Y'all means all

It’s hard not to be discouraged by what’s happening right now. The lie of separation, supremacy and scarcity continues to dominate around the world.

While western media paints a convenient picture of the good guys vs the bad guys in Ukraine, the prevalence of anti-black racism can’t be ignored. As Joy Reid pointed out "There is a lot of soul-searching we need to do in Western media about why some wars, and lives, seem to matter more than others, and why some refugees get the welcome mat, while others get the wall."

But that theme is playing out at home as well. Extreme and dangerous anti-trans legislation is sweeping the country, threatening trans youth, parents, teachers and communities. It is part of a system of superiority that determines who gets to be well and who doesn’t. But, actually, none of us are well unless all of us are well.

When Angela Davis was in jail, James Baldwin wrote her a letter saying, “We must fight for your life as though it were our own – which it is – and render impassable with our bodies the corridor to the gas chamber. For, if they take you in the morning, they will be coming for us that night.”

Some people aren’t worth saving. All people are worth saving.

Y’all means all.

Kerri (she/her)

1. Western media has largely portrayed the war between moral binaries — good against evil, autocracy against democracy and the free-loving peoples of the world against those who seek a different global order. How anti-Black racism upends these convenient narratives and binaries. [click to tweet]

2. “What we’re seeing is a national, well-funded effort to attack and eradicate trans youth and trans lives specifically”. Chase Strangio on the GOP’s push in Florida, Texas, Idaho to “Eradicate Trans Youth & Trans Lives”. [click to tweet]

3. More than $1.5 billion has been spent to settle claims of police misconduct involving thousands of officers repeatedly accused of wrongdoing. The hidden billion- dollar cost of repeated policing. [click to tweet]

4. Borders have turned the American Southwest, the Mediterranean, and countless other areas of our world into unnecessary graveyards for migrants. What Would an Open-Borders World Actually Look Like? [click to tweet]

5. Mindfulness is not going to help with the kinds of structural problems that stretch teachers beyond their limits. Stressed-out teachers say no thanks to superficial self care. [click to tweet]

Idaho is the latest state to try to ban transgender-affirming healthcare. It would make providing gender affirming care to trans teens a felony with a life sentence. Worse...it makes leaving the state with your trans child to move elsewhere and provide them with care a felony as well. This and other anti-trans bills around the country (35 total) are catastrophic to trans lives. All of which reminds us (during International Women’s Week) that if your feminism isn’t intersectional, it’s not feminism. Here’s what you can do:

RAISE HELL. Tell Lawmakers all Idaho youth deserve access to healthcare. And check out this legislative tracker tracking LGBTQ youth legislation nationwide.

SUPPORT TRANS COMMUNITY: Parents of Trans Youth, Trans Equality, Resources for Transgender Youth in Texas, Transgender Law Center, Trans Lifeline

VOTE THEM OUT. It’s not enough rally, we most vote out anyone who believes that some lives are worth more than others and vote in candidates who can advance the “radical revolution of values” we so desperately need in this country.

Art by @ctznwell, Words by Rachel Cargle

Angela Davis just reissued her classic memoir “Angela Y Davis: An Autobiography” and reflects on what has changed in this article. “I treasure this time, because it means I get to see that the work that was done 50 and 60 years ago really mattered, even though there were moments when all of us felt it was in vain.” It feels like exactly the perspective and optimism we need in a time of deep uncertainty and struggle. That despite the daily barrage of bad news and global threats, there is hope in the resistance. Hope, Mariame Kaba reminds us, “is a discipline”. Let us look to the wisdom of our elders to reconnect with our resistance and remember that we must “act as if it were possible to radically transform the world”, and we must do it all the time.

Art by @copsoutcps20

Grief is essential to wholeness.

Art and words by @thealchemistskitchen

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