Podcast and Webinar on Mutual Aid

Here is a podcast interview I did with Anarchy on Air with host J. Kēhaulani Kauanui  in September, 2019, that I think I forgot to share here.

And check out this webinar from yesterday about mutual aid, which includes an info-packed, concise history of Black mutual aid from Dr. Shabazz. Not to be missed!

Recent Podcast Interviews and Webinars

Listen to this conversation between me and my friend and collaborator, Ciro Carillo about COVID-era mutual aid, overwork, burnout, and caring for ourselves and each other.

Check out this conversation about evaluating reforms in the time of #Defund campaigns, we me and Mariame Kaba, Wood Ervin, Kamau Walton and K Agbebiyi.

Don’t miss this conversation on queer abolition I got to be part of with Andrea Ritchie, Kenyon Farrow, Zakara Green, Jason Lydon, Su’Gani, and Mike Cox.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2658563504244961

Also, this conversation about mutual aid with Klee Banally, Kali Akuno, and Mariame Kaba.

And this rad event with Nikki Columbus, Hanna Appel, David Xu Borgonjon, Sami Disu, Jamila Hammami, Nicholas Mirzoeff, Yu-Line Niou, Sandy Nurse and Naomi Zewde.

Let’s Finally Get the Police Out of Pride

This op-ed appeared in TruthOut, June 28, 2020.

For decades, a battle has been raging in queer and trans communities about the relationship between our communities and the police. Pride celebrations mark the anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion, in which queer and trans people fought back against the ongoing violence they faced at the hands of the police. That rebellion happened in the context of widespread anti-police politics of the 1960s and ‘70s, when uprisings against policing were raging across the country across movements against colonialism and racism. In the years after Stonewall, police forces reformed themselves in an attempt to restore their legitimacy, including by hiring cops of color and some gay cops, having cops march in Pride parades, and creating policies and propaganda aimed at portraying the police as protectors and saviors of women, children, LGBT people and other marginalized groups.

In many cities, especially in recent years, police departments marching in Pride parades have encountered protesters demanding that police be excluded from Pride. As the movement for Black Lives and against police violence grows, more police departments are simultaneously investing in messaging that they are “pro-gay,” and more and more queer and trans organizers are rejecting this messaging.

Hundreds of cities have adopted the police-initiated “Safe Place” campaign since it was invented in 2014 by Officer Jim Ritter at the East Precinct of the Seattle Police Department (SPD), the very precinct now abandoned by police in the face of recent anti-police protests. Ritter created the pro-SPD propaganda campaign four years after Seattle erupted in protests over the police killing of Native woodcarver John T. Williams, and three years after the Department of Justice launched an investigation of the SPD that found “the use of excessive force” and bias.

The Safe Place campaign encourages businesses to put a rainbow police shield sticker in their windows to let anyone fleeing anti-LGBT attacks know that if they come inside the business will call the cops for them. The Safe Place campaign takes a symbol from the queer and trans liberation movement, the rainbow flag, and puts it on a police badge to declare that the police are our protectors. Critics of the campaign rightly argue that police are leading perpetrators of violence against queer and trans people, not our protectors, and that the “Safe Place” campaign is about police PR, not about the well-being of queer and trans people. We would rather see businesses agree to not call the police as a way to make our communities safer.

A "Space Place" sticker is seen on the window of a business in Seattle, WA, on June 27, 2020.
A “Space Place” sticker is seen on the window of a business in Seattle, WA, on June 27, 2020.

This summer’s rebellion against police violence has brought the debate about whether police can be reformed, or whether they need to be dismantled, into the spotlight. It raises questions about whether we could reform the anti-Black racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism and sexual violence out of the police. Decades of failed reform efforts make clear that the answer is no. The last 60 years have seen waves of uprisings against police racism and violence, and waves of reforms aimed at fixing the problems. These reforms have diversified police forces, required police “diversity” training, declared that police would not discriminate, placed limits on use of force, and more.Police are leading perpetrators of violence against queer and trans people, not our protectors.

Over the same decades, police budgets were expanding, police were getting more militarized equipment and training, and policing was infiltrating more parts of society with police presence pervading in spaces like schoolsparks and housing projects. The lesson is clear: Reforms that declare that police will stop harming hated groups fail. So many of the police forces that have committed recent high-profile killings (not to mention all the violence short of killing they have been perpetrating) already have the 8 Can’t Wait reform policies on their books, but their violence continues uninterrupted. All the police departments marching in Pride and handing out rainbow police shield stickers still have cops profiling, harassing, assaulting and arresting queer and trans people every day.

In the national debate about defunding police, people around the country are learning to differentiate between empty reforms that name a system as “fair” and real change that makes our communities safer and our lives more survivable. Pride is a good time to think critically about the legal systems that govern our increasingly less survivable lives (in the face of economic crisis, global pandemic and ongoing law enforcement violence), while they tell us we are increasingly equal.

This month, the Supreme Court ruled that discrimination against gay and trans people by employers is illegal under the 1964 Civil Rights Act. This ruling has been widely celebrated. Unfortunately, the excitement about what “legal equality” might mean in the lives of queer and trans people does not square with reality.

Being ostensibly protected by civil rights laws does not necessarily translate into increased well-being or decreased violence against hated groups. One needs only to look to the fact that discrimination based on race and sex has been illegal for over a half century. In the decades since people of color and women supposedly became equal under the law, material inequality — meaning actual harm to the survival and well-being of these supposedly protected people — actually worsened in many substantive ways. This period saw the drastic expansion of imprisonment and immigration enforcement in the U.S., targeted at people of color and marked by gender violencebrutal cuts to programs and benefits for low-income women and children, and an expanding racial and gender wealth gap. Discrimination in housing and jobs may have become illegal, but it is very difficult to prove in court, especially since most people do not have access to legal help, so almost no one gets redress.Queer and trans safety and liberation will not be delivered by courts or police departments. It will come from widespread collective action.

The United States’ shift from a legal system of explicit sexism and racist apartheid to one in which the state is cast as the supposed protector of women and people of color constituted what some scholars and activists call “preservation through transformation.” In the face of the global and domestic uprisings against colonialism and racism in the middle of the 20th century, the law changed just enough to make this system appear fair, while preserving the status quo of material inequality as much as possible.

The role of civil rights laws is not to actually change the harms faced by hated groups, it is to frame the very government whose policies and practices most endanger those groups as their protector. As we face a severe global financial crisis and as wealth inequality climbs to dizzying heights, we will continue to see poverty worsen for queer and trans people, especially those with disabilitiesthose of color and women, regardless of the Supreme Court’s declaration about protecting us from discrimination.

The Court’s other recent rulings, like the ruling green-lighting the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the ruling saying that asylum seekers have no right to object in court before being deported, tell us more about what is to come for queer and trans people, and for all people. The fact that the same court can say we’re equal and then make decisions that endanger our lives should be no surprise at this point, since the NYPD paints rainbow flags on its police cars while continuing to terrorize queer and trans communities.

Police out of Pride
Design: Chris Vargas

This Pride season, we should see growing calls to get the police out of Pride celebrations and to get businesses to stop participating in Safe Place campaigns. This increasing rejection of surface reforms and demand for transformative change — including divestment from policing and militarism and investment in meeting human needs — should help us question celebratory declarations of equality coming from the Supreme Court decision. Queer and trans safety and liberation will not be delivered by courts or police departments. It will come from widespread collective action for what we actually need to live: housing, health care, child care, food, clean air and water, and transportation. We are past the point where putting a rainbow sticker or wrapping a rainbow flag around a cop car, a tank, a courthouse, or a brutally exploitative anti-worker economy can be mistaken for victory or liberation.

Video of Conversation about Pinkwashing and Solidarity with WWU’s SUPER Chapter

For Israeli Apartheid week, I joined the SUPER chapter at Western Washington University and gave a talk on pinkwashing and how it emerged from a rights-based gay liberal inclusion politics, and what it looks like to resist that politics and center racial and economic justice in queer and trans liberation work. The first two minutes have some strange audio so I recommend skipping to 2:00 and diving in from there.

On Pinkwashing & Mainstreaming: A Talk With Dean Spade

On Pinkwashing & Mainstreaming: Due to the efforts of vibrant social movements, attitudes have been changing about queer and trans people’s lives. Reform efforts aimed at increasing justice and survival for queer and trans people have become more visible. At the same time, mainstream institutions and governments have started to promote themselves as gay- or trans-friendly in order to get good PR, especially when they want to appear progressive to cover up harmful and violent practices. This process, called “pinkwashing,” raises questions for social movement activists about how we evaluate, understand, and respond to the reforms that emerge as our issues gain attention. How can we tell what will work to improve lives and what will just be lip service or good public relations for oppressive governments and corporations? In this lecture, Dean will share critical approaches being used by activists confronting these challenging questions.

Posted by WWU SUPER on Tuesday, May 19, 2020

Videos of a Rad Conversation

I learned so much at this event, which pulled together a group of brilliant organizers to talk about mutual aid, debt and labor strikes, and more. The first video below was a conversation featuring a bunch of speakers giving short, info-packed presentations, and the videos after that are moderated break out room conversations. I gave a presentation in the first event and was one of the speakers in the mutual aid break out room, which I really enjoyed, but I recommend you watch them all!

New Video: Conversation with Dream Defenders, Ujimaa Medics, Mariame Kaba, and Dylan Rodriguez about Mutual aid

“Mutual Aid” is a People’s Movement: Beyond Philanthropy, Charity, and Dependence on the (Police) State

An American Studies Association 2020 Freedom Course recorded on April 22, 2020

Framing questions: * What is “mutual aid,” and how is it different from charity, philanthropy, and state social services? * How is mutual aid part of current and historical freedom, liberation, and self-determination struggles of different peoples? * How are mutual aid efforts responding to the COVID-19 pandemic? * How can people participate in mutual aid projects RIGHT NOW?

Participants: * Rachel Gilmer, Helen Peña, and Dr. Armen Henderson Dream Defenders (https://dreamdefenders.org/) * Amika Tendaji Ujimaa Medics (https://umedics.org/) * Mariame Kaba Project NIA (http://project-nia.org/) * Dean Spade Seattle University School of Law (http://bigdoorbrigade.com/) * facilitated by Dylan Rodríguez Univ of California, Riverside; President-Elect of the American Studies Association (2020-2021)

What Every Activist Should Know Before Going to Law School

About ten years ago I published this short essay in the lefty law journal Unbound about the myths that mislead a lot of people who want social change to think they should go to law school, and the realities people should know before going. This week, Patricia Sully from the University of Washington’s Legal Pathways program hosted a webinar on the topic where I shared some of these ideas and people asked some great questions. Here is a captioned video recording of the session.

Discussing this with some other people led me to learn about this amazing clip which I also recommend you incorporate into your deliberations about law school:

Mad Maps for the Pandemic

This is a difficult time, and most of us are under enormous pressure. We might be experiencing isolation, illness, income loss, fear for loved ones, loss of loved ones, anxiety, and many other painful circumstances. A mad map is a guide we can make for ourselves, usually best worked on in moments were we are feeling more centered or having more capacity, that we can turn to in moments where things go sideways or we feel ourselves slipping into more difficult states. A mad map can be like a little gift of preparation for a future self who is going into potentially dangerous waters. Your mad map could have any areas or categories, could be illustrated or include songs or physical movements. Below are just some starter ideas and examples of potential content. Change all the language and content as you want so it is meaningful to you. It could also be made as a collage, a song, a zine, or in whatever way is best for you. Some people share their mad maps with friends and loved ones. You could include sections on how other people can support you when you are in difficulty or crisis, and what you do not want them to say or do if you are in crisis.

I learned about mad maps first in an Icarus Project workshop, and later read this zine. You might also listen to this podcast episode and check out this worksheet that was distributed with the podcast.

Signs of Off-Center Thinking, Feeling, and Action

What are you noticing you are thinking, feeling, and/or doing that feels sideways? Some areas to think about when making this section might include:

  • Obsessively checking for news or information related to the pandemic
  • Obsessively checking myself for signs or symptoms of COVID-19
  • Over-working on anything (house cleaning, paid job, activist work, etc.)
  • Letting the physical space around me get chaotic
  • Not eating or eating in ways that make me feel bad
  • Not taking meds or supplements that are helpful to me regularly
  • Misusing alcohol, drugs, shopping
  • Misusing video games, TV, social media
  • Avoiding people I love
  • Short-tempered, explosive, or over-critical with loved ones
  • Avoiding work that is meaningful to me
  • Avoiding work I need to do to survive
  • Not taking care of bills, paperwork, unemployment applications or other logistics necessities
  • Escalating with a date or otherwise escaping through sex or romance highs
  • Any other compulsive behavior that feels imbalanced right now
  • Lack of sleep or oversleeping
  • Over exercising or not moving enough for what my body/mind needs right now

Guidelines for Greater Wellness

In this section, try set realistic expectations, not pie in the sky guidelines that will cause shame or feelings of inadequacy if they are not met. You can always increase and adjust later. Be aware of harsh “should” messages that may show up here, which many of us have in areas of eating, work, exercise, money, etc. Focus on gentle realistic steps toward greater wellness, mindful of perfectionism.

This section might include things like:

  • Limit of number of times per day I check news, research information about the pandemic, or look up symptoms online
  • Limits on amounts or times of day I do particular escapist or toxifying behaviors
  • How often and in what ways I want to move my body
  • Goals for making sure I feed myself in nourishing ways
  • Goals for meditation, spiritual practices, or anything else that would help but might be falling out right now
  • Types of media I want to avoid, might include deleting certain apps
  • Limits on amount of or times of using social media (like not upon waking or before bed, for example)
  • Goals (if appropriate for your situation) for getting outdoors or interacting with plants, animals, etc.
  • People I want to be connected to, how often and in what ways
  • People I need to limit my exposure to and what limits
  • Sleep schedules or other rest plans
  • Limits on working hours, creation day(s) off or other limits on work, including unpaid activist or artistic work if I am overworking in those areas
  • Timelines for taking care of essential paperwork or logistics
  • Baseline activities to maintain your physical space and hygiene

Bonus Activities that Help

If the prior section is baseline guidance that you are committing to, this section can have things you might aspire to do, things you know would feel good, things that are lovely extras.

  • Kinds of movement or exercise that are fun and feel good
  • Cooking adventures
  • Gardening
  • Music, art, literature I want to listen to, watch, look at, read
  • Music or art I want to make
  • Spiritual practices I want to try or return to
  • Additional ways I want to connect with loved ones
  • Additional activities that might boost my mood or sense of purpose, connection, or self-worth
  • Ways to beautify my space
  • Ways I want to be generous to others
  • Things I want to try to improve my sleep, reduce my pain, break my isolation, generate a more structured routine, break up a monotonous routine
  • Quality time with certain people or animals

Unhelpful/Untrue Thoughts

Painful or difficult distorted thinking increases when we are under pressure. Often it will be familiar thinking that has appeared in other difficult times. Often it feeds behaviors that are bad for us and disconnect us from ourselves and others. Noticing it can give us a chance to interrupt it and see if it can be reduced. Here are some types of distorted thinking that may be coming up, or you can fill this section with whatever is true for you.

  • Scarcity thoughts (about anything—food, money, work, self-worth, sex, health, etc.) like:
    • I’m not doing enough.
    • I’m doing everything and no one is helping.
    • I’m not going to have what I need.
    • I better get mine before everyone else takes it all.
  • Hopeless thoughts like:
    • There is no point in trying.
    • I have lost everything.
    • I ruined everything.
    • Nothing every works out for me/us.
  • Shame/self-hating thoughts like:
    • I’m a fraud.
    • I am undesirable.
    • I am the worst.
    • I don’t deserve help/care/support/love/admiration/survival.
    • I am a bad person.
  • Superiority thoughts like:
    • No one else can do this right.
    • No one else can see the truth like I can.
    • Everyone else is handling this incorrectly.
    • Any criticism or feedback about my behavior is incorrect/inappropriate.
  • Hypervigilant thoughts like:
    • I better check [the news, my loved ones well-being, my bank account, my body, my symptoms, my food, others’ opinions of me, social media, or anything] again and again.

Helpful Truths to Remember

In this section, call on your most centered self, your inner adult, your inner kind parent, your highest spiritual self or however you think of that part of you that has loving and compassionate perspective. Go through the distorted thoughts above and list what the part of you thinking each thought needs to hear or remember to diffuse the power of that thought a bit. The examples below may help you generate your list.

  • Everyone is having a hard time right now. It is okay that I am not functioning “as usual.” I can cut myself some slack.
  • Even if I feel alone, I am not alone. There are many people experiencing what I am experiencing. There are people who care about me.
  • It is okay to be distracted and disoriented right now, and to feel dissatisfied. I don’t have to try to solve those feelings. I can try to be compassionate with myself about them, and also try not to act out of them in ways that hurt myself.
  • There is nothing I have to do, and all that I choose to do will be better for me and others if it doesn’t come from this “must” and “should” feeling, but instead from sober discernment of how I can care for myself and others.
  • This is a precious time to connect with loved ones give them my attention. I can do this from a place of desire, not a place of inadequacy.
  • It is okay for me to place limits on what I can do for others and say no to things that don’t work for me. Everyone deserves to exist, including me.
  • I don’t have to do anything perfectly.
  • It is okay to try new things. I can stop whenever I want.

In case it’s useful to read my mad map, here’s what I have so far.

Dean’s Mad Map for the Pandemic

Off-center feelings/experiences/behaviors:

  • Checking the news too much/consuming too much info about pandemic
  • Distractedness and difficulty staying on one task
  • Perfectionism about tasks (mostly related to activist work)
  • Irritation/impatience during meetings
  • Critical thoughts/comments about myself and others
  • Sense of scarcity about time to work
  • Avoidance of certain people who know me well who, if I talked to them, I might feel more of my feelings or be held accountable about caring for myself
  • Obsessive thinking about tasks, including at night and upon waking
  • Craving escapist activities/judging that craving/over-regulating escapist activities

Guidelines for Greater Wellness:

  • Only listen to news once a day, and at most one additional podcast related to pandemic
  • Meditate every day at least 20 minutes
  • Physical therapy exercises every morning
  • Walk outside every day, at least 3 times a week a walk more than 2 miles
  • Yoga or weights at least 3 times a week
  • Time set aside to talk to CB when we aren’t doing anything else
  • Centering practice 1-5 times/day with connection to feeling of purpose

Bonus Activities That Help:

  • Board games or cards with family members
  • Listen to music instead of podcasts
  • Put on a fun outfit and go for a walk
  • Phone date with CW
  • Longer meditations
  • Bring in flowers from outside
  • Snail mail & crafting

Unhelpful/Untrue Thoughts:

  • I’m not doing enough (activist projects, self-care, writing, correspondence with loved ones).
  • I’m a bad friend, boyfriend, caretaker of dogs, uncle, sibling, nephew, etc.

Helpful Truths to Remember:

  • My conditioning makes me want to respond to the unknown of this time with over-doing. There is nothing I have to do, and all that I do will be better for me and others if it doesn’t come from this “must” and “should” feeling, but instead from choice and sober discernment of how I can be of service.
  • This is a precious time to be connected to the people and animals I live with and give them my attention. I can do this from a place of desire, not a place of inadequacy.
  • I benefit from my self-care practices and I can notice feelings of avoidance but remember and choose the benefits instead.
  • I don’t have to do anything perfectly. No need to use self-care practices as a space to feel inadequate.

Areas Where I Want to Build More Boundaries or Guidelines:

  • Start/end times for working
  • Focusing on one task at a time, e.g. turning of internet when writing, answering email during a distinct block separate from looking at social media or other tasks