For most people in Louisiana, cracking the shell off a crawfish, sucking the head, and swallowing the tail meat is a joyous part of what it means to call this place home. But peeling crawfish is not so fun for guestworkers from Mexico, who allege that they are facing slave-like conditions in a Louisiana plant.
By Jose Cardenas. On May 16, I was taken to jail in Montgomery, Ala., along with six others after we sat outside the Alabama legislative chambers and refused to move as bigots inside were ramming through their revisions to the shameful HB 56.
While in handcuffs, I couldn’t help but recall the terror I once felt when I was a child who felt his future was in doubt.
Often times when I go to speak, I tell the story of how I became involved in issues involving the Gulf Coast and its seemingly permanent trek down the road of man-made and natural disaster. For me the moment of awakening came on a boat floating around in thousands of gallons of oil soaking into Barataria Bay.
Editor's note: Last week Deon Haywood, the Executive Director of Women With A Vision, discussed how Louisiana's Solicitation of Crimes Against Nature statute allows law enforcement to target poor and trans women of color (read here).
So, I've learned a lot since BP came here and ruined things on the Gulf Coast. I've had a front row seat to the whole crazy mess here in Mississippi. I've opened my eyes to the realization that all these companies could give a rat's snout about us. We are expendable. We are the cost of doing business. We are nothing to them. BP, Exxon, Enbridge, etc., etc. They are all just alike in their lies and denials and coverups.
Clarice Friloux is a resident of Grand Bois, a small community bordering Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes in Louisiana, and works as the outreach coordinator for the United Houma Nation.
As the BP oil disaster claims process leaves the hands of the Gulf Coast Claims Facility and goes under court supervision, there's unfinished business, or rather an unfulfilled promise that it looks like Kenneth Feinberg's old outfit may be trying to cover up. Meanwhile, Alabama covers up its ugly immigration law with an even uglier one.
Editor's Note: With President Obama's historic statement in support of marriage equality, the national political debate over who has the right to marry has heated up. But the right to marry is not always the most pressing issue confronting queer people, especially in queer communities of color, which continue to face criminalization and police violence.
For most people in Louisiana, cracking the shell off a crawfish, sucking the head, and swallowing the tail meat is a joyous part of what it means to call this place home. But peeling crawfish is not so fun for guestworkers from Mexico, who allege that they are facing slave-like conditions in a Louisiana plant.
By Jose Cardenas. On May 16, I was taken to jail in Montgomery, Ala., along with six others after we sat outside the Alabama legislative chambers and refused to move as bigots inside were ramming through their revisions to the shameful HB 56.
Often times when I go to speak, I tell the story of how I became involved in issues involving the Gulf Coast and its seemingly permanent trek down the road of man-made and natural disaster. For me the moment of awakening came on a boat floating around in thousands of gallons of oil soaking into Barataria Bay.
Editor's note: Last week Deon Haywood, the Executive Director of 
So, I've learned a lot since BP came here and ruined things on the Gulf Coast. I've had a front row seat to the whole crazy mess here in Mississippi. I've opened my eyes to the realization that all these companies could give a rat's snout about us. We are expendable. We are the cost of doing business. We are nothing to them. BP, Exxon, Enbridge, etc., etc. They are all just alike in their lies and denials and coverups.
Clarice Friloux is a resident of Grand Bois, a small community bordering Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes in Louisiana, and works as the outreach coordinator for the 
As the BP oil disaster claims process leaves the hands of the Gulf Coast Claims Facility and goes under court supervision, there's unfinished business, or rather an unfulfilled promise that it looks like Kenneth Feinberg's old outfit may be trying to cover up. Meanwhile, Alabama covers up its ugly immigration law with an even uglier one.
Editor's Note: With President Obama's historic statement in support of marriage equality, the national political debate over who has the right to marry has heated up. But the right to marry is not always the most pressing issue confronting queer people, especially in queer communities of color, which continue to face criminalization and police violence.