One of my pet peeves is when people of privilege (particularly but not exclusively white people) dismiss a demand being made by the people they are oppressing as implausible or impossible because "you will never get people to support it." #DefundPolice
As though popular support is required for them to stop harming other people. As though public opinion doesn't include themselves. As though the "people" they're referring to are off wandering around somewhere else, and not engaged in the exact battle at hand. #DefundPolice
Stop saying "people will never support reparations" if what you mean is "I don't support reparations." Stop saying "people will never support defunding police" if what you mean is "I'M afraid to defund police." #DefundPolice
Stop blaming "people" for the continued suffering and subjugation of colonized communities, and start implicating yourself. #DefundPolice
Start admitting that you are actively opposed to the liberation of oppressed people because it is inconvenient to you, your wealth, your comfort. Trust me, most of the oppressed people you'll be admitting it to are already fully aware. #DefundPolice
We've been fighting uphill battles for generations, we've been surviving, and we've been winning. We'll win these battles, too, whether "people" support us or not. #DefundPolice
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The abolitionists of the 1800s lost a big audience when they said the institution of chattel slavery couldn't be redeemed. Slave owners--many rich and powerful--felt alienated by the statement. It was polarizing. In fact, it led to war. #DefundPolicepolitico.com/news/2020/12/0…
It would have been more diplomatic to call for reform: To stop beating slaves, to not separate parents from children, but allow the institution's core--one pop. of people owning another--to continue unfettered. Perhaps they might have won more over to their cause. #DefundPolice
Black people are no longer (literal) property in this country because the abolitionist movement called for slavery's abolition. It took a war for that demand to become reality. But the institution ended because of the clarity of movement, and its radical vision. #DefundPolice
Here’s why, against many of my core values, I’m doing so, why you should too if you’re able, AND why voting in this election is not revolutionary, and deeply insufficient:
I believe we need to use every tool we have at this moment. I believe a contested election gives us more fodder than one where Trump wins easily. I believe a racist establishment president is NOT BETTER but MORE NAVIGABLE than a fascist for of our most marginalized communities.
That being said, the idea that fascism can be voted away is dangerous, not only because fascism doesn’t care about the laws of democracy, but also because fascist movements that are mobilized at this moment will continue to be, regardless of how the election plays out.
It's good that more ppl are aware of the overlap between law enforcement, vigilante militias, and white nationalist organizing, but I'm also disturbed by the discourse that one has "infiltrated" the other. They are the same. #DefundPolice#AbolishPolicetheguardian.com/commentisfree/…
The overlap between law enforcement and white nationalism isn't a recent event. One is inseparable from the other. If police departments evolved from slave patrols, then policing begins with the goal of white nationalism. #DefundPolice#AbolishPoliceworxintheory.wordpress.com/2014/12/07/ori…
A cursory review of US history reveals this: Sundown towns, the birth of the KKK, race riots in which police watched white ppl to destroy neighborhoods of color. Policing and white nationalism have been bonded from their inception. #DefundPolice#AbolishPolice
The saddest thing about @ChiPubSchools voting yet again to keep police in CPS ins't just that they're on the wrong side of history, it's that getting on the right side is inevitable.
Hearing officials today use terms like "school to prison pipeline" and "restorative justice" while arguing FOR police in schools was insulting, and not even a good cover. We know exactly where you stand, and more importantly, we know where we stand. #CopsOutCPS#PoliceFreeSchools
The only members of the board who uplifted the actual voices/demands of youth were also the only ones who came with the actual data/stats that support #PoliceFreeSchools. @ChiPubSchools NO MORE STUDIES. The research has already been done and the findings are clear. #CopsOutCPS
Grateful to @them for running this story on HRC's deletion of a tweet praising #LoriLightfoot after Black and brown Chicagoans pointed to its hypocrisy.
I also want to challenge some of the analysis here, which comes directly from the her administration: them.us/story/hrc-dele…
From the article:
"In addition to the police beatings of protesters, Lightfoot also drew criticism for nightly shutdowns of transit service through downtown...The nightly road and transit closures, unrelated to protesting, were enacted after looting downtown on August 10."
The looting that occurred downtown and in other parts of the city WAS PART OF THE PROTESTS of policing. #LoriLightfoot's claim that the de facto separating of the predominately Black south side from the predominately white north side had nothing to do with protesting is a lie.
#Lightfoot has a similar profile to her predecessor #RahmEmanuel in that her national image and her status in the Democratic party matter much more to her than the opinion of local Chicagoans--especially Black, brown, immigrant, poor and working ones. #StopLightfoot#DefundCPD
The platforms these national orgs give #LoriLightfoot don't just shroud the violence she commits locally--they empower it. So long as she is allowed to masquerade as a champion or "racial justice" and "intersectionality" nationally, she is empowered to be the antithesis locally.