My online profile has changed quite a bit over time as has the subject matter I cover.
In April 1997, I founded The Multiracial Activist (TMA) and immediately became involved in civil liberties work. For TMA, I published several hundred articles, papers, ebooks and commentaries written by various academics, activists, advocates and authors on a variety of topics related to interracial relationships and multiracial identity. In 2000, I founded The Abolitionist Examiner (TAE) and published each magazine on a different bi-monthly schedules. Many of the TMA writers also wrote for TAE.
As the founder, editor and publisher of TMA, I served on hundreds of varied civil liberties coalitions, campaigns, lawsuits, etc. I lobbied on Capitol Hill. I submitted testimony to the Senate in South Carolina. I was interviewed, quoted and my work referenced in 75 or so books and hundreds of articles, commentaries and so on.
In the early 2000s, I spent a lot of time on anti-war and veterans’ activism participating in marches, blogging as a member of the Stand Down (No War Blog) consortium of bipartisan writers. I volunteered with Veterans Against an Iraq War and Veterans for Common Sense. With VCS, I spoke to foreign media about problems with mental health screenings, faulty gas masks and chemical weapons protection, and other issues. I stood on stage beside Ralph Nader and Rep John Conyers, Stephen L. Robinson, Executive Director, National Gulf War Resource Center among others at various events. I shared a mic on FreeSpeechTV with David Cline, then the president of Veterans for Peace at the March for Peace in DC on 1/18/2003. I continued to work on various veteran and peace related issues over the years.
In 2008, I pivoted to focusing heavily on sexual violence after telling my own story publicly. Over the years, I told my story in print and broadcast media and was quoted in various media organizations. My sexual violence advocacy work, publishing work with TMA and civil liberties advocacy lead to coverage by CNN, HuffPost Live, Circa News, The Atlantic, To The Contrary (PBS), The Jake Pentland Show, Tom Leykis Show, National Public Radio (NPR), ABCNews.com, AP, Reuters, Gannett, various campus papers, blogs and soooo many other print, internet and broadcast media organizations.
At first, I was attacked for being a male survivor with a public story. I was harassed for talking about my female rapist. I was shouted down for daring to defend myself. You name it and rape apologists and deniers of all stripes – including credentialed victim advocates and executives had negative shit to say…until they saw I wasn’t going to shut up. Then, they did.
My survivor story made it’s way into college syllabi and my advocacy work with TMA was included in courses that referenced articles, commentaries and historical documents housed at TMA and TAE as part of the lesson plans.
After a while, I could no longer maintain both my sexual violence activism and continue to publish both magazines. TMA and TAE still exist as online archives with some occasional new content. I have not published new issues in several years. I’m not planning to start that back up. I will still add new content as I see fit.
All that said, I am acknowledging that my social media networks consist of varied groups of friends, former colleagues, family and community members from across my different communities and networks. While there is some limited overlap, for the most part…a lot of ya’ll don’t know all that story.
Now, some of us are connected from my TMA publishing days. Some of you are connected to me from my varied sexual violence advocacy work with RAINN, DoD Safe Helpline, VSDVAA, Pandora’s Aquarium, Resurrection After Rape and so on.
Please understand that me going off about the overt neo-fascism and white supremacy on open display in the MAGA movement is completely on brand for those of you who have been connected with me across various platforms since 1997.
In 1998, I took on Bob Jones University and ultimately played a role in forcing the university to drop their ban on interracial relationships. That ended up with 3 successive DNC presidential campaigns referencing my advocacy work on that point. Back in the day, GOP candidates loved to kiss the evangelical ring at BJU.
I was one of about a dozen plaintiffs (through TMA) who sued the Bush Administration for illegal detentions in a case we lost in court, but one in the media – ultimately getting us what we demanded in the first place.
I served on coalitions as an organizational member alongside the ACLU, PFAW, Free Congress Foundation, NAACP, NCLR (La Raza), FCNL (Quakers), RAINN, and literally HUNDREDS of various civil liberties, political, community and non-profit organizations at the national and international level.
I’ve lobbied on Capitol Hill for the right of people to self-identify as they see fit on the Census and other government forms, for additional funding for fighting sexual violence, for the various version of the Military Justice Improvement Act, and so on.
I’ve endured denial of service attacks on my magazines, been targeted with cyber-stalking, death threats, harassment, defamation, and outright harassed over the years for various campaigns, articles, and advocacy work.
I don’t scare easy. I don’t coddle bigots, bullies and bad people. I have a really long memory and I hold a mean fucking grudge when someone comes for me.
When you see me call out injustice, I fucking well mean every word of it.
Don’t get it twisted. I’m not freaked out. I’m not stressed. I’m not mentally impaired. I’m not in a bad space.
I’m paying attention and I don’t soft-pedal to spare the feelings of those who collude with extremists, bigots and abusers.
Some of ya’ll don’t know me as well as you thought. Keep paying attention.
The reason why you don’t see a lot of apologia and collusion minded comments on my posts is because I stopped coddling these neo-fascists years ago. They tend to go away if you don’t smother them with kisses and hugs when they show you who they are inside. That’s not “being the bigger person”. Coddling colluders and abusers is allowing yourself to be used by providing credibility to people who are actively harming others.
I won’t be starting that up again anytime soon. I haven’t changed, but some of you may not have seen me when I’m spun up and over it.
Recognize.