At the risk of being dragged +/or canceled, I want to address this thread bc it's dangerous as fuck imho.

1) Brittney Cooper is Black feminist who has introduced many centrists/carceral feminists to more left-leaning political education. She is *not* a radical leftist. https://twitter.com/ProfessorCrunk/status/1295724180743348226

2) Voting is not, can not, will NEVER be radical. It is not a choice that moves our country's political framework to the left. It is an act already gutted by contradictory legislation. And? It's happening ON STOLEN LAND.

I mention the stolen land piece as a reminder that voting has always been an act that removes agency from Latinx folks, Black folks, native people, and our incarcerated kindred. There is no morality in voting. None. Stop. Seriously. https://twitter.com/ProfessorCrunk/status/1295724470196416514?s=20

We have to reckon w/the uncomfortable idea that voting, despite our elders' toil, is no more a prize to the entirety of liberatory struggle, than a Biden presidency is to the here and now. As in, he ain't + it ain't.

This isn't my moral declaration, it is *our* material reality.

But *like in every single other era of radical struggle* folks are dealing w/the quintessential choice: Do we compromise w/the (amoral, terrorist) State, to alleviate our current reality? Or do we sacrifice those who can't survive the now, to preserve our future liberatory aim?

Positing what both I + @ProfessorCrunk know is political theater (she called the DNC that, just this morning) as the SOLE "moral" choice isn't radical or feminist. It's ridiculous and violent. Weaponizing morality to benefit the State is legitimately cop shit + y'all gotta stop.

As an organizer, it is silly of me to assume that EVERY SINGLE person I know is going to align themselves politically w/me. Fucking silly.

For one, that assumption grants me "inherent goodness", and that's... dangerous. Gives me no room to learn more, grow, and move left.

But more than that, it gives folks along the spectrum to the slight right of me NO POINTS OF ENTRY. That's inaccessible as fuck, and flat as fuck. It's silly.

The role of a radical is to create space for expansion, through as many doors and windows as possible. Like...

Our role is to (radically) reimagine what is possible, even when the imagination itself is being policed, held prisoner, murdered by the State.

Ex: In 2014, the abolition of police was a pipe dream, a ridiculous nothing. This year it is our reality. That is imagination, friends.

And when a racial justice organizer tried to dream about abolition?

Establishment Dems silenced folks and spoke over them about reform. So then, the dominant conversation became cameras on cops/bias training, not revolution. It sounded a lot like this: https://twitter.com/ProfessorCrunk/status/1295714985633550338?s=20

Y'all talk out the side of your mouths to folks on the "radical left" bc you have no imagination + you scared to abandon the pseudo-protection of the gov't. That's clear... Not surprising, not alarming, just sincerely exhausting/disappointing.

I'm not confused about this take...

But THIS: "there is.. no moral absolution in not voting"?

@ProfessorCrunk are you?!?! This is *LITERALLY* carceral/punitive tactics? Not to mention emotional hijacking? In a thread defending Joe Biden? In 2020? From a so-called "radical feminist"?! HELP. https://twitter.com/ProfessorCrunk/status/1295724853685870594?s=20

Establishment Dems (and folks who don't know they're E. Dems), despite what they think, invest fully in carcerality. Why use terms like "absolution" to convince us that we MUST vote unless you believe that not voting is an act worthy of punishment, of purgatory, of suffering?

Anywho, I'm getting mad as fuck, but lemme get back on point. I stopped counting and everything.

I realized some of my blind rage was hanger, at the same time that my partner made me some lunch. Crisis averted. Back to the thread.

Still waiting for folks who say "everyone must vote" to get over the fact that everyone WON'T vote, nor has "everyone" EVER voted. Every Black person didn't vote when Obama ran, nor any election before or after that.

Do you know why?

1) Bc voting isn't accessible for working-class, Black, rural, children, and/or disabled ppl, and folks indigenous to PR, Guam, and many native nations, and

2) This is the big one ya'll: 2.3 MILLION are incarcerated with several other million considered felons who cannot vote.

So if you hear a critique of the gov't-- and by direct relation, voting-- and take it personal? You have to ask yourself:

Why do I see myself in alignment with the State, more clearly than I see myself in alignment w/ indigenous folks, Black radicals, and abolitionist struggle?

Because what radical leftists are saying sure as hell ain't "there is no moral absolution in voting". We're just asking folks to dream with us.

I see more discussions from folks left of @ProfessorCrunk uplifting multiple points of entry to do just that. So cut the lies here.

It's simple as fuck to me: Folks who are voting? Do that. Folks who aren't voting? Do that, too. All the while, strategize multiple contingency plans TOGETHER for what happens after the final count in Nov.

What I do know,is that no matter what, it will be the fight of our lives.

But it was already, always going to be the fight of our lives. It already always is. Who wins when Establishment Dems hijack discussions + "prostitute Black feminism" (word to @jatella) in an attempt to manipulate Black folks/white voyeurs?

If you guessed The State, you right!

It's disgusting to watch folks who are invested in the ideals of whiteness + the goals of the State, pretend that they are radical, or feminist, or right.

@ProfessorCrunk is wrong. Disappointingly so. At a time where we need folks to hold the nuance... or hold they damn tongue.

There's a lot of shit I let slide. Esp bc y'all know I ain't decided whether or not I'm voting this fall.

But infantilizing radical leftists? Disregarding critiques by organizers, strategists + radical scholars? Erasing the political dexterity of Black southern leftists? Sis?!

I'm doing a lot of work here to not be petty and take jabs at the political positioning of "eloquent rage", btw.

... I just feel like someone should congratulate me on that.

This thread is getting long. [apologies in advance that I'm writing an essay collection, ok? A bitch is long tf winded]

tldr;

Establishment Dems will continue to assert that you must participate in political theater this fall, to be of value to your community. This is not true. Here's what is:

1) You are inherently worthy to us, even if you do not vote.

2) Voting-- and I need you to hear me-- is not "the work", despite BC's "faith w/o works is dead" jab. Voting has never been "the work". Ever.

3) Everyone has a role. Be advised: If you white, voting is minimal compared to all the labor you should be doing.

4) Be wary of folks who argue for the State on the basis of morality. Ask yourself, what is the true moral gauge in a country that cages children, jails its poor, kills unarmed people, persecutes activists, and literally gasses us during pandemic spread of a respiratory illness?

5a) If you plan to vote, what's next?
5b) If you plan to abstain, what's next?
5c) Have you checked in with folks in your communities on either side of the issue? The organizers? The street mayors? What's the consensus and what are next steps?

6) “Power concedes nothing w/o a demand. It never did + it never will." - Frederick Douglass.

We won't be voting on abolition. We won't be voting on the value of Black life. We won't be voting to return the land. These are things we must FIGHT for. We're working our way there.

The way that Brittney speaks about voting, erases that reality.

You won't save lives voting for the Dem ticket, if you don't immediately hold/increase pressure on those in power. Black folks will still die from COVID, the police, etc. Black folks [still] die w/ Dems in power.

These are my thoughts.

My friend reminded me that I said no to free labor this year. If you learned something, please consider sending a lil something my way:

CashApp/Venmo:DelightfulAL