# Charlene Carruthers > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Charlene_Carruthers > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Charlene_Carruthers.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlene_Carruthers > Source revision: 1342288437 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|American activist and author}} {{Infobox person | name = Charlene A. Carruthers | image = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1985}} | birth_place = [Chicago, Illinois](/source/Chicago%2C_Illinois), United States | alma_mater = {{plain list| * [Illinois Wesleyan University](/source/Illinois_Wesleyan_University) 2007 * [Washington University in St. Louis](/source/Washington_University_in_St._Louis) 2009 * [Northwestern University](/source/Northwestern_University) 2020-present }} | occupation = Black Youth Project 100 National Director | years_active = 2013-2018 }} '''Charlene A. Carruthers''' is a black [queer](/source/queer) [feminist](/source/feminist) activist and author{{Cite web|url=https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2016/02/103198/activists-to-know-black-lives-matter-charlene-carruthers|title=Why We Can't Tell "Incomplete Stories": Meet Black Youth Project 100's Charlene Carruthers|last=West|first=Lilli Petersen,Chandler|website=www.refinery29.com|language=en|access-date=2020-04-24}} whose work focuses on [leadership development](/source/leadership_development). Carruthers has worked with high-profile activist organizations including [Color of Change](/source/Color_of_Change) and [Women's Media Center](/source/Women's_Media_Center), and she was an integral founding member of [Black Youth Project 100](/source/BYP100). She served as BYP100's founding National Director or National Coordinator from 2013-2018. ==Activist career== Carruthers cites her studies in [South Africa](/source/South_Africa) at age 18 as her political awakening. Much of her work since has centered on developing broad based political participation and leadership for marginalized communities. She was worked with or sat on the boards of the [Arcus Foundation](/source/Arcus_Foundation),{{cite web|last1=Marra|first1=Andy|title=Arcus Announces 13 Executive Directors to Participate in Arcus Leadership Fellowship|url=http://www.arcusfoundation.org/arcus-announces-13-executive-directors-participate-arcus-leadership-fellowship/|website=Arcus Foundation|date=15 May 2015}} [SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective](/source/SisterSong_Women_of_Color_Reproductive_Justice_Collective),{{cite web|title=Sistersong Board Members|url=http://sistersong.net/board-members-2/|website=Sistersong|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160329192110/http://sistersong.net/board-members-2/|archivedate=2016-03-29}} [Wellstone Action](/source/Wellstone_Action), and the [NAACP](/source/NAACP).{{cite web|title=Charlene A. Carruthers|url=http://byp100.org/charlene-a-carruthers/|website=Black Youth Project 100|access-date=2016-03-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307003422/http://byp100.org/charlene-a-carruthers/|archive-date=2016-03-07|url-status=dead}} She has also focused on coalition-building between different marginalized groups, including traveling as part of a delegation of African-American activists to [Palestine](/source/Palestine) to create personal and organizational ties between organizers in both countries.{{cite news|last1=Bailey|first1=Kristian Davis|title=Dream Defenders, Black Lives Matter & Ferguson Reps Take Historic Trip to Palestine|url=http://www.ebony.com/news-views/dream-defenders-black-lives-matter-ferguson-reps-take-historic-trip-to-palestine|date=2015-01-09}} In US electoral politics, Carruthers expressed her intent to vote for [Joe Biden](/source/Joe_Biden) in the [2020 elections](/source/2020_United_States_presidential_election).{{Cite tweet |user=CharleneCac |author=Charlene #Defund2AbolishPolice Carruthers |number=1307313208106127372 |date=19 September 2020 |title=I've voting for Joe Biden in November and spending the rest of my life doing work to abolish things like the Supreme Court.}} ===Black Youth Project 100=== In July 2013, Carruthers was one of 100 black millennial activist leaders from across the country assembled by the Black Youth Project in Chicago for a meeting aimed at building networks of organization for black youth activism across the country. On the second day of that meeting news from Florida announced the acquittal of [George Zimmerman](/source/George_Zimmerman) on an all charges relating to his February 26, 2012 [killing of Trayvon Martin](/source/killing_of_Trayvon_Martin). This verdict galvanized Carruthers and the other activists into the formation of the Black Youth Project 100 to organize young black activism in resistance to structural oppressions.{{cite news|last=Holliday |first=Darryl |title=The New Black Power |url=http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/March-2016/black-leaders/ |publisher=Chicago Mag |date=2016-02-22 |access-date = 18 May 2019}} Though initially hesitant to assume the role of national coordinator herself, Carruthers ultimately came to realize the rare opportunity afforded by the erupting turmoil.{{cite news|last=Wilson |first=Jamia |title=Why Can't I Be You: Charlene Carruthers |url=http://www.rookiemag.com/2015/01/why-cant-i-be-you-charlene-carruthers/ |date=2015-01-30 |access-date = 18 May 2019}} The [BYP100](/source/BYP100) invests heavily in the training of leaders and the teaching of reformers, empowering a generation of black activism. In public actions and in the press Carruthers has emphasized that oppressive structures like race, gender, sexuality, and economic status overlap with one another in such a way that prohibits the resistance to any one structure at a time. Rather, they demand united action by marginalized action to overturn the whole system together.{{cite news |title=Black Power (Q&A) |last = MacLeod | first = Scott |url=http://www.thecairoreview.com/q-a/black-power/ |publisher = The Cairo Review of Global Affairs |date = Winter 2016 |access-date = 18 May 2019}} BYP100's initiatives embody this outlook of [intersecting oppressions](/source/Intersectionality) by targeting issues that tie into multiple systemic oppressions. For instance the publication "Agenda to Keep us Safe" identifies economic justice and the development of local economic power as essential tools to achieve gender and racial justice.{{cite web|title=Agenda to Keep Us Safe|url=http://byp100.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/BYP100-Agenda-to-Keep-Us-Safe-AKTUS.pdf|publisher=Black Youth Project 100|access-date=2016-03-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150203232328/http://byp100.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/BYP100-Agenda-to-Keep-Us-Safe-AKTUS.pdf|archive-date=2015-02-03|url-status=dead}} Carruthers has been a particularly vocal critic of how the [prison-industrial complex](/source/Prison%E2%80%93industrial_complex) and the [school-to-prison pipeline](/source/school-to-prison_pipeline) play a huge role in shaping the experiences of oppression for people and communities of color, [transgender](/source/transgender) & [non-binary](/source/Genderqueer) people, and the poor. ===Police brutality=== Carruthers is an outspoken critic of unchecked [police brutality](/source/police_brutality), inadequate government responsiveness to major brutality cases, and the American criminal justice system's fundamental motivations and mechanisms. In August 2014, she went to [Ferguson, Missouri](/source/Ferguson%2C_Missouri) to train and organize black youth response as the city reeled from the [shooting of 18-year-old Mike Brown](/source/Shooting_of_Michael_Brown) at the hands of [Darren Wilson](/source/Darren_Wilson_(police_officer)).{{cite news|title=How the New Black Activists Are Fighting Back in Ferguson|url=http://www.thenation.com/article/how-new-black-activists-are-fighting-back-ferguson/|publisher=The Nation|date=August 26, 2016}} ====Chicago Police Department==== As a native of [Chicago's South Side](/source/Chicago's_South_Side), Carruthers has been a frequent critic of the [Chicago Police Department](/source/Chicago_Police_Department), organizing demonstrations over the [fatal shooting of 22-year-old Rekia Boyd](/source/Shooting_of_Rekia_Boyd).{{cite news|last1=Smith|first1=Angelique|title=Charlene Carruthers talks Black Youth Project 100|url=http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Charlene-Carruthers-talks-Black-Youth-Project-100/53705.html|publisher=Windy City Media Group|date=December 16, 2015}} Carruthers also responded to the [murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald](/source/Murder_of_Laquan_McDonald) by an on-duty police officer, condemning the city's handling of the event, especially the involvement of the mayor's office in the year long coverup of the footage. She demanded the resignation of Mayor [Rahm Emanuel](/source/Rahm_Emanuel) and Cook County State Attorney [Anita Alvarez](/source/Anita_Alvarez).{{cite news|last1=Muwakkil|first1=Salim|title=Not Your Grandfather's Black Freedom Movement: An Interview with BYP100's Charlene Carruthers|url=http://inthesetimes.com/article/18755/charlene-carruthers-on-byp200-Laquan-McDonald-and-police-violence|date=February 8, 2016}} '''Films''' Carruthers wrote, directed and co-produced The Funnel, a short film about love, ancestral power, and the Black experience of displacement and resilience.{{cite news|last1=Hill|first1=Tonia|publisher=[The Triibe](/source/The_Triibe)|title=Charlene Carruthers' debut film, 'The Funnel' is selected for Black Harvest Film Festival|url=https://thetriibe.com/2022/09/south-side-native-charlene-carruthers-explores-love-and-ancestral-power-in-her-debut-film-the-funnel/|date=September 29, 2022}} ==Published works== *{{Citation | last = Carruthers | first = Charlene | title = Hearing Assata Shakur's Call: A Black Feminist Reflection on "To My People" | journal = WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly | volume = 46 | issue = 3–4 | year = 2018 | pages = 222–225 | doi = 10.1353/wsq.2018.0042 | s2cid = 91312572 | oclc = 7900054322 }} *{{Citation | last = Carruthers | first = Charlene | title = Unapologetic: a Black, queer, and feminist mandate for radical movements | publisher = Beacon Press | place = Boston, Massachusetts | year = 2018 | oclc = 1014037040 }} ==References== {{Reflist}} ==External links== * [http://byp100.org/ The Black Youth Project 100] * [http://sistersong.net/ Sistersong] {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Carruthers, Charlene}} Category:1985 births Category:Living people Category:African-American feminists Category:George Warren Brown School of Social Work alumni Category:African-American LGBTQ writers Category:Activists from Chicago Category:Illinois Wesleyan University alumni Category:LGBTQ people from Illinois Category:American feminists Category:American queer women Category:American queer writers Category:African-American women activists Category:21st-century American women Category:American LGBTQ women writers --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Charlene Carruthers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlene_Carruthers) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlene_Carruthers?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.