Unapologetic ― A Black, Queer and Feminist Mandate for Our Movement

This 21st-century activist's guide to upending mainstream ideas about race, class, and gender carves out a path to collective liberation.

Drawing on Black intellectual and grassroots organizing traditions, including the Haitian Revolution, the US civil rights movement, and LGBTQ rights and feminist movements, Unapologetic challenges all of us engaged in the social justice struggle to make the movement for Black liberation more radical, more queer, and more feminist. This book provides a vision for how social justice movements can become sharper and more effective through principled struggle, healing justice, and leadership development. It also offers a flexible model of what deeply effective organizing can be, anchored in the Chicago model of activism, which features long-term commitment, cultural sensitivity, creative strategizing, and multiple cross-group alliances. And Unapologetic provides a clear framework for activists committed to building transformative power, encouraging young people to see themselves as visionaries and leaders.

Named one of the most influential young African Americans by The Root 100, in 2017, Charlene A. Carruthers is a Black lesbian feminist, community organizer, and founding national director of the BYP100 (Black Youth Project 100), a leading organization of young activists (18-35) in the movement for Black liberation. Charlene was born, raised, and still resides on the South Side of Chicago and has spent over a decade helping to develop leaders as a political strategist, community organizer, and educator.

Her work has been featured in outlets including the Nation, NBC News, BBC News, Huffington Post, the New Yorker, Al Jazeera, Ebony, USA Today, and the Washington Post.