I started thinking about writing about this the day Derek Chauvin was convicted and Ma’Khia Bryant was murdered. And then I had a very hard conversation with a friendquaintance on social media who suggested that Ma’Khia did deserve to be murdered, unlike other Black people like George Floyd, because she had a knife. The person who suggested this was a Black man, and I felt shame and sorrow about my response to him - which was anger, and which didn’t serve the larger conversation. But it silenced and confused me for a bit.
Bus stop mom Erin here 👋 Found this read really helpful as I’ve been someone hung up on the unpopularity of the phrase “defund the police” while believing in the principle. It’s challenging to know (without hindsight) what compromise is helpful/needed, when, and to your point by whom (maybe Biden can’t and shouldn’t use the term, but maybe I should) and what just preserves the white supremacy status quo.
Three important books:
How to Be An Antiracist, Ibram X. Kendi
The End of Policing, Alex S. Vitale
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander
Another important read:
https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2020/10/15/reforms-dont-work-defund-police-black-lives-matter
ARTICLES
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/09/police-reform-is-not-enough/614176/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/opinion/sunday/floyd-abolish-defund-police.html
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/16/its-not-about-bad-apples-how-us-police-reforms-have-failed-to-stop-brutality-and-violence
Bus stop mom Erin here 👋 Found this read really helpful as I’ve been someone hung up on the unpopularity of the phrase “defund the police” while believing in the principle. It’s challenging to know (without hindsight) what compromise is helpful/needed, when, and to your point by whom (maybe Biden can’t and shouldn’t use the term, but maybe I should) and what just preserves the white supremacy status quo.