September: Intersectional

Session 2: Community Care

We’ve broken this unit on intersectionality into two sections. The second section is “Community Care.” Building on the discussions we had last week on the ways that different oppressions materialize in our bodies and communities, this week's discussion will prompt us to think about the ways that institutions built under white supremacy and capitalism fail to meet our needs, and the ways that we can build ideas and institutions that are truly life-giving, connective, and sustaining. What can we create together to care for each other in these moments of perpetual crisis? What can we learn from the people who came before us? This week, we’ll begin to think about what it looks like to conceptualize harm on a community level, how we can respond to it, and how we can take care of each other.

Don’t forget to check out the facilitator guide!

Readings

Core Texts

• Mariame Kaba, We Do This ‘Til We Free Us, “‘Community Matters. Collectivity Matters’” (p. 163-176)

  • Free e-books are available from Haymarket Books by clicking the link above. If you would like to send a full PDF of We Do This 'Til We Free Us to an incarcerated comrade, please write: dana [at] haymarketbooks.org.

• Assata Shakur, Assata, Chapters 7-10 (p. 118-159)

• Angela Davis, “Political Prisoners, Prisons, and Black Liberation” (1970) in Voices of a People’s History of the United States 

• Gustavo Madrigal-Piña, “Undocumented and Unafraid” (2011) in Voices of a People’s History of the United States

• Lesbians against Police Violence, interview with Barbara Lubinski (1979) in Remaking Radicalism

• Brian Glick, War at Home: Covert Action against US Activists and What We Can Do about It (1992) in Remaking Radicalism

• Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation, “Copwatch: Keeping an Eye on the Cops” (1995) in Remaking Radicalism

Supplemental Texts

• Creative Interventions Toolkit, “Introduction”

• “We Keep Each Other Safe” art, Trans Day of Resilience zine

Discussion Questions

Mariame Kaba, We Do This ‘Til We Free Us

• How does Mariame Kaba talk about the importance of experimenting as we organize towards abolition?

• What does Mariame Kaba mean that “the cops are in our heads and hearts?” What do you think the process looks like of getting the cops out of our heads and hearts? (p. 169-170)

Assata Shakur, Assata

• How do you relate to Assata’s statement, “It has always intrigued me how the world can be so beautiful and so ugly at the same time?” (p. 123-124)

• What does Assata mean by “how many ways racism can manifest itself” and “how many ways people fight against it”? Were the students fighting against racism? (p.136)

• Why does Assata identify with the company? Is this something you’ve experienced before? How did that shift for Assata? (p.149)

Angela Davis, “Political Prisoners, Prisons, and Black Liberation” (1970)

• Angela Davis writes, “The announced function of the police, ‘to protect and serve the people,’ becomes the grotesque caricature of protecting and preserving the interests of our oppressors and serving us nothing but injustice.” Have you seen examples of this in your own life? (p.497)

• When do you feel the most protected and the most safe?

Creative Interventions Toolkit, “Introduction”

• What is a community-based intervention to violence? (p.32) How does this compare to the ways that you’ve experienced response to violence in the past? 

• How does the Creative Interventions Toolkit define accountability? (p.32-33) Have you experienced this type of accountability in your life before? 

• How are the concepts in this toolkit connected to getting rid of “the cops in our heads and our hearts” that Mariame Kaba talks about?