curious to see how anti-trafficking organizations who say #BlackLivesMatter are going to handle the demands by Black folks for abolition [that Black sex workers have been asking for through organizing around the decriminalization of sex work for years]. #DecrimNow
Black sex workers and survivors have been saying that increased policing harms us and our communities, and anti-trafficking organizations, including the ones who *say they care* about Black lives, ignored us. but there's no way around it—the people want #AbolitionNow! #DecrimNow
We've given the data + talking points over and over again and there's not really a way around it at this point. Either you're with Black folks' demands for #abolition + the decriminalization of the ways we survive, or you're not. Policing/jails inflict sexual and gender violence-
for too long, anti-trafficking organizations have demanded that we expand policing and state violence through surveillance, stop-and-frisk tactics on Black trans women, coercive jail and social service practices like the violent "diversion program" that killed #LayleenPolanco.
Even as other gender violence movement were learning from mistakes in the DV movement around mandatory arrest, coercive shelter practices (like kicking survivors out for continuing to engage with the person who caused harm), anti-trafficking movements refused to shift.
But the time is now. if you're not going to amplify the demands of Black folks calling for #AbolitionNotReform, then you'll have to acknowledge that you are expanding and maintaining the carceral system for grant funding and to enact violence on Black survivors. #DecrimNow
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