Dean Spade on mutual aid: "In the context of contemporary culture, certain social movement activities align with imperatives of external validation & elitism. Reproductive labor, such as cooking; cleaning; maintaining 1-on-1 relationships...is devalued & mostly uncompensated." 1/
"Social movements reproduce these hierarchies, valuing people who give speeches, get published, and become visible as actors in ways that align w dominant hierarchies. It is glamorous to take a selfie with Angela Davis, but it is not glamorous to do weekly prison visits." 2/
"Such representations hide the realities of mass participation that does not produce careers or notoriety for most participants. For these reasons, mutual aid work is one of the least visible & most important forms of work tt social movements need to be developing right now." 3/
This is why I find academia to be the most hypocritical place from which to be building towards radical struggle (I'm including myself in this indictment). The entire edifice is structured around getting published, being visible, centering one's voice and analytical acuity... 4/
...-even when- one is writing about the importance of reproductive labor or collective mobilization or the need to decenter leadership. We are structurally incentivized to appropriate radical reproductive work, and seek celebrity, not solidarity. 5/
TL:DR, mad love to the people on the ground giving rides, taking care of old people, prescribing suboxone to unhoused folks, visiting people in prison, cooking, cleaning, caring, loving, and not writing or instagramming a lick about it. 6/6
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