In Debt and Solidarity

This week in collective care, we’re faced with attacks on trans youth, justice for stolen sisters, climate threats and vaccine apartheid (just to name a few). And it had me reflecting on how, in some ways, it feels more difficult to respond to all that is needed in each moment. With Trump, we got to consolidate our rage and collective action into one package. And in his absence, we are left with a great big debt.

In White Debt, Eula Biss grapples with the moral and material debt of whiteness. How what we are facing is “what is owed and can never be repaid”.

But the word solidarity also has roots in debt. It is an agreement among a group of people bound together — in solidum — as equally responsible for a debt. Solidarity is how we reconcile what is owed and show up for our collective wellbeing. It is not transactional, but relational in how it affirms our interconnection. It is not charity, but mutuality in how it understands that our survival and liberation are bound.

Kerri (she/her)

Art by @inktally

1. The WH just got on the right side of history by breaking patents to make COVID vaccines available around the world. But monopolists are gonna monopolize. Anand Giridharadas on why big pharma is defending patents over people. [click to tweet]

2. 2021 has been a record year for transphobic policy. How anti-trans laws that prohibit and criminalize essential healthcare are making trans youth feel unsafe. [click to tweet]

3. A new study has affirmed the growing and long overdue awareness among scientists and conservationists that Indigenous societies are the best caretakers of biodiversity. Indigenous rights and natural protection go hand in hand. [click to tweet]

4. Dare we hope? Rebecca Solnit’s cautious case for climate optimism…but only if we go actively toward the possibilities rather than passively into the collapse. [click to tweet]

5. Happy Mothers Day. But also happy day to all the women who choose to be female and childfree. A photo essay of women who said now to motherhood. [click to tweet]

In solidarity with…

INDIGENOUS WOMEN: May 5 is the day of observance shines a light on the staggering number of abducted and murdered Indigenous women, girls, trans and 2-spirit people. They are being kidnapped, trafficked, abused and murdered at devastating rates (much of which goes unreported). Learn more. Donate.

TRANS YOUTH: Anti-Trans laws in Arkansas and other states are making trans youth feel unsafe. Reconcile Arkansas builds community power for transformation through mutual aid, popular education, and solidarity practices that centers Arkansas' most vulnerable community members: queer and transgender people. Donate.

INDIA: Some good news: the WH announced that it supports breaking up patents to make COVID vaccines available to India and other struggling countries. The bad news is that India has now topped 20 million cases. Here’s a list of mutual aid fundraisers providing support on the ground.

Art by @morningstartdesigns

In adrienne maree brown’s latest blog, she reminds us that this is a “boundary moment”. Every day, we are making decisions about risk that affect our personal and collective wellbeing. Nothing is guaranteed or full proof, which leaves many of us grappling with difficult decisions about seeing family and friends, returning to “work” and learning how to be in the world again. As America begins to open its doors and things become “safe-ish”, how are you navigating personal and collective boundaries? She offers some suggestions:

1. Start with the facts. Refer to the CDC guidelines as a foundation for what we know and don’t know.

2. Agree on boundaries. Build your strategy for this next phase on the guidance of experts and scientists. Talk about it with your loved ones. Consider what happens when those boundaries are broken.

3. Organize. COVID anywhere is COVID everywhere. Advocate and donate to ensure that more people worldwide have access to the vaccine and medical support.

Art by @prentis.hempill

My dear friend Nikki Myers says “you have to have a solid no in order to have a strong yes”. No is necessary for yes to be possible.

Trust your boundaries. Respect your decisions. And say No.

Art by @@hannahharand

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