Abolition is the way

Yet another Black life was taken by those who are sworn to protect the people. Of course, this is no surprise. The origins of policing are rooted in America’s original sin - designed to enforce slavery and protect white supremacy.

This context matters, because it speaks to how we create change. There is no incremental reform, no gentler policing, no punishment of “bad cops” that can address the poison that is embedded in the system itself. We cannot reform the criminal system, the same way that we cannot reform white supremacy. We must abolish it.

I am learning how abolition work is not just how we dismantle toxic structures and systems in our society, but how we confront and examine those systems within ourselves. How we police each other (even in the context of social justice) and call it accountability. But as Audre Lorde reminds us “the masters tools will never dismantle the master’s house”.

Police or the culture of policing won’t keep us safe. We keep us safe. Let us imagine a culture of accountability that is life affirming and creates the conditions for healing and wholeness.

Kerri (she/her)

Art by @zeaink

1. The emphasis on “why loot?” obscures the question which black people have asked for centuries: what kind of society values property over Black lives? [click to tweet]

2. If the prison shows up in the spaces where we live, learn, work, pray, and play, then these also have to be our sites of abolition. How being like water is abolitionist relationality. [click to tweet]

3. One trial can’t change American policing. It allows society to make Chauvin the problem instead of the historical and deeply embedded system of American policing. [click to tweet]

4. Moving at the speed of trust. Five ways to strengthen our rapid response power and advance narrative change when it matters most. [click to tweet]

5. Abolition is a collective vision. A conversation with Mariame Kaba about how the pandemic has raised the stakes for the abolition movement, collective care, and a world without prisons. [click to tweet]

We are channeling our sacred rage over the murder of Duante Wright into collective action and care. Here are some ways you can demand justice, support the community and help change the system:

DONATE FUNDS to the family of Duante Wright, resource protestors on the front lines with medic supplies/support and support the broader Brooklyn Center Community through the Minnesota Freedom Fund.

DEMAND JUSTICE for Duante Wright by calling Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and demanding an independent investigation of Daunte Wright’s death.

DEFUND THE POLICE. The over-policing of our communities – where Black and Brown people are criminalized, targeted, and killed – is not the answer. Send a message to Congress to end over-policing in our communities now. And follow abolitionist visionaries including Mariame Kaba, Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Rachel Herzing on how why we need abolition.

SUPPORT BLACK MATERNAL HEALTH. The police state is the carceral system is the medical industrial complex where black mothers die at 3.3 times the rate of white mothers. Support the Black Mamas Matter Alliance to help advance black maternal rights and justice.

Art @blackbirdrevolt

Mariame Kaba wants us to imagine a world without prisons. And, yes, she means literally abolish the police. Because we cannot reform white supremacy, we can only abolish it and the systems that uphold it. Here are some excerpts from the chapter “So You’re Thinking about Becoming an Abolitionist” in Mariame Kaba’s latest book We Do this Til We Free Us:

1. “None of us has all the answers, or we would have ended oppression already. But if we keep building the world we want, trying new things, and learning from our mistakes, new possibilities emerge.”

2. “First, when we set about trying to transform society, we must remember that we ourselves will also need to transform”.

3. “We are deeply entangled in the very systems we are organizing to change. White supremacy, misogyny, ableism, classism, homophobia, and transphobia exist everywhere.”

4. “We have all so thoroughly internalized the logics of oppression that if oppression were to end tomorrow, we would be likely to reproduce previous structures”.

5. “Second, we must imagine and experiment with new collective structures that enable us to take more principled action, such as embracing collective responsibility to resolve conflicts”.

6. “Third, we must simultaneously engage in strategies that reduce contact between people and the criminal legal system. Abolitionists regularly engage in organizing campaigns and mutual aid efforts that move us closer to our goals”.

7. “We must remember that the goal is not to create a gentler prison system because…a gentler prison and policing system cannot adequately address harm. Instead, we want to divest from these systems as we create the world in which we want to live.”

Art by @nytopinion

A reminder from @the.embodiment.institute

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