Read on Twitter
We are at the intersection of two crises: the racist violence of policing and the COVID19 pandemic - both which disproportionately harm Black people. Now is the time to ask: “What would an abolitionist COVID19 response look like?” (1/15)
Our abolitionist dreams have given us new visions of public safety, a world without policing, surveillance, and state violence. It’s time to bring this radical imagination to our public health system, science, and the pandemic response. (2/15)
Much work has already been done on how police tactics & prisons facilitate COVID19 transmission, & the need for decarceration and abolition of the prison-industrial complex.
@RAICESTEXAS @freethemall2020 @ConMijente @stoplapdspying @mxthemme @abolition_sci #8toabolition (3/15)
@RAICESTEXAS @freethemall2020 @ConMijente @stoplapdspying @mxthemme @abolition_sci #8toabolition (3/15)
Our inquiries are focused specifically on how widely touted research and public health efforts are also embedded in the surveillance state. Our vision of abolition involves the dismantlement of the state and the uplifting of our communities. (4/15)
Many of the tools proposed to combat COVID19 are based in state surveillance. Contract tracing is both a cornerstone tool of both public health and policing. We know that the only way to protect this data from being misused is to not collect it. (5/15) https://thecorrespondent.com/507/black-lives-matter-protesters-arent-being-tracked-with-covid-19-surveillance-tech-not-yet/569187644025-767f5154
Smartphone apps that track COVID19 that have been used in China & Australia have been praised. We know that these apps will expand the stalker state, and inevitably be used by law enforcement to harm our most vulnerable communities. (6/15) https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/26/technology/china-coronavirus-surveillance.html
Even benevolent acts, such as Los Angeles’ free COVID19 testing sites, create dependencies on the state that can be turned against us. During the Black Lives Matter uprising, Mayor Garcetti punished residents by closing testing sites. (7/15) https://www.complex.com/life/2020/06/la-mayor-closes-covid-19-testing-sites-city-wide
We need new solutions that center community knowledge, community autonomy, and community power. As the pandemic continues to rage across the United States, we know this is a needed conversation, even when we don’t have all the answers. (8/15)
Free Radicals will be continuing this conversation on COVID19 and abolition by hosting a Twitter Chat using the hashtag #AbolitionistCOVID. We invite you to participate in our discussion each Thursday of August from 4pm to 5pm across three major themes. (9/15)
Next week on Thurs 8/13 the theme will be KNOWLEDGE JUSTICE. Whose knowledge is valued in the pandemic? How can we engage local community knowledge to build healthy and safe communities? (10/15)
Thurs 8/20 we will discuss ABOLITIONIST PUBLIC HEALTH. How do we abolish healthcare as we know it and build liberatory models of community care that center Black, queer, trans, disabled folk? How do we ensure our collective survival? (11/15)
Lastly, we will discuss VACCINES AND ABOLITION. How do we develop vaccines outside of the medical-industrial complex? Outside of centralized institutional science? How do we develop and distribute vaccines in ways that are equitable and just? (12/15)
We chose a Twitter Chat to create a forum for participatory knowledge making. On each of these days we will post a list of numbered questions (i.e. Q1, Q2, etc). We invite you to read the responses of others and contribute your own thoughts! (13/15)
Reply to the tweet of the question you’re responding to & include the question number (i.e., if you’re responding to Q1, answer with A1) and the #AbolitionistCOVID hashtag. At the end of our Twitter Chat series we will synthesize our learnings to share back with everyone. (14/15)
Together we can imagine a way through and out of this pandemic that centers our knowledge, community wisdom, and liberation. #AbolitionistCOVID
