Trials Are All of Our Own
By Bryan Panarella and E. Paris Whitfield
Bryan Panarella (Bryan) and E. Paris Whitfield (Paris) are in agreement about Emily L. Thuma's All Our Trials, a masterfully written book that looks at how to end people's, and spaces of, oppression through a Black and Brown feminist lens.
Paris: "Hi Bryan, thank you for agreeing to do this book review together. I think there's this perception, oftentimes, depending on one's race, gender, age, and geography, that in prison reading a book like this would solicit many disagreements regarding systemic, and other forms of, violence towards women. Can I ask you how you identify?"
Bryan: "I'm a straight heterosexual male, 33, Puerto Rican and Italian and I'm from downtown Manhattan, what about you how do you identify?"
Paris: "Well, I'm a two-spirited male, in my 40s, Black West Indian and Afro-indigenous, and I'm from uptown Manhattan, Spanish Harlem."
Paris: "Before we start the review, do you want to say a little about how you came across Emily L. Thuma's book?"
Bryan: "You and I are in Study and Struggle together and it is our newest selected book. But, that's not to say why the book did not just sit on my locker in my cell; I felt like the book sort of found me, given what's happening in New York state right now, in 2025, with carceral violence and the statewide lock down... not to forget the national guard being sent in"
Paris: "You're right, I have been incarcerated for 23 years, and I've never seen the national guards deployed into the state's prisons, or any of the other reasons for why they are here, but I think this is a great segue into the review, so should we get started? You start the review, and I'll intermittently share my observations and commentary, okay?"
Bryan: "Yeah, Let's Go!"
Bryan: So, here's the layout, as I see it:
In order to understand our present situation of violence perpetrated on women, we only need to look back to our not-so-long ago past. Emily L. Thuma's All our Trials depicts, for the readers, what has been historically and continuously the same struggle against racism, sexism, and classism, which all play a vital role in the legal system, across the world, to include the U.S.
For instance, in Chapter I, Thuma highlights four women: Joan Little, Inez García, Dessie Woods and Yvonne Wanrow's harrowing stories of the conflicts they faced in seeking justice, while being seen as "Third World women." These women were faced with scorn when trying to defend themselves against male figures who seek to dominate them in a physical, sexual, way.
Paris: "For me, this chapter sets the stage in a way that points to who are our most vulnerable demographic, right? It lays out the facts, very in your face, that the feminist fight can never be truly universal, because the needs, laws, geography, on top of all the " isms" are not universal." My point, modern feminism skews politically progressive so much that it's leaving some women, and some issues, behind.
My reading of Chapter I, I observed examples of misogynist and gender-based violence, which leads to examples of sexual oppression and policing of femininity.
I did not pick up on the "Third World" aspect, as in how Thuma talks about it, until you and I spoke about it. But now after reading the book, I can see how it's just another tactic to delegitimize and silence survivors who seek to speak up against their abuser(s).
Bryan: "As you know, Thuma centers Black/Brown feminism in this book, because this lens is specific to Black, Asian, Indigenous, Hispanic women worldwide. Paris, you and I have talked about this often, there's different iterations of feminism and rather seeing those iterations as waves, I think, for women of color, Black feminism is a continuum, which has always sought different rights, struggles, freedoms separate from their white counterpart’s movement, which has always excluded them.
And, speaking of silencing survivors, Chapter II, highlights how psychiatric institutions became a tool used to silence and control those who were not submissive to the authority figure's ideal of women's behavior, actions, and reactions.
Women who were deemed rebellious, were also labeled mentally ill, and they were physically and psychologically abused. This forced me to think about how this systemic gender-based violence is a method used by correctional authority figures to maintain control of the prison population, even in men prisons"
Paris: "As I think about that, as a two-spirited person, I wonder if trans women in female prisons suffer doubly under gender-based violence. And my wonderment is not to minimize what heterosexual women endures in that space, but this violence does occur in men's prisons, for sure.
I see that Thuma's book is asking us to think about the historical corroborated and cooperation between marginalized communities to achieve "reproductive justice, and freedom from violence, and racial justice were all connected--that all of these things were interrelated," as Thuma writes.
Bryan: "Paris to that point, in Chapter III, the movement spread through newsletters and activists who witnessed how sex, race, class and age played a part in controlling those within the carceral space. And, the movement moved even further along when organizations paired with other organizations who shared the vision of abolition."
Paris: "I have a feeling, for Chapter IV, you are going to talk about Yolanda Ward?"
Bryan: "I am. But here is why. In today's climate, its hard to always connect the past with what's happening right now. But the assassination of Yolanda Ward, in Chapter IV, conjured up images of other powerful leaders who have threatened the status quo which is baked into the patriarchy, which is rooted in white supremacy violence carried out through gender, sexism, ageism, racism and otherism."
Paris: "I agree Bryan, but for me, Thuma is saying a thing, without explicitly saying a thing in this book. I believe the undercurrent of this book leads me to think that one of the failures of radical thinkers, activists, pontificators (let's just put that in there, too) focuses on the political and legal system for redress, and not love.
The same system that causes, supports, and allows the violence, isn't going to stop without cause. Audre Lorde tells us we can never "use the master's tools" to destroy the master's house. And all of these systems are people, people who are not operating from a perspective of love.
I am not talking about the romantic or mushy kind of love, but the sort of love when those who are in these systems of power can see themselves, or their loved ones, in the same gender-based violence as the people in All Our Trials. I just don't know if resistance without love is enough. Black liberation, through the Black queer feminist lens, is inclusive and through "love" for all of Blackness, of all shades, even down to our non-melanated kinfolks.
Bryan: "Fair enough, and on that note, I'm reminded that Thuma actually quotes Angela Davis, saying a "Wall turned sideways are bridges," and when you think about it: we create bridges by building coalition, sharing in the struggle, and recognizing the humanity in others only through the seeing others as ourselves can we operate through the prism of love."
Paris: "I agree. Bryan thank you, my Brother, for exploring this great book with me, any last comments, critiques, or thoughts?"
Bryan: "Yeah. Reading this book challenged my assumptions about gender-violence and it made me think about the women in my life, my wife, mom, sister, and so forth, and what work I can be doing to end gender-violence, period."
I think that men of color, any man, could grow mentally by reading this book, because this information is not taught in many of the spaces I've been in. I have gained some exposure to feminism through my education at Bard College, but that brand of feminism isn't what Thuma has taught me, after my readings on Black and Brown feminism in this book."
Paris: "I too have more work to do. I just want to add to that sentiment, "any man" can learn. I think we bring our experiences and backgrounds into deciphering great reading. In many ways, Thuma is acknowledging so many Black feminist voices, Ella Baker, bell hooks, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Audre Lorde, Assata, Angela Davis, Barbara Smith, Cathy Cohen,Patricia Hill Collins, Mariame Kaba, Barbara Ransby and so many more.
I, too, did not learn about state violence, racial capital (thank you Cedric Robinson and Robin D. G. Kelley), and Black and Brown feminism until I sought it outside of my Bard College general studies. I believe Thuma has given me more street scholar and academic rabbit holes to go down."
Bryan: "Me too. Me too. Thank you Paris, this book is real."
Today it's hard to find any two people who can agree on one thing, let alone on a book dealing with gender-based violence and state sanction oppression of women.
Bryan and I both believe this book is required reading for anyone who is serious about being a stakeholder in ending all forms of gender based violence and oppression. Thuma is suggesting that many of the answers to these sorts of issues, gender-based violence, can be found in those who are, or at one time have been harmed by this sort of violence - or even those who perpetrated these harms themselves, after receiving the proper education and tools.
Bryan Panarella is majoring in math, with a secondary focus in biology. He currently serves as a math mentor and hopes to pursue a career in structural engineering. Bryan is also a member of The Prisoners’ Brain Trust and a published essayist and poet.
Eric Paris Whitfield is Confounder of Prisoners' Brain Trust, Study and Struggle host, and 2023 graduate from Bard College with his senior thesis entitled: Feminist Theory, NYC Black LGBTQ+ Youth and the Complexities of Intersectionality: Finding Autonomy amid Heteronormalcy and Racism. Currently, he is working on a Masters in Public Humanities.