this is your thanksgiving reminder that the chinook tribe is still fighting for federal recognition, which means they are unable to access programs and resources. please take some time today to sign their petition and donate if you’re able to. and if you live in washington or oregon please write to your elected officials.
and another reminder that the quileute tribe (the very real tribe that was featured in twilight and received no compensation) is still located in a tsunami zone and is trying to move to higher ground. please consider donating.
Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that fascism is already here, that people are already dying who could be saved, that generations more will die or live poor butchered half-lives if you fail to act. Do what must be done, discover your humanity, and your love in revolution. Pass on the torch. Join us, give up your life for the people.
So it happened again: we, the people who voted, “decided” on who is best suited to control our bodies. Who do we want to dictate our futures, our livelihoods, our capacity for happiness and to be our truest selves? Who do we want dictating the laws that make up the culture we live in? I’m speaking about more than just the president, though the president’s power is often what is felt most readily and seen most apparently. It is not hidden within a body of people; the president’s decisions are reposted about on social media and dissected in every media publication, from SNL to the New York Times. With the other branches and levels of government: state vs. federal, Senate vs. House, you will find this is more difficult. For many of us, American politics is a nebulous thing, and voting every two to four years is our only intersection with it. However, at any level of government, the final analysis remains the same: your rights, your capacity to exist in this country at your current class position, etc. are all determined by this small collection of politicians that are elected via a process that makes very little sense. Nor does this process accurately represent the wants of all people, including those who didn’t or cannot vote, muchless the people who did. It is even less guaranteed that this process and this small group of people represent the needs of the people.
These are the conditions, no matter what phase of the election cycle we are in and no matter how I might wish they were different. There are other conditions unique to this election cycle: Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, their campaigns, and what is currently happening in the country and across the globe. I could analyze how these unique conditions arose and how they inform our future work, but that is better suited to a later essay, one which more than likely builds off the following. Instead, this essay is about dealing with the conditions as they are.
Understand the necessity for community
First, admit to yourself that this need is not a new one. People have been organizing and supporting one another for the entirety of United States history, though they may have had an easier time or a clearer path towards community due to their unique conditions. We live in our own unique conditions: we have been isolated from each other via commuter cities, the Internet revolution, our crumbling economy, polarizing culture wars, etc. Our times feel so uncertain, and sometimes, it is all we can do to shuffle off to work, come home, eat some food, scratch our cat’s ears, and zone out in front of the many screens at our disposal. Going out isn’t a normal occurrence; when we leave our houses, it is for some purpose, and we often do not have many opportunities to interact with each other. Sometimes, we deliberately avoid these interactions, for whatever reasons we may have. In many ways and for many of us, our neighbors have become foreign to us. Perhaps this feeling extends to your family, your friends, and even your own body.
Donald Trump winning the presidency may be your wakeup call to these facts. I doubt his winning isn’t the first time you’ve realize that community is something you are missing. You have no one to rely on except yourself, maybe a significant other, and maybe your family. You may have put off ingraining yourself in your community for fear of rejection, of not finding you fit in, out of laziness, etc.
I hope for many of you, you recognize that you were always headed here. The need to know your neighbor and to help each other in times of distress and joy is a natural inclination, and to deny yourself this is to deny your own humanity. Donald Trump winning has not changed this deeply human need.
Second, when saying we need to build community, understand that this task is difficult. It will require you to utilize activation energy in order to do things that make you uncomfortable, or that you may not want to do. Do not delude yourself into thinking this is an easy task, but nothing rewarding ever comes with ease, besides perhaps love. You will have to find local organizations that are already helping each other, you will have to go through many awkward interactions and admit to yourself (and probably others) that you have no idea what you’re doing, and you will have to keep doing this over and over again until it becomes second nature to work in community with others. You may find the experience lonely, at least at first. This was the case for me, and I still return to the feelings of loneliness and isolation when I put myself into a new context where I am uncomfortable. However, everytime you push yourself, you are planting the seeds of your own power. You will find, in community, that the autonomy and sense of self you thought you lost has existed within you. I often tag posts on this blog “your humanity is your own,” and that is because I made this an affirmation. Community is one of the biggest ways to truly learn this fact.
Lastly, understand that community does not inherently mean you will make friends, and to help one another is not always a pleasant or fun task. It shouldn’t be. It is work to show up for one another, but this work allows you to accomplish much more than you would otherwise. In order to fully realize the people’s power, we must work to show each other what that power looks like. To serve each other is to provide for one another, and of the ways to show a people that revolution is possible, to accomplish this task is perhaps the most important. The other way you build up confidence in yourself and others, in your power, is by winning. You will find it is easier to win concessions and to have your demands met by the state when the people fighting are all provided for. If you would like an example of what this looks like, look at the Section 504 sit-in, which would not have been possible without the solidarity shown between the Black Panthers and Disabled in Action. There are other examples throughout history as well. You can look at the successes of the solidarity encampments put up across the country. Those were only sustainable because people — students, community members, faculty, etc. — rallied around each other and supported one another. Having gone to the encampments before and befriended students who led them, it is obvious how much work, collaboration, arguing, kindness, etc. went into keeping each other safe and provided for.
Accept the election happened and move on.
I’m not saying bury your feelings or that you are not entitled to feel upset, betrayed, or otherwise disgruntled with this country and its heads of state. Do not pretend as though everything is fine. However, ground yourself. Stop blaming each other. Stop pointing fingers. Do not dwell in the doomerisms nor do you need to go out and buy that Handmaid’s Tale costume. Understand that the Democrats failed to keep Donald Trump out of office — they failed, not you. The Democrats are not your friends. They are politicians. They will be fine when Trump takes office. They will be likely better off when he leaves. They survived the first four years (look at Kamala’s own political career if you do not believe me), and they will survive the next. Instead, ask yourself: how are you surviving the next four years? The four after that? Are you always going to rely on the Democratic Party to tend to your needs, to be the people you can trust with your bodily autonomy, or are you tired?
I’m exhausted. There are organizers and activists older than me that are even more exhausted. There are people living their lives, completely disenfranchised from any idea of activism or community, just trying to live, and they’re more tired than the rest of us. I’m sure if you’re reading this, you’re tired too.
What I’m saying is this — move past voting and party politics. Accept that the election happened, we are faced more acutely with the threats against our bodies that were always there. For the entirety of United States history, it has been a story of a small group of people controlling the autonomy of the masses, either through our labor, through apartheid, through colonialism, etc. Read the first paragraph again if you need to know why voting is not the only option, why it should not be the only option.
We have to take our autonomy back. They will not give it to us freely. We cannot play their games and expect them to win, and as we’ve seen with Joe Biden, even when they do win, they do not fight for us. Dream bigger than someone else’s control over your existence. You deserve better. The people around you deserve better. Even the people who voted for Trump.
Invest yourself in the people around you because they are the ones you have the most in common with. If you want to get through the next four years and not feel like every moment is certain death in this country, then we will need each other. There is no way around it. Nothing has ever changed in this country because of the ballot box. Things have changed because the people demanded it, and the political elites were forced to listen. It takes a collective in order to build enough power to leverage it. It will take a people’s movement.
Mourn your losses. Feel the anxiety, the panic, the despair. But ground yourself in the people and the community around you. It is through the work, through becoming part of a community, that you will find hope.
Hope is a discipline. It’s less about ‘how you feel,’ and more about the practice of making a decision every day, that you’re still gonna put one foot in front of the other… It’s work to be hopeful. It’s not a fuzzy feeling. You have to actually put in energy, time, and you have to be clear-eyed, and you have to hold fast to having a vision. It’s a hard thing to maintain. But it matters to have it, to believe that it’s possible to change the world.”
— Mariame Kaba
Share space!
You know the importance of community. You may be starting to grasp why holding onto this election is distractionary and will not be fruitful. To connect the two pieces, though, you should understand that the same people you may be misdirecting your anger at are the ones you will eventually want to build community with. You need to acquire and realize your own power, but you will eventually realize that you need more than the power of a select few.
Don’t twist my words, however — there are some people that will never be welcomed into community spaces. In the same breath, there are countless people who have been brainwashed by the same political hum-drum that everyone else has, myself included! These people are facing similar material conditions as you, sometimes worse in some cases, and their reliance on electoral politics to save them stems from the same lack of autonomy and feelings of powerlessness that you experienced this election. You may not be able to convince them that your path is the most fruitful. You may break up with your boyfriend or lose friends in the process of becoming politically engaged in a way that decenters the Democrats and Republicans. You are not responsible for convincing them to join you now, but you should understand that eventually, the movement you are trying to build may need their power and they may be inclined to give it. If you dedicate yourself fully to building a community that 1) provides for each other and 2) can win its demands, then a lot of the people who are apolitical, who may have even voted for Trump, those who sat at home this election, who didn’t vote for Kamala, or even those who did may be inclined to join us. They may not. However, your cruelty towards them should not be the reason why they are not invited into community spaces (unless, of course, they’re a fucking Proud Boy, then they are never welcome). When building community, you will need to embrace nuance, and in embracing nuance, you should recognize that this election was hellish and presented most people with an impossible choice. Do not waste any more breath making enemies out of people who could one day be your allies. Accept the conditions for what they are, and find out what your next steps should be.
What are my next steps?
Finding community initiatives to join is simultaneously so difficult, but also quite easy if you know where to look. For me, I took to Instagram, and usually you can maneuver your way about by looking at organization’s Following, other accounts they co-Post with, tag, etc. Googling “mutual aid [City Name]” isn’t always a bad idea, either. If you’re absolutely stuck, you could try looking into if your city has any of these groups active (or if you could start your own chapter):
Palestinian Youth Movement
USPCN
Food Not Bombs
(if student) Students for a Democratic Society
(if student) Students for Justice in Palestine
Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression
Antiwar Action Network
Nodutdol
Anakbayan
Additionally, Elliot Sang made a video that provides other next steps that I fully agree with, many of which I’ve taken in my own journey to joining the organizing community around me. He provides additional resources and readings that are super helpful, and in general, his content is refreshing and can be a light in the dark sometimes.
the genocide of the palestinian people at the hands of the state of israel is not a one-year-old endeavor. it began with the nakba in 1948 and ideologically originated decades before that.
[text id: The role of the lover is exactly the same as the role of the artist. If I love you, I must make you aware of the things you do not see. end id]
i dont really know how you can look at the american legal system and not see it a system intended to enforce racial hierarchy and subjugation of black people in america. apartheid in the sense that there is an entirely different course of law depending on race. and thats the entire history of this country. why anyone wants to salvage anything from american nationhoood is beyond me
Palestinian blogs on here are not scams. Palestinian blogs on here are not scams. Some people are scammers taking advantage of a situation, but most people just want to live. Vetted blogs aren't scams. They aren't scammers. There is a person on the other side of that screen who doesn't want to die. Do you get it yet.
Dismissing all Palestinian blogs on here as scams to absolve yourself as guilt makes you a horrible person just so you know. Ignoring the pleas of suffering people because you're selfish and can't be bothered to even extend sympathy makes you lower than dirt.
Sprinkled throughout with her poetry, her unique voice, and her undying resilience, Assata is one of the best autobiographies I’ve read and perhaps the most radicalizing work I’ve encountered yet. She speaks of revolution, and I believe her wholeheartedly. Reading her book, I understand why she became a target — she saw through the bullshit and told it like it is, oftentimes with blunt compassion. Role models, or people whose way of seeing I believe in wholeheartedly, are rare. Assata Shakur is a role model though.
Her novel is one I can see myself revisiting countless times over. I’ve taken many a screenshot or recorded from my hard copy countless quotes that smack of truth or in some capacity guide me. In due time, they’ll be posted up here for me to revisit.
This review is short because there isn’t much to critique or even to reflect on. Her words speak for themself, and I can’t recommend this book enough. If you ever find yourself doubting your work, or perhaps you need to be brought back to center and revitalized on what you’re doing, read her words!
Truly, one of the things my friends and comrades have bemoaned is our lack of elders. It isn’t that they don’t exist — they surely do — but they often aren’t there to teach us how to understand what we’re doing or even to guide us on what we’re doing. I think, truthfully, that’s why the Uncommitted movement and electoralism has been the biggest solution people have looked to; we need guidance. We need leadership. We need someone to tell us that power is ours if only we continue to struggle. Struggle’s something that we’re afraid of right now, but Shakur makes me look at struggle with fresh eyes, with a greater appreciation. Her wisdom is precious, especially right now.
Khaled has been getting only ONE donation every single DAY for almost a week now. Please don’t forget him, and help him evacuate and register for university classes
£1,298 raised of £10,000 goal as of August 18. This goal is extremely attainable
Samih al-Qasim, “Enemy of the Sun,” trans. Naseer Aruri and Edmund Ghareeb, in Enemy of the Sun: Poetry of Palestinian Resistance
for several decades, this poem was circulated in Black Panthers circles and attributed to George Jackson, a Black revolutionary, because it was found handwritten in his cell after he was killed. Greg Thomas, who discovered this, said it was a “mistake of radical kinship.” [more on this]
vaporwave
romaincrisis
theartofmadeline
jbbartram-illu
dededos
baratheonpilled
