Assata Shakur, born on this day in 1947, is a revolutionary socialist and former member of the Black Liberation Army (BLA) who became the first woman to be added to the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list in 2013.
spoiler
Shakur grew up in New York City and Wilmington, North Carolina. She became involved in political activism at Borough of Manhattan Community College and City College of New York, participating in sit-ins and civil rights protests.
After graduating from college, Shakur briefly joined the Black Panther Party, leading its Harlem chapter. She left the Panthers and joined the Black Liberation Army, a black power group that was inspired by the Viet Cong and Algerian resistance movements and waged guerrilla warfare against the U.S. government from 1970 to 1981. Shakur was one of the targets of the FBI’s COINTELPRO program.
After being involved in a shootout with New Jersey police officers, Shakur was convicted on multiple counts of assault and murder and sentenced to life in prison. In 1979, BLA members freed her in a bloodless prison escape.
Shakur successfully sought political asylum in Cuba, where she died on September 25, 2025, at the age of 78
“I didn’t know what a fool they had made out of me until I grew up and started to read real history.”
- Assata Shakur
I hope you nerds have a good month of July 
Remember no crackers
I got hired by this place, and my training with them starts on Monday. It’s also remote, so hopefully, nothing weird about “load tests” steps into the room. I don’t think it will. I already completed my onboarding with them, and the training will last a month. It is a full-time position and actually long-term. I love that I don’t have to leave my home to do the work, so it sounds like a win.
However, I got some anxiety when I read these policies on having a “professional appearance” for video conferences:
Because I have freeform dreadlocks, I probably don’t fit this “well-groomed” or “reasonable style” description they’re talking about. After reading this, I actually decided to wear a (solid black) Rastacap during the interview, and they took no issue with it, so I take it that the Rastacap is not invalidated by the second bullet point there. I guess one could call it a “hair-wrap.” Regardless, it is such a goofy, performative, and LARPy thing for them to have these stringent guidelines on one’s appearance in video calls for a job where you’re not actually even seeing customers, just talking to them on the phone.
Either way, if they do try to go after me for either the Rastacap or the freeform dreadlocks, that can be a violation of anti-discrimination laws, I’m sure. Though I’m not actually a Rasta, I thought it might be in my favor to cap (pun definitely intended) and tell them that I am so they get off my ass for the sake of avoiding religious discrimination. I don’t think it will actually get to that point, though.
In addition to this, I am looking into narrating audiobooks as a side hustle of sorts. Unfortunately, because of AI, I wonder how long this will even be an option. Either way, I’m gonna navigate finding some side hustle.
CROWN laws vary by state/municipality. 27 states have hair protection laws, with 40 cities/counties having laws regardless of what the state has (North Carolina has a lot of the latter). AFAIK there are lawyers doing work pro bono in states without to try and get the laws changed.