If you're part of a group/org/enterprise that's been the subject of repeated calls for accountability over the past months & your defense is "people don't know the whole story" and you're just clinging to a bunker mentality against "ops" and "rumors"... evaluate where you're at.

Ask yourself if the actions of other people are worth your integrity. What are you tying yourself to for the future? We talk about how there's no good cops because they aren't stopping the bad cops (ACAB btw)...

but if you're not stopping the abuses of people within your group, or are shielding them from consequences, what does that mean? What "thin ... line" are you defending?

One of the core tenets of restorative justice is community accountability, but often times grousps of abusers (or groups that shelter them) bypass this by separating themselves from the community. By creating their own insular group to hide from criticism or consequences.

This not only shields abusers but denies the survivors of their abuse any sort of restoration and ability to become whole with the community again. And when the abusers & cohorts take up the language of the oppressed to act as they themselves are victims...

they are again causing harm to their survivors and the community at large. This is where being a "ride or die" can make you complicit in abuse, and an accomplice in hurting a community you claim to care about.

"Us against the world" is heady stuff. Be wary of where it can lead.

If you're reading this and think it's about you... maybe it is. It applies to a lot of us. And we have to stop pretending it doesn't.