Until All of us are Free
Ijeoma Iluo has undertaken a year-long project bridging several of my interests: particularly understanding how anti-Blackness serves as the foundation for so many other marginalizations, and how liberating any one type of oppression helps free all of us.
Keep Those Cards & Letters (& EMAILS & Phone CallS) coming
Like sorting your recycling, yard waste and garbage, emailing your representative, emailing your congressperson, signing yet another petition may feel tedious, time-consuming, and ultimately not that effective. Don't let it stop you! Many organizers have come up with ways to make it super easy to prompt you with links, scripts, and reminders. It's a little action against a big system—but there are a lot of us. Your action…
My Devotion to Democracy, Questioned
I've been eagerly waiting for 2042—have you? That's the year we were told, back in 2008, that the U.S. would become a "majority minority" country—meaning people racialized as white would be less than 50% of the American population for the first time since the country's founding. Which means more democrats, right? It’s called democratic destiny and I totally bought into it.
A Story of Two Commitments, and a Conclusion About Tenderness
What happened to my environmental commitment? Do I really actually have one? It feels...lost. Insubstantial. Fraudulent. Not really a commitment. A promise I didn't keep. Do you see what's happening here? I'm beginning to feel bad about myself. I believe I know why; it's something I learned from my anti-racism work—it's easier to feel bad about myself, to infuse my nervous system with the familiarity of guilt, fear, shame, and doubt, than it is to feel grief.
Drop Prime Now
Yes the holidays are coming. Likely you have some scrambling for gifts going on. You also have a commitment to collective liberation, to equity, and to our planet. For all those reasons and others that impact people next door and around the world, boycott Amazon. The temptation of convenience is strong, deliberately. Lean into your commitment; you're stronger. Your action…
Everything About Haymarket Books
Haymarket Books is a radical, independent, nonprofit book publisher based in Chicago. Since the pandemic, they're also my go-to for webinars, panel discussions, and teach-ins that feature the voices that most inform my understanding of collective liberation: Mohammed El-Kurd, Naomi Klein, Arundhati Roy, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Chenjerai Kumanyika, Eve Ewing, Aja Monet, Mariame Kaba, Rebecca Solnit, Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, Marc Lamont Hill, Astra Taylor, Angela Y. Davis and so many more.
Preparing for the Long Haul, Again
It's going to be a long four years...and they haven't even started yet. Despondency, despair, grief, fear: experiencing and metabolizing these and whatever else comes up is critical to staying healthy, and staying engaged. Many events this month are designed to support, embolden, fortify, or prepare us as we work to keep our world humane.
The Troublesome Word in “White Supremacy Culture” Is Not the One You’d Expect
We are a culture that freaks out at the word supremacy. For good reason: most of us came to know the word as we came to know about the KKK—individuals categorically called White Supremacists. Similarly, we definitely freak out when we're called racist; because most of us came to know that word as it's relegated to the KKK. So white supremacist = racist = KKK which definitely didn't mean me, my friends, or my family.
WA State Wants to Hear From You—LGBTQ+ FOlks
The Washington LGBTQ Commission has sponsored a survey study giving LGBTQ+ Washington residents the opportunity to voice their concerns and provide important information to increase state officials' understanding of the community's demographics and geographic distribution. Your action…
The Tender Work: An Approach to the Work of Mattering
My interest is the mattering of all people. This is tender terrain; everyone hurts in a society where some people matter more and some matter less. We know that the pain of that hurt lands differently on different bodies. There is the pain of not being seen, or acknowledged, or regarded as a human being, tender under the skin as we all are.
Three Movies That Sing
Mariame Kaba and Andrea Ritchey are esteemed elders in the world of abolition, who launched an organization called Interrupting Criminalization (IC) about five years ago. Their work has been prolific, including research, reports, zines, podcasts, convenings, webinars, books, and much more. The overall focus: ending criminalization, policing, and punishment. Check out the curriculum they’re offering.
Here’s What Michelle Obama May Have Meant by “Do Something”
At the DNC, Michelle Obama implored us to do something. I thought it would have been helpful to have some specifics: many of us want to do something, many just need some clear direction. Focusing on the election, here are a few things I've come up with. Your action:
Leveraging What I’ve Long Known: A Reflection on Identity & Action
In the context of my anti-oppression work—or more positively, my work toward liberation and human rights—I've been thinking about what I do. Although I don't tend to walk in the door announcing that I'm an educator and a writer, that's actually how I think of myself and what I do. What's interesting is how long it took for either of these deeply held impulses—intertwined loves, I would even say—to come to mind as something I could offer in my commitment to everyone mattering.
Build Your Abolitionist Capacity
Mariame Kaba and Andrea Ritchey are esteemed elders in the world of abolition, who launched an organization called Interrupting Criminalization (IC) about five years ago. Their work has been prolific, including research, reports, zines, podcasts, convenings, webinars, books, and much more. The overall focus: ending criminalization, policing, and punishment. Check out the curriculum they’re offering.
Figure Out *What You Do*
Here's a helpful framework I've used when I want evaluate what anti-oppression or liberatory actions I'm taking, or want to do more, or be more effective. Choose one oppression you feel most riled about, or spread a few interests across the four categories below. Your action:
Vulnerability Math: A Constant Calculation
My one night in a hospital, appendectomy included, came to $35,000. My share came to $6000. I felt really pouty about this; outraged, actually, and definitely deserving of financial assistance. As I filled out the hospital's aid application though, a few minutes of vulnerability math tempered my sense of entitlement. Over 60 + Jewish + a cancer survivor + female = a really low vulnerability to oppression score.
Well, That Explains It: The Set-Up of settler Colonialism
Settler colonialism is nothing if not this hoarding, and racism is an integral part of its ecology. This article “The Set-Up’ of Settler Colonialism” by political educator David Dean has given me a deeper understanding of what settler colonialism is, what purpose it serves, and how racism is both a tool and a by-product. I really appreciated how he drew parallels between three versions of settler colonialism: here in the U.S., in Ireland, and in Palestine.
Check Your App: Conscionable Purchases
I want to spend my money in ways that further the work I put into human rights, not obstruct it. I'm a tiny player in a huge system...but there are a lot of us. Here are a couple of apps we can use to make conscionable choices. Your action:
Stewarding Social Justice: A Thing I Didn’t Know I was Doing
The term 'social justice steward' is new to me, and I'm intrigued. It sounds more appealing than 'social justice warrior', a term that to me evokes a picture of someone so dedicated to a movement that their commitment becomes a detriment to their well-being (physically, emotionally) and relationships (family, others in their movement). While warrior evokes a combative posture, steward makes me think of the tenderness I felt when raising my kids, or about the three very small trees I recently planted.
Get a Kid With Medical Needs Out of Gaza
I have a friend in Seattle who created an organization that is working to get people out of Gaza. So far, she and her group Donkeysaddle Projects have evacuated over 100 individuals and set them up with critical basic needs like housing or medical care for at least several months. Your action: