An open letter to all my Facebook friends on here... So many people on Facebook know me in different capacities, connected to different facets of my life. The thing is that these different facets you might be connected to for one reason or another arent separate for me. In the same way I deeply care for the rights and autonomy of birthing people, I deeply care for the autonomy of communities in struggle. I see these abuses inflicted on pregnant people and I see these abuses inflicted by the state and the police as connected. We are in struggle. We are in struggle for the right to birth our babies as we see fit, without violence and the language or actions of rape culture. We are in struggle for the ability to walk the street without fear of the police murdering folks of color, stealing them away from their families and communities. We are in struggle because black women and babies are more likely to die during the childbearing year or first year of life. We are in struggle because a woman had her baby stolen from her at gunpoint in Chicago because she wanted to breastfeed and she was outraged that she had been forcibly cut open rather than allowing her to birth her child. We are in struggle because April Sanchez had her son murdered outside a friends funeral in Denver on July 2nd. This isnt disconnected. This is real. This isnt disconnected. This is how the systems of oppression keep us pushed down, in the proper place. I believe in fighting back. I believe in the self determination of those in struggle. It isnt my place to tell you or anyone else how to struggle, but I do challenge you to do it. Struggle isnt happening on Facebook though yall. It is on the streets when folks burn down the QuickTrip in Ferguson and in the hospitals when a birthing person asserts their autonomy and ability to birth their baby. These systems arent broken. The hospitals arent broken. They were never meant to serve birthing people and babies. The police arent dealing with bad apples. They were never meant to serve and protect anyone but the state and the rich. Capitalism isnt fixable. It needs to be broken, smashed and burned. Just being real about myself, my values and my loving rage.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 21:18:32 +0000
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