there were men who were more handsome and better educated and who had better jobs than those who usually showed up in my search results.

Some of the men I was able to swipe through had previously only been available in the “Standouts” section, which Hinge describes as “outstanding content from people most your type.”

Now I’m left wondering if this new crop of men popped up because the app’s algorithm codes white women as more desirable, and thus presents them with the “best” options, or if these men are just searching for white women. Neither would surprise me. It’s well known that Black women have dismal experiences on dating apps: User data collected by OkCupid in 2009 and 2014 showed that men rated Black women less attractive than women of other races. Meanwhile, college-educated Black women are 53 percent less likely to marry a well-educated man than white women are.

In the past, Ashleigh has found that she doesn’t match with very many people on Hinge compared to Tinder, where she’s more successful. When she does match with cis men, she finds they frequently introduce themselves with sexually charged comments, often commenting on her body type. Since changing her race to white, she says that generally hasn’t been the case. “They’re actually asking questions; they’re trying to get conversations started and flirt with me,” she says.

Does she think she’s simply seeing men who are looking to match with white women, or is the algorithm positioning her as more desirable? She says the truth is probably somewhere in the middle — after all, these apps are designed to keep us on there, spending money.

After changing her race, Alanna also found that she was presented with different Black men than she’d seen before: “Way more employed, and guys who actually took the time to answer the prompts. More real photos of them versus the memes I usually see.” She also got more likes from men, going from an average of one to three per week to four to five each day.

I’d hate to think the algorithm favors white women, but I think I’d be more disappointed to find out that I just stumbled across a bunch of Black guys who are looking for white girls. No matter what the truth is here, it’s ugly and speaks to the challenges Black women have when trying to date online, which are admittedly easier to bear than the ones that come with trying to date offline, at least in my city.