Vanessa Taylor

Bio

Vanessa Taylor is a staff writer for Mic's Current section, where she focuses on justice in all forms. Through news briefs, essays, and reported features, Vanessa covers politics, technology, and identity, particularly Black Muslim womanhood. She is also the founder of The Drinking Gourd, a literary magazine, and NAZAR, a newsletter that explores everything wrong with surveillance. Vanessa is based in Philadelphia, although Minnesota will always be home. You can follow her on Twitter at @BaconTribe or see more of her work at https://taylorv.contently.com/.
How Jess Moore Matthews is training the next generation of digital activists
By Vanessa Taylor
In recent years, the internet has become an essential social justice tool. People go online to disseminate key information for social movements, like street medics sharing guides to aid protesters during last summer's nationwide uprisings, or to…
Pink Floyd's Roger Waters went off on "little prick" Mark Zuckerberg
By Vanessa Taylor
Everybody knows that picking the right song is key to making a good ad. If you're rich, you can afford to use basically any song, too, unlike the rest of us desperately searching for "royalty-free music." But having money doesn't mean the artists…
Kayleigh McEnany is lying about her history of lying
By Vanessa Taylor
In this day and age, it's pretty easy to fact-check politicians and anyone working for them. Most people are carrying powerful mini-computers in their pockets, after all. But that doesn't stop people from lying, or lying about their lies. Just look…
Beyond the rainbow: An abridged history of Pride flags
By Vanessa Taylor
This month, rainbows are everywhere in celebration of Pride, as the rainbow flag has become ubiquitous with the LGBTQ community. But if you've ever been to a Pride event then you know that the rainbow flag is never the only one to make an…
The Biden administration is trying to toe an impossible line on immigration
By Vanessa Taylor
Throughout his presidential campaign, Joe Biden framed himself as the antithesis of Donald Trump, especially when it came to immigration. And after he won the presidency, Biden pledged that his administration would treat immigrants better than…
A guide to the 2021 Supreme Court — and how it's likely to rule on today's biggest issues
By Vanessa Taylor
As the highest court in the land, the Supreme Court impacts basically every aspect of life in the United States — but some of its decisions have more consequences than others. The court wraps up its current term this month, but there are several…
AOC unseated a powerful Democrat in 2018. Will Rana Abdelhamid do the same in the adjacent district?
By Vanessa Taylor
From the devastating impacts of a seemingly never-ending pandemic to the police murder of George Floyd and subsequent social justice uprisings, the past year in the United States has been exhausting. Nationwide, people have taken up renewed cries…
3 activists tell us how they keep the faith in the fight for racial justice
By Vanessa Taylor
Tuesday, May 25, marks the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of the Minneapolis police. Over the past 12 months, his death has served as a rallying cry for countless racial and social justice movements not only in the United…
George Floyd's murder shows the importance of Black people documenting our own stories
By Vanessa Taylor
Tuesday, May 25, marks the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of the Minneapolis police. Over the past 12 months, his death has served as a rallying cry for countless racial and social justice movements not only in the United…
We need to solve the COVID crisis, not "declare war" on it
By Vanessa Taylor
On March 11, President Biden reflected on the first-year anniversary of the coronavirus shutdown in the United States. In the course of a year, over half a million Americans died due to the virus. For many, that number is too large to comprehend,…
Facial recognition is sinister. Why does it exist?
By Vanessa Taylor
Technology is amazing and the more we have of it, the better — or at least, that's often the narrative we're told. But what if some technology doesn't make the world better for everyone? What if it opens up some communities to increased policing and…
"Radical love in action": How organizers supported vulnerable Muslim communities during Ramadan
By Vanessa Taylor
The month of Ramadan is coming to an end. While perhaps best known as when many Muslims fast for sometimes upwards of 12 hours, the month is about much more than food. As a religion, Islam places heavy emphasis on caring for your community. During…
The ethics of solar power are more complicated than you think
By Vanessa Taylor
There's been a lot of talk about using clean energy like solar power to replace fossil fuels. Without a doubt, human dependence on fossil fuels like coal has proved disastrous for the environment. Not only do fossil fuels produce huge amounts of…
Pandora, the world's largest jewelry company, will no longer use mined diamonds
By Vanessa Taylor
As a wildly popular gemstone, diamonds are often associated with good times. They're often the immediate go-to for wedding bands or engagement rings and other special occasions. Yet the process of mining diamonds takes a huge toll on not only the…
Ohio police have "run amok" in their dealings with protesters, a federal judge admitted
By Vanessa Taylor
Last summer, as protests spread across the United States following the police murder of George Floyd, officers did not hesitate to respond with tear gas, rubber pullets, pepper spray, and more. The law enforcement response led to several protesters…
How regenerative agriculture could sustain humanity — and Earth
By Vanessa Taylor
No matter where you are in the world, one thing ties people together: We all gotta eat. But the ways people go about producing food can have disastrous consequences for the environment. With climate change already breathing down our necks, many are…
West Virginia is bribing young people to get vaccinated with cold hard cash
By Vanessa Taylor
When coronavirus vaccines were first approved, many people in the United States felt a sense of relief, like the pandemic was coming to an end. However, a vaccine is only useful if people actually bother to take it, and rates in the U.S.…
This very bad Florida voting bill furthers the GOP push to disenfranchise voters
By Vanessa Taylor
Throughout the 2020 presidential race, former President Donald Trump railed against mail-in voting, often making false claims that it would lead to increased fraud. Even after his defeat, Republicans across the United States have continued to take…
How youth climate activists pushed through the pandemic
By Vanessa Taylor
Mic is celebrating Earth Day with an entire week of stories. Over the next few days we’ll be rolling out pieces on hyper-urban farming, the future of construction, the catastrophic environmental costs of the dreaded gender reveal, an optimistic…
I'm not celebrating the Chauvin verdict — but I'm celebrating the activists who got us there
By Vanessa Taylor
Before Tuesday, I would have started this essay by clumsily referring to the "police killing" of George Floyd. I would have dodged what we all know because legal constraints censor me, too. I would have been required to offer a presumption of…