Ryan S.

he/him/his or they/them/theirs.

Ryan has a diverse background including working at one of the nation’s most esteemed Black think tanks, one of Chicago’s top B2B Tech PR agencies, a top 3 global PR firm, and founding Kansas City’s largest Black-led direct action group during the 2020 uprisings. During Ryan’s professional career he’s consulted brands such as Facebook, Samsung, Amazon and Google.

He is a recipient of the Civil and Human Rights Award recognized by the Urban League of Kansas City, Southern Christian Leadership Conference and NAACP. He has also engaged in a number of public talks as a prison industrial complex Abolitionist thinker including on; NPR, PBS, a Kansas City Art Institute Lecture, a lecture at University of the Arts London, the Annual International Symposium (Digital Ethics for a Sustainable Society), as well as the T-Mobile Speaker Series.

While Cutting Buses for the Poor, KCATA Signed a Secret Deal to Harvest Their Faces for a Private Company’s AI

By Ryan S. ● Technology & AI ● August 25, 2026

A secret contract. No policy protecting riders’ data. The Defender obtained the deal KCATA signed to harvest bus riders’ faces for AI.

“I Can’t Breathe!” Black Community Leader Violently Attacked & Arrested For Resisting KC Billioniare Stadium

By Ryan S. ● Justice ● August 19, 2026

A Royals stadium worker was violently attacked and pinned to the ground at City Hall as Kansas City advanced the billionaire ballpark with no public vote.

Missouri Begins the Medical Torture of Trans People in Its Prisons. The People It Caged Are Fighting Back

By Ryan S. ● Abolition ● August 10, 2026

Da’Shae Breeze learned to write at Maya Angelou’s desk. Now she writes to The Defender from a solitary confinement cell as Missouri strips away her medical care. She spoke to us from inside state prison, alongside Jessica Hicklin, who spent 26 years in maximum security and won the federal ruling the state just defied.

Kansas City Killed the Data Center. The Tax Scheme It Was Feeding Is Still Alive

By Ryan S. ● Technology & AI ● August 6, 2026

A Miami fund bought a 126-year-old downtown building, quietly signed away the right to demolish it, then asked Kansas City for permission to demolish it anyway and build a 20-story data center. A leading legal scholar reviewed the paperwork The Defender obtained and called it by its name. This week, Kansas City said no.

If We Must Die: A Black August Tribute from the Heart of the Country

By Ryan S. ● Revolutionary Politics ● August 3, 2026

Born behind prison walls, carried across the diaspora, Black August is the month we count our martyrs and sharpen ourselves. McKay gave us the vow. Missouri and Kansas gave us the battleground.

Put Some Respek on Bizzy’s Name: The Plaza, White Media, and the “Inaugural” Theft of 816 Day

By Ryan S. ● Propaganda Observer ● August 1, 2026

Black entrepreneur and widely beloved Promoter Brian “Bizzy” Benton founded 816 Day in 2017. Now in 2026 KCTV5 calls the event “inaugural.” Black Kansas City has a lot to say.

Major Voter Disenfranchisement in Kansas? Black and Latino Majority County Mailed Ballots With a Return Address the Post Office Won’t Deliver To

By Ryan S. ● Politics ● July 31, 2026

Voters in a Black and brown majority county are finding their completed ballots back in their own mailboxes, sealed and uncounted, four days before the Kansas primary. The county printed a retired post office box on the return envelope and the Postal Service stopped delivering to it. Nobody will say how many votes it hit.

KC FedEx Driver Caught on Ring Camera Saying N*gger at Black-Owned Business Because They Took Too Long Answering Door

By Ryan S. ● Racism Exposed ● July 15, 2026

A delivery to a Black women-founded brokerage in the West Plaza took a violent turn when the driver, frustrated that no one answered within seconds, was recorded using a racial slur at the front door. The company’s founder says she wants answers from FedEx.

ICE Gestapo Weaponize New Fascist Kansas Law That Makes It Illegal to Witness ICE

By Ryan S. ● Fascism Watch ● July 15, 2026

Kansas Republicans overrode their own governor to pass the Halo Act, a moving 25-foot arrest zone around every agent in the state. In Olathe, ICE is already using it to trap the people who film them, with local police finishing the arrests.

The Future of Politics Is Streaming Live From Kansas City

By Ryan S. ● Politics ● July 15, 2026

Somewhere between a gerrymander and a Twitch stream, American politics broke open in Kansas City. Young people are staging leftist insurgencies all across the country while millions watch live, and nobody who drew the maps saw them coming.

Ryan S.

Ryan's Latest Articles