ANTI-RACISM DAILY

July 21, 2024

Weekend Edition

In The News

The history of police body cameras is more complex and troubling than we’ve been told. A new article in the Yale Journal of Law and Liberation aims to reveal the propaganda behind police body cameras and who has stood to benefit from “reform narratives”. Prism >

What abortion looks like in every state — right now. The Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade. This dashboard provides updates on the current status of abortion rights in each state. 19th News >

Their universities subjected their pro-Palestine encampments to violence. Now, these students distrust the academy. After brutal crackdowns on peaceful pro-Palestinian protests, students are disillusioned with higher education. Prism >

Meet the state senator leading efforts to return land to tribal nations. Mary Kunesh, the first Native woman to serve in the Minnesota state Senate, is applying a lifetime of wisdom to the landback movement. Grist >

Alabama outlawed slavery in prisons. Is it still happening? According to a lawsuit, two years after the state closed the slavery loophole in its constitution, people are still being punished for refusing to work while incarcerated. Capital B News >

Jackson, Mississippi, wants curfew centers to cut crime. Here’s what other cities learned. After a teen’s murder, city officials hope a curfew and youth centers will get kids off the street. Young people are skeptical. Marshall Project >

Sheila Jackson Lee, veteran Texas congresswoman, dies. The representative, who introduced legislation to make Juneteenth a national holiday, was 74 years old. Bloomberg >

Donald Trump plans to gut queer and trans rights in a second term. Trump’s policy platform has sown fear among LGBTQ+ advocacy groups and emboldened the former president’s extreme fanbase. them >

Upcoming Workshops

Here’s what’s on the calendar this month – hope to see you there!

Study Hall

Exploring questions from the community

I’m not even sure how to phrase it into a question, but I am trying to figure out how I, as a white woman, can help. I’m also a member of the LGBTQ+ community and I have a serious chronic illness. But before that, I am white and feel like I have an obligation to do more, to speak up or elevate better, wiser voices. It still never feels like enough.

All we can do is the best we can, each and every day, even (and especially) when it doesn’t feel like enough. I recommend getting strategic about where your work can be most impactful. Your unique lived experience can inform that. Perhaps you can help rally other women, LGBTQ+ folks, or those in the chronic illness community. You can explore what skills you have and how they can help amplify advocacy efforts within those groups. Also, I recommend seeing how you can make an impact in your local community than trying to tackle the entire issue. It might not feel like enough against the broad socio-political climate. But maybe your perception will shift when you see a tangible impact on one person’s life.

My mother buys into pretty anti-Romani rhetoric and often talks about a squatting rights law that apparently results in non-Romani Europeans coming back from vacation, finding Romani people in their house, and being unable to kick them out. I’ve been looking into that and genuinely cannot find what she’s talking about, but I don’t know how to respond to her argument, considering I can’t even find where she’s getting this from. What’s a good way to respond to her?

I’m not as well-educated in the history and culture of the Romani people, but I can see some parallels to how marginalized groups are treated here, so that’s what I’ll lean into for my response. She also might be confusing squatting stereotypes of the Romani people vs. the origins of “adverse possession,” also know as squatter rights, which allows people to claim residency of a property if they’ve been there for a period of time without the owner taking legal action against them. This law, seen in countries around the world, has Roman (aka from the Roman Empire) origins, which is distinctly different from Romani people (you can read more about them here).

But yes, I’ve found a couple of sensationalized headlines about Romani people (which I won’t link) squatting in others’ homes. These stories are fueled not just by the event itself, but the long history of discrimination and stereotypes of Romani people, a group of people who, forced to flee the region where they originated and consistently persecuted by European cultures, have been negatively stereotyped for trying to survive. These stories, like any we read about isolated incidents involving marginalized people, shouldn’t represent an entire group of people and cultures. 

After getting more clarity on the confusion I noted above, you can start by having a conversation about why – what social conditions cause squatting? Are there other stories you’ve heard about people squatting that aren’t Romani? Why do you think that’s the case? Who benefits from mislabeling all Romani people? What stereotypes does that help to enforce? How does it feel when others stereotype you as a [insert identities here]? What did you read about how squatters are being helped? These might help to explore what’s at the root of these stereotypes and help her humanize unhoused populations. Regardless of our ethnic identities, we’re all increasingly at risk of finding ourselves without a place to live. This is an issue that affects us all, and leaning on stereotypes skews our proximity to that plight.

I'm struggling, as I'm sure you and much of your readership are. I'm getting to the point now where it feels the only safest thing to do to protect my family is to leave, but I know it won't make this feeling of rage, discontent, and fear go away because everyone I know and love is still here. How do you rectify this? Is it running away? Is it the right thing to do? I don't know anymore.

I won’t shame anyone for choosing safety over suffering and leaving the U.S., and I don’t know enough about you personally to say that anything here directly applies to your lived experience. With that, here are some general things to consider:

First, there’s relative power and privilege in having the capacity to choose whether to stay or leave. It’s worth considering whether that privilege can be put to better use here (that’s been my personal choice so far). Those who are most likely to be negatively impacted by a Trump presidency often have the fewest resources to choose to leave. You can argue that leaving is an exercise of power and privilege that directly harms marginalized communities, an act in direct contradiction to solidarity.

I’m also curious whether those who choose to leave intend to remain distanced from the sociopolitical climate of their new home. There’s a chance that this stance would hinder the development of that country. I hope that those who choose to leave consider whether or not they will be accountable to the place they arrive in or continue to exercise their privilege of benefitting from a nation without trying to support it.

The issues that we face here are reflected in global inequities (and, depending on where you move, can be more acute). Although there’s a unique manifestation in the U.S., they’re not entirely inescapable. I think that if we can accept this, we can both make a decision that’s best for our individual well-being while understanding its consequences on how we advocate for a better tomorrow, regardless of where we are.

I think some questions that might be helpful to consider are as follows: How do the issues I’m fleeing from manifest in this country? If I move, how will my mobilization efforts change? What will civic engagement look like for me here vs. there? How may my capacity shift to address these issues? What power and privilege do I have to make this choice?

Note: Your question was in response to moving out of the U.S., but I think this is a helpful inquiry for switching states within the U.S., too! Especially if states are granted more power by the next administration. 

That’s all for this week! Thanks for reading. If you learned something new and want to keep this space going,

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