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Like I& #39;ve said and written: radical political demands aren& #39;t meant to be "market tested" and analyzing all protests through the lens of two party politics is very myopic when one understands that movements tend to move along a longer arc than a presidential election https://twitter.com/jedshug/status/1300810589871235073">https://twitter.com/jedshug/s...
The idea that radical political demands must appeal to the middle is the product of an extremely narrow interpretation of 1950s and 1960s civil rights protests.
Did some leaders and organizers frame protests and slogans in a way that appeal to white folx and Black moderates? Sure, this is one of the reasons why John Lewis had to change his speech at the March on Washington.
But this was not always the case. This is why I talk about Black Power in my @AHAhistorians Perspectives piece: https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/summer-2020/defund-the-police-protest-slogans-and-the-terms-for-debate">https://www.historians.org/publicati...
Black Power scared a lot of people, even some Black leaders like the NAACP& #39;s Roy Wilkins and MLK. Some thought it carried violent connotations. However, despite the demand/slogan& #39;s ambiguity, it galvanized a different constituency of Black folx who desired racial solidarity...
and it helped focus attention on extending civil rights activists& #39; goals of attaining Black political power. Also, the call for Black Power was one for self-determination and community control over institutions, which is distinct from protecting legal civil rights.
Again, BP was not about appealing to white folx or moderates. But, as the demand for Black Power grew more salient, despite white fears, President Nixon sought to coopt the slogan and redefine it as a call for Black folks to buy into capitalism.
For Nixon, Black Power meant Black capitalism.
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-the-cbs-radio-network-bridges-human-dignity-the-concept">https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents...
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-the-cbs-radio-network-bridges-human-dignity-the-concept">https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents...
Now, one could ask, "Well, if Black Power carried different meanings, then how effective was it?" First, people will project whatever meanings onto a slogan/demand they want, even if it appears to be straight forward.
Second, one shouldn& #39;t measure a slogan by "effectiveness," or by whether or not a majority of people would support its message. Assess a demand& #39;s power. And, sometimes, what makes a demand/slogan powerful is that it is challenges (not trying to appeal) the status quo.
Also, you know a slogan has power when you see people in power trying to scramble to redefine it. If the demand is "bad," then there& #39;s no real reason to try to reframe it. But, youd want to if you saw images of thousands of people marching w/"Defund the Police" scrawled on signs
So, then, the most important question that comes out of the "Defund..." debate is: Why would folx be so scared of those words even as they claim to support redistributing funds from law enforcement? It sure as hell isn& #39;t the phrase, "Defund the police." LMAO
The problem runs much deeper, obviously. And we should look to abolitionists like Angela Davis, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Mariame Kaba, and others who contend that most Americans equate desire security and they equate that with police.
And, obviously, this connection between security and police has deep roots in protecting private property, policing slaves, guarding against insurrection, fears of labor strikes, anticommunism, anti-terrorism, police propaganda ("thin blue line"), etc.
Also, "defund the police," suggests an immediate phasing out of police. Some abolitionists acknowledge this suggestion is a lot to process all at once. But, what this uprising has, and should, reveal is that the abolition movement is a long-term one and the goal is also long-term
Abolition is a project that& #39;s about dismantling an oppressive prison system and police power, brick-by-brick and building a new culture and new communities and institutions grounded in transformative justice. Like Gilmore argues, "...abolition is a presence."
It& #39;s about working towards "a horizon of abolition," as Kaba states in this interview: https://thenextsystem.org/learn/stories/towards-horizon-abolition-conversation-mariame-kaba">https://thenextsystem.org/learn/sto...
So, has this uprising accelerated the abolitionist movement? Yes. Should folx expect police departments to be dismantled and prisons shut down over night? Many institutions and systems, including capitalism, need dismantling.
And, in MLK& #39;s words, in Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community, a "revolution in values" is necessary.
This revolution takes hold in all of the everyday practices of transformative justice and abolition, and through protests. This isn& #39;t a microwave politics.
This revolution takes hold in all of the everyday practices of transformative justice and abolition, and through protests. This isn& #39;t a microwave politics.
And, while "Defund the Police," is a provocation, one realizes that transformative justice & abolition politics is an invitation after reading folx like Kaba and Gilmore. Participation provides the clarification. Surveys like the one cited in that study published in WaPo doesnt
Lastly, we should remember, even this leviathan of a criminal justice system in the U.S. started from nothing, & it was built up through experimentation & reforms over a very long period of time--brick, by, brick. So, of course, abolition will unfold rather similarly.
Question that always remains, tho, is: How much time do we have on an inhabitable Earth? 
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