PRAISE FOR UNAPOLOGETIC “Unapologetic is a beautiful, insightful, and powerful analysis of this moment, Black movements, and Black radical futures. Both Charlene Carruthers’s work as an organizer and organic intellectual and her writing in Unapologetic embody the Black radical tradition and the best of Black feminism today. Carruthers confronts the difficulties of organizing in this era, while also detailing the possibilities of collective struggle. She helps us understand the contours of a Black queer feminist future and what we all must do to get there. This is a must- read for anyone committed to freedom and liberation.” —Cathy J. Cohen, Democracy Remixed: Black Youth and the Future of American Politics “Unapologetic is as much a narrative about collective youth-driven organizing by those affiliated with the current Movement for Black Lives as it is a story about how one young Black woman from the South Side of Chicago found herself leading one of the most consequential formations of the past decade. The book offers practical tips for organizers along with a critical analysis of the promise and pitfalls of this current iteration of the Black radical tradition. As an organizer, I found myself nodding along as I read this terrific book while taking notes to improve my own practice.” —Mariame Kaba, founder of Project NIA and cofounder of Survived & Punished “Charlene Carruthers carries the burden, the beauty, the wisdom of four hundred years of Black struggle. But she also brings a critical perspective and a creative vision, rooted in her extensive experience as an organizer and organic intellectual, and in her fierce and fearless commitment to truth. This is an inspiring, powerful, but difficult book because she confronts our movements, our people, our closeted silences, toxic masculinity, patriarchal violence, romantic and selective historical memory, and our future head-on, through a radical Black queer feminist lens. Welcome to the Black radical tradition.” —Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination “Unapologetic serves as our marching orders. Charlene gives us not just a manual but a prayer, an intention, a critical path forward, and a deep analysis on where we’ve been. She educates us about community violence and state violence, and provides the clarity to show why Black liberation is crucial for us all.” —Patrisse Khan-Cullors, coauthor of When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir “Leadership is the ability to not only make your own way but to return to give others a road map that they, too, can follow. This is what Charlene Carruthers does with Unapologetic. She offers us a guide to getting free with incisive prose, years of grassroots organizing experience, and a deeply intersectional lens. She doesn’t forget any of us and reminds us that bringing all of ourselves and our people with us is the only way any of us will get free.” —Janet Mock, author of Redefining Realness and Surpassing Certainty “Charlene Carruthers is a powerful organizer, radical thinker, paradigm shifter, and one of the most influential political voices of her generation. Anyone seriously interested in the struggle for Black liberation in this country needs to listen carefully to what she has to say.” —Barbara Ransby, author of Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement and Making All Black Lives Matter “With this clear call to action, Charlene Carruthers’s Unapologetic is a desperately needed analysis of the past, the present, and where we must head into the future. It’s a must-read for everyone who wants deeper, honest insight into the struggles happening in our country right now, clarifying why stopping anti-Black racism, homophobia, and sexism and building transformative power intersectionally are urgent necessities for our families, our communities, and the nation.” —Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, author, executive director, and cofounder of MomsRising.org “Charlene Carruthers speaks with the authenticity and authority of an organizer from the front lines of struggle. Cut from the cloth of the South Side of Chicago, Carruthers offers a critical perspective into the experience of organizing and building a movement from the inside. As an organizer, Charlene provides rare insight into the strategies, tactics, and raging debates that animate the phenomenon of Black Lives Matter. If you want to understand this movement and the people whose hands are dirty from working with the grassroots, then you need this book.” —Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, author of From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation “This brilliant and powerful book is a clarion call to keep alive the Black radical tradition in these reactionary times. Charlene A. Carruthers is an exemplary organic intellectual rooted in the struggles of black poor and working people, especially LGBTQ youth, with a subtle analysis and an international vision for freedom. She stands in the great lineage of Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells- Barnett, and Marsha P. Johnson—grand fighters and great lovers of everyday black people and oppressed folk everywhere!” —Dr. Cornel West For my mother; my father; my brother and sister and niece; Harriet Tubman, whose gun is at my back; my grandparents who migrated north; the members of BYP100; Mary Hooks and the mandate; my ancestors, elders, and comrades. This book is possible because of you. Thank you for being my North Star. CONTENTS Author’s Note Preface CHAPTER 1 All of Us or None of Us CHAPTER 2 Reviving the Black Radical Imagination CHAPTER 3 The Case for Reimagining the Black Radical Tradition CHAPTER 4 Three Commitments CHAPTER 5 Five Questions CHAPTER 6 The Chicago Model CONCLUSION The Mandate Acknowledgments Notes Index AUTHOR’S NOTE Unapologetic is a book for all people who are curious about and committed to the struggle for Black liberation. There are at least two ways that you can read this book. The first is to read it to build, sharpen, or deepen your analysis or understanding of core concepts and practices to use in building social justice movements for collective liberation. While there are many types of analysis one can use, this book is based in Black radical, feminist, queer, and anti-capitalist theories and practices. The ideas I share are the result of rigorous reading, film watching, conversations with comrades, family members, and neighbors, and movement-building experiences on the ground. I encourage all readers to use this book to engage in principled struggle through direct communication and honest dialogue. You can also read this book for a historical account of the Black radical tradition that centers the stories and movements led by people who are not typically lauded. There are stories throughout this book that should be explored more deeply and subjects warranting books of their own. My intention is to share stories you may not have heard before and offer perspectives on strategies Black folks have used for centuries. Unapologetic includes a number of complex ideas and terms that I attempt to make clear through stories and practical examples. I do not expect all readers to understand all of the concepts equally. Don’t be afraid to use a dictionary. I use one when I read too. Below, defined concisely, are some key terms I use in this book. Anti-Blackness: a system of beliefs and practices that destroy, erode, and dictate the humanity of Black people. Abolition: as defined by Critical Resistance, a long-term political vision with the goal of eliminating imprisonment, policing, and surveillance and creating lasting alternatives to punishment and imprisonment. Black radical tradition: a collection of cultural, intellectual, action-oriented labor aimed at disrupting social, political, economic, and cultural norms originating in anticolonial and antislavery efforts. Capitalism: an economic system in which the means of production, access to goods, and the value of goods are controlled by private individuals and corporations. Racial capitalism, as theorized by Cedric Robinson, argues that this system was built and flourished through the exploitation of people through slavery, imperialism, and genocide. Neoliberalism is a model of capitalism that operates through the privatization of public goods, deregulation of trade, diminishment of social services, and emphasis on individual freedoms. Feminism: in the view of bell hooks, a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression. This includes political, social, and ideological methods and work. LGBTQ: the acronym commonly used as an umbrella term for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (or queer) people and communities. I use the term interchangeably with “queer” throughout the book. “Queer” generally means outside the norm or deviant. The use of the term “femme” throughout the book refers to a gender identity that is taken up in various ways throughout the queer and trans community by people who may not identify as women and do identify as feminine. My use of the term is in the context of campaigns and does not refer to “femme” as used by lesbian and queer women. All of these terms will continue to evolve. Radical Black feminisms are rooted in the lived experiences and interlocking oppressions of Black people on the basis of race, class, and gender and aim to dismantle all forms of systemic oppression. I rely heavily on radical US Black feminisms throughout the text, but there are many other forms across the diaspora. Reparations: as defined by the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, are political demands and projects that entail repairing, healing, and restoring a people injured by governments or corporations because of their group identity and in violation of their fundamental human rights. In addition to being a matter of justice, it is a principle of international human rights.