Read on Twitter
thread about how we as non Black abolitionist go about debating racists from our past lives on social media.. has to do with a close hs friend of mine I regret my last interactions with before she passed away. (cw: addiction and overdose) (1/?)
tldr: is that being abolitionists means we need to approach conversations in the most liberatory way we can. which means practicing radical love and militant vulnerability at all times...
about 6 years ago I posted a facebook status saying something like "all cops are bastards," or "there are no such thing as good cops" and it ensued in a long facebook argument that would haunt me years later
my rad college organizer friends were quick to back me up n I love them for it.. but eventually I got into a nasty back n forth with some friends from high school who were all about the "positivity" n "vibes" (non)take. my good friend Jinny ended up defriending me n 30+ others
when I was in high school I considered Jinny one of my closest friends. we would text throughout the day, meet up after school a ton to do kid shit w others, mostly hanging out in peoples basements seeing what we could get away with as kids lol
jinny would back me up every time any racist tried to say some shit about my hijab or islam. she was loved by everyone at school and was my guardian angel. she was a kind kind soul, who had her own struggles, but ended up passing in a heroin overdose tragically. it tore me apart
when I heard about the news of her death, I scrambled to find information on her funeral arrangements nfound a couple of ppl who still hadn& #39;t defriended me since the fb argument. I went to the wake and shared space with lots of old friends who didnt fw me anymore bc of the post
I mourned in isolate for months.. I hadn& #39;t talked to jinny in years but she had such an impact on my life she will never know. anyway back to this thread... I deeply regret my last words said to jinny, something super ugly mocking her "spread positivity" arguments about cops
I think about how different things may have been if i picked up the phone and talked to these folks I once called "friends" instead of hiding behind the "lols" and "lmfaos" online that didnt benefit the abolitionist movement at alllll. only created enemies of it then.. :(
now I& #39;m back debating high school friends on fb n see the same folks who actually argued against me then, now argue in the same manner with the same heat, rooted in the love that they have now for Black folks and anger they feel about police violence
being in community with each other means we must know our own boundaries but struggle to practice abolition in our conversations, in an effort to transform and get people on the right side of history. dont let your ego get in the way like I did.
rest in peace jinny, I know shed be on the right side of history today
