illvox is dedicated to relating people of color-led political struggles, especially from an anti-authoritarian point of view, to a broad audience.

illvox also exists to provide historical documents as well as host newer thinking and support discussion about the issues raised by people of color in relation to essential matters in these movements.

illvox exists to agitate in support of the Anarchist People of Color tendency and its efforts. However, illvox is not APOC; APOC is a movement, not an organization or collective, whose tenets are briefly described on our Join the Movement page.

illvox emerged in June 2007. It is manifested and maintained by a small collective of people of color.

How We Organize and Why

Some people comment on the “anonymousness” of illvox. For example, many pieces written specifically from the collective are simply credited “illvox.org” and posts are regularly from “apoc.”

illvox is anonymous as a strategic decision. White supremacy’s force on culture tends to focus on personalities and, with the agitational nature of what gets posted, the illvox collective wanted the work to speak for itself and be more about people of color and less about any individuals. Satisfaction comes not from personal glory but from supporting the movement. The collective works invisibly to make our dreams visible.

HOWEVER… illvox welcomes participants regardless of whether you’re part of the collective or not or how you want to present yourself online. This site needs bloggers, writers, artists and everyone. Use our contact form to get in touch.

About the Writings Posted Here

Many of the articles were not originally posted here. Where authors’ names are known, they are noted. If you want to correct/add a credit or have writing posted here that you don’t want posted, please use the contact form. All efforts will be made to credit or remove articles quickly. Also, if you read or wrote something good, please send it.

A lot of the text on this site is unformatted, so if you have some free time and want to copy the text, HTML-format it with bold headings and appropriate styling, please feel free to do so.

If you would like to support illvox.org by contributing to its web hosting, click the button below.

What is a Person of Color?

Here are two definitions for a person of color.

From the old illegalvoices site: “People of color is an affirmative term for national minorities. The term people of color was adopted to refer in a positive way to all people who are not considered ‘white’ by ‘white people.’ In general, it refers to those of non-white, non-European ancestry. A precise definition of national minorities comes from Special Rapporteur of the Sub-Commission Francesco Capotorti (in Study on the Rights of Persons Belonging to Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities). He says ‘minority is a group which is numerically inferior to the rest of the population in a State, and in a non-dominant position, whose members possess ethnic, religious or linguistic characteristics which differ from those of the rest of the population and who, if only implicitly, maintain a sense of solidarity towards preserving their culture, traditions, religion or language.’”

A newer definition that is floating around is, “People of Color refers to folks who self-identify as a person of color, whether it be yellow, red, brown, black or mixed skinned people. People of Color can include, but is not limited to African, South American, Central American, American Indian, Caribbean, Southeastern Asian, Arab, Mediterranean, Indigenous Turtle Island and Aboriginal descent.”

Commenting on Posted Articles

All readers, regardless of race, are encouraged to comment on posts you read. Comments are open to members. You can sign up on sidebar of the site. Some ground rules:

Be respectful. It’s okay to disagree. It’s not okay to shame, blame or attack oneself or others. In that vein, focus on ideas, not personalities or individuals. Notice intent and impact of what you write. And don’t dominate a conversation.

Appreciate our diversity. It’s important to understand not everyone comes from the same place in life, and their words are often colored by experience. Please be aware of your own personal style, the sensitivities of others and the importance of trust and respect in speaking up and taking risks. You agree to participate with the understanding that multiple perspectives are respected and taken into consideration. Remember, it’s not about treating others as you wish to be treated, but treating others as they wish to be treated.

Be insightful. Offer something interesting to anything you wish to comment on. Help bring out the context of issues If something inspired you, what about it inspired you? If you disagreed, why? Practice both/and thinking: rarely is anything one side or another, but rather it’s complex and has merits on all sides.

Obviously flaming, being obnoxious, etc. will be deleted with quickness. Spam posts, self-promotion, hyping of organizations, sites, et al. will get removed as well. There is as yet no appeals process if you’re booted from commenting. One may develop.

Social Networking

You can now connect with illvox via Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Change.org, Bebo, FriendFeed, Pownce, Vox, Plurk, Tumblr, Identi.ca, Hi5 and Xanga. Please feel free to connect to illvox, invite illvox to events/groups, post a note, etc.