Week 2 | Politics, Solidarity and The Myths of Coalition

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Alli Simon: The texts that you wanna pick up so I'll drop in the chat, if it hasn't already been dropped in there the hub link that Yolonda has so lovingly created. And yeah, I think we'll go ahead and get started so that we can have full time this time. So I'll go ahead and hand it over to Dr. Abdullah to lead us through week two.

Dr. Thank you, Alli. And thank you to everybody for joining today. I hope to have a really robust conversation. We've changed the format just a little bit to make it a regular Zoom rather than a webinar so we can engage more fully. And for those of you watching on YouTube we'd love to have you ofer a comments or questions in the chat function there and we'll be sure to address them as we can.

But what we're gonna be talking about today is this idea of solidarity. And we're gonna talk about what solidarity means and why solidarity is essential to how we get free. And so we're gonna be going over some ideas. A lot of this conversation is gonna be guided by the frst six chapters of "Black Power" again, which is serving as a guide for the frst portion of this class. I hope everyone's picked it up by Kwame Ture and Charles Hamilton.

Black Power | Week 2 | Page 1 Again, we wanna encourage you to pick it up at a Black-owned bookstore. Please don't buy on Amazon, but if you're in Los Angeles please go to places like Eso Won Books, Malik Books and purchase and support from small Black-owned businesses Black-owned bookstores especially.

So I just wanted to get us started the way that we have been doing, or one of the things we're committed to doing in this class is making sure that we start with the correct energy, and so we're gonna start every class with a land labor and life acknowledgement. And I'm gonna ask someone, asks for a volunteer, to read this frst slide and begin by leading us in taking a deep breath in and out before you start reading. So if someone could volunteer, that would be great.

Yolanda Enoch: And if you want to participate just go ahead and start your camera and unmute yourself.

Dr. Abdullah: Do we have anybody willing to read this frst slide? Yes, Chasity, Chasity. Are you able to unmute? Okay, so I think they need permission to unmute Yolanda.

Yolanda: They have permission.

Dr. Abdullah: Okay, thank you.

Chasity Nunez: Thank you. So we'll start with a deep breath. So a deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth. "This land that we inhabit is physically situated "in the original ancestral homelands of the Tongva people. "We pay respect to the Tongva "and all the Indigenous people - past, present, and future "and their continuing presence in the homeland "and throughout their historical diaspora."

Dr. Abdullah: Thank you, can someone read the next slide?

Consuelo Alegria: I could.

Dr. Abdullah: Great.

Consuelo: Okay. If we could just take a breath in and release the breath out. "We pay homage to those who were stolen from Africa, "placed in bondage, falsely named as chattel "and forced into labor who were called 'slaves,' "but never submitted as such. "who have always been fully human "with an unbroken connection to the Divine "and to each other. "We honor our African ancestors and these still unpaid labor "which built what is now the Americas."

Dr. Abdullah: Thank you, and one more, we need one more volunteer to lead us through this last slide.

Nicole Taylor: I'm happy to do it.

Dr. Abdullah: Great.

Black Power | Week 2 | Page 2 Nicole: Let's take a deep breath in and a deep breath out. "To both our Indigenous and African forebears, "we commit to the continued struggle for liberation "and reparations, "for it is only through freedom and justice "that we truly give honor."

AHO! ASHE!"

Dr. Abdullah: Thank you. I needed that, I feel diferent now. So thank you for everybody who shared and was willing to volunteer. We're gonna ask that you consider doing this each class. So think about when it's your turn to volunteer 'cause it won't be a surprise that it'll come up at the beginning of class next week as well.

We didn't do introductions in the class and there are a lot of folks so I don't wanna spend up the class time going around but what I would like is as we engage because this is the way that we're things now as a regular Zoom, I hope that we'll have lots of engagement as we engage I'd love if you would share your name, your pronoun, your organization, if you're with an organization and why you decided to take this class. So as people come in to engage, we're gonna ask you to cover those four things, okay?

All right, another thing I wanted to start incorporating into the class is we've been talking about we have a chance in but also in the Union Movement that when we fght, we win. And a lot of times, as we engage in righteous struggle it can become exhausting, right? We can become overwhelmed. We can become depleted and a lot of that has to do with not celebrating our victories. And I think it's really important that we celebrate our victories.

Last class, we had an opportunity to celebrate a victory that was one with the conviction of . So wait, did we know he was convicted? We did know. Okay. Okay, okay, good. I'm going, wait what's today? Yes, we knew it Tuesday, that's right, okay. All the days are running together.

So we talked about the conviction of Derek Chauvin. We talked about the role of Black community, especially our young warrior and how she helped to summon in that victory. We have to take a moment to appreciate our labor to appreciate our energy and to appreciate the victories that are sure to come when we fght. That's what it means when we say, when we fght, we win.

So what I'll do with the beginning of each class is just talk about the victories that I know about, and then invite you to ofer other victories that need to be acknowledged in the space. So I have four for us. The frst is on Sunday, we had a massive rally and march in the name of . At least 500 of us gathered in Pan Pacifc Park and then marched to 3rd & Fairfax. We were joined by young people. We were joined by families of those killed including the family of Dijon Kizzee, John Horton and

Black Power | Week 2 | Page 3 Wakiesha Wilson. We had music, we had dance. We've decided we're gonna make our frst Black Lives Matter music video 'cause the dancing in the intersection with such a good time and you can go to our Instagram page to watch it happened live. We have a phenomenal dance instructor/choreographer. Who's a member of Black Lives Matter named Kareena. And she led us in a great dance. And so we wanna uplift that that took work and it also shifted things a bit. Even if you don't feel it in the media it shifted things a bit. And the families that were there absolutely felt that shift as did all of us.

Second victory I wanna lift up is the City Council for Los Angeles and the mayor been trying to appropriate our language using terms like re-imagining. They try to present the budget diferently this year, the budget proposal diferently this year, pretending like an increase to LAPD funds is really a decrease. And we held their feet to the fre and participated in a kind of listening session which we weren't sure if we were gonna be included on but we decided to do a mini presentation of the People's Budget on Monday evening where we talked about what the people of Los Angeles actually want their dollars to go to. So we're counting that as a victory, especially because we were also able to get them to agree, to participate in a full presentation of the People's Budget. That's coming up next Thursday, May 6th.

The big one that I'm celebrating today is we got Senate Bill 2 out of the Senate Judiciary. Senate Bill 2 was called the Kenneth Ross Jr. Police Decertifcation Bill. Many of you know that California is one of only four states in the country that doesn't have a mechanism to remove the guns and badges of police when they kill people. Kenneth Ross Jr. was killed in 2018 in Gardena, California. The cop, Michael Robbins, who murdered him had already shot three other people in a diferent, when he worked for an Orange County Law Enforcement Unit.

So had he been decertifed in the beginning, he wouldn't have been around to steal Kenneth Ross Jr.'s life. So it took some doing. There were a lot of supposedly progressives who said that they were not gonna vote in favor of the bill. And then we did what we do. We had calls for in, and we worked every angle we could. And we fipped all four of the votes that we targeted and we got Senate Bill 2 out of the Senate Judiciary. If you have time or think to do it please thank Senator Steve Bradford, who was the author of the bill and who refused to waiver on the bill. We still have several steps to go. The next step is appropriations.

And then fnally I just wanna uplift a victory that students won at Cal State LA. They introduced a resolution in Academic Senate yesterday that will sever ties with law enforcement. So both defunding campus police, they get about $5 million a year and they wanna defund the campus police. They also wanna sever all contracts with all law

Black Power | Week 2 | Page 4 enforcement units and that passed with only eight senators voting against it. So that's a tremendous victory.

Are there other victories that need to be shared before we jump into the meat of the conversation today?

Alli: Looks like Marisa shared one.

Dr. Abdullah: Let's see here at Marisa.

Alli: We're seeing wanting to join us on camera and tell.

Marisa Hamamoto: Yeah, give me one second. Oh my computer here. Sorry.

Hello, hi, hi Dr. Abdullah. I've been following you and just very honored to be in this space with you. So the Anti-Asian Hate Crimes Act passed with a bipartisan vote last week. So for those who may be new or new with this, this is a towards tracking hate crimes against AAPIs. But I think for me the fact that it was bipartisan it wasn't just the liberals, but the liberals and the conservatives like all kinds of voting together, I personally thought this was a small win, a step towards, I guess, liberation.

Dr. Abdullah: Absolutely, and Marisa remember we were asking people to introduce themselves. Do you mind just saying your name, your pronoun if you're with an org and why you took this class?

Marisa: Sure, absolutely. So my name is Marisa Hamamoto, she/her pronouns. I'm the founder of Infnite Flow which is a nonproft based here in Los Angeles and a professional dance company composed of dancers within, without disabilities. Our mission is to use dance, to promote inclusion and I guess I'm coming into this space as an Asian American who has also experienced anti-Asian racism throughout my whole life, as well as a stroke survivor and someone living with PTSD who is constantly kind of feeling like they don't belong.

And so I'm here to just, you know, be in community with all of you and better educate myself around Black Lives Matter.

Dr. Abdullah: Thank you, Marisa, thank you for that. Anybody else wanna share a victory?

Okay, so as you refect on what your victories are, what our victories are, I wanna encourage us to always do that. To always remember what Marisa is lifting up is that bill passed because people did work. Everything that moves happens because people do work, right? And so we have to take time to celebrate the work of the people so that we can continue to be motivated to do work. Can't just be giving and giving and giving without saying thank you for that gift, right?

Black Power | Week 2 | Page 5 So we wanna thank everyone who has contributed to the world and contributes to the world every day.

So we are going to talk about racism and white supremacy as we move into this conversation around solidarity. And so if you read Ture and Hamilton's book you know that they break down what is racism? I want us to remember that racism comes in several forms. We have individual racism, we have institutional racism. They don't talk very much about internalized racism but they do talk about how even people who are people of color, who are Black can advance the interests of white supremacy. We can think about examples like Jackie Lacey, right? Who was absolutely a Black based on white supremacy and there are many, many diferent examples of that.

So again, individual, institutional and internalized, right. Internalized racism.

And then they also talk about how racism exists in both overt and covert forms. One of the ways I like to talk about that is as blatant white supremacy versus a liberal white supremacy. And so what we see is blatant white supremacy here, right? Trump and arguably as a blatant white supremacist, right? When we think about the January 6th, I don't know what to call, white supremacists terrorists, right? They are blatant white supremacist. We're starting to see blatant white supremacy kind of be more present in diferent spaces in an ongoing way.

So we know that some of these white supremacists are targeting Black Lives Matter. They're showing up at some of the demonstrations. We know, even on Sunday, as we were leaving, there were a couple of white supremacists who were coming. So I guess there's a White Supremacist Time. They were really, really late 'cause we started at three o'clock and we didn't leave until after six. And I think as we were leaving is when they were pulling up. Maybe they overshot what CP time actually means. I don't know, but there's blatant white supremacy that is easy to identify.

We know that red caps replaced white hoods. We know that when they use the N-word that's blatant white supremacy, right? We know that some of the policies that were implemented through the Trump regime were blatant white supremacist policies. And so it's easy to identify blatant white supremacists.

One of the things that you'll see in that photo on the right is I don't know about you, but every single black person I've talked to has started to kind of even see the show of the American fag almost resonates in the same way as the show of the Confederate fag at this point. Because you see it be used as a symbol of blatant white supremacy now. So it's both behind Donald Trump in that photo. But also anytime you see photos of these white supremacists rallies they're also waiving them.

Black Power | Week 2 | Page 6 And so we need to think about, well what are these symbols of hate? What are these symbols of white supremacy which is actually bigger than hate? And so blatant white supremacy becomes something that we can point to really easily, identify really easily. We see it manifest in terms of rhetoric, in terms of policy and in terms of violence. Rhetoric, policy, and violence. Or how we see blatant white supremacy resonate.

But a tougher form of white supremacy is what I call liberal white supremacy. Liberal white supremacy. So Joe Biden was presented to us as an alternative, as an antidote, as a counter to Donald Trump. But when we think about what he's done in his frst hundred days, if we think about what he's prioritized as President of the United States, even though the rhetoric shifts, even though the rhetoric is he actually said the words that he wants to end white supremacy. So far not so good, right?

So far, we haven't actually seen that happen. And if we go back and reach back into his not so distant history we know that what he had ushered in beyond symbolism. So there's a symbolism that's inclusive, but beyond symbolism, what did the actual policy do? And what did it evoke among folks?

And then my favorite liberal white supremacists - by favorite I mean least favorite - is Eric Garcetti. And many of you know him as the Mayor of the City of Los Angeles, he likes to brag on the fact that, actually it's not really a fact, he likes to pretend as if Ben Jealous, the former President of the NAACP, was his college roommate. He was not his college roommate. He was actually his college classmate. I have many, many classmates, many of whom I don't even know. He thinks that that makes him a liberal that he can call on Ben Jealous.

He likes to say that he was in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia. In fact, when he met with Black Lives Matter Los Angeles seven years ago, 'cause he hasn't agreed to meet with us since, he said, "I understand Black people "cause I was in the peace Corps in Ethiopia." He speaks Spanish so that means that he is, you know, a liberal.

We need to, when we think about liberal white supremacists, remember the rhetoric is one thing but we have to look at the policy and what the policy inspires, even in terms of violence. So Eric Garcetti, for instance, his wife, Amy Wakeland, admits to calling police on Black Lives Matter demonstrators 82 times. And that's what we've been able to count. 82 times in the span of one year, 82 times. That's twice a week, she's calling police on us.

We need to think about what his most recent budget proposal for the 2021-2022 budget says. Where he's increasing funding for police. We need to think about how he said that he was gonna house people in Los Angeles but didn't even take advantage of the 100% reimbursable federal funds that are available to house virtually every single unhoused

Black Power | Week 2 | Page 7 person in the city. And now we're up to more than 50,000 unhoused folks who are not being placed in rooms who are not being given permanent housing, which is what they actually need.

So liberal white supremacy is about having the right rhetoric, having that Black friend who sits at the dinner table, having the right colors in the photo up, but initiating and encouraging policy that actually is white supremacist in nature. I also wanna uplift that it's under Mayor Garcetti that LAPD has been given carte blanche to just assail not only protestors but Black people, Brown people, poor people, people with disabilities throughout the city of Los Angeles. So we have to check for liberal white supremacy.

So if we're to go back and look at what Ture and Hamilton are saying and the "Black Power" book that we're all reading. When you talk about overt forms of racism we see them in the form of blatant white supremacy but there's also the covert forms that exist in liberal white supremacy.

So how does we tackle liberal white supremacy? How do we top a blatant white supremacy? As we get further into the readings we're talking about politics solidarity and the myth of coalition. I wanna encourage us in this conversation to think about what solidarity is. Think about what solidarity is. Solidarity is about a coming together.

Oops, let me go here and then I'll go back.

It's about a coming together because we recognize that our interests are aligned and our vision is aligned. So as we think about this racial hierarchy, and this is from Omi and Winant "Racial Formations," right? We can think about a hierarchy that places white folks at the top. White folks, regardless of desire to participate in racism and white supremacy, do reap the beneft of white supremacy. So even, and this is not about making a white folks in the class feel guilty. We don't want you to feel guilty because guilt has no place here and has no beneft here. Your guilt doesn't help us tackle the system. What we want is you to take action and become an anti-racist. Engage with us in a process of solidarity that kind of props up the structure that you see here.

At the bottom is non-white folks, people of color, but really at the bottom of even that plank is Black folks. Black people stand at the very bottom of virtually every single economic, social, and political measure. And so it's really important that as we talk about toppling structures, and we'll talk more about what it means to topple structures, about the need for an abolitionist frame, as we talk about toppling structures it's important that we come together in solidarity.

Black Power | Week 2 | Page 8 And so as you see in the slide, those systems that are assail us. Systems that are built on white supremacy, on sexism, on hetero-sexism, on transphobia, in Islamophobia, and anti-Semitism and all of these other kind of forms of oppression, it can feel overwhelming because they've also erected structures like an educational system, like an economic system, like a system of housing, like media, that make us feel overwhelmed because we feel like little fsh.

But what we have to remember is solidarity reminds us that there are millions and billions of little fsh. There are only a few big fsh. So when the little fsh come together we can beat that big fsh and overwhelmingly tackle those structures that that big fsh attempted to build for its own beneft.

So I wanna introduce some terms that I've developed as we talk about what is solidarity. And I want us to think about something that I call positional solidarity, positional solidarity. Positional solidarity is when groups unite based on recognized shared positioning on the social hierarchy or shared treatment by societal institutions and systems. So then I give you a few examples. Shared neighborhoods, in schools, over-criminalization of Black and Brown people. So for instance, we often speak in terms of Black and Brown because Black and Brown people wind up kind of experiencing the same oppressions more often than not. We live in the same neighborhoods. So what does that mean in terms of environmental racism, in terms of transportation systems, in terms of the schools that we attend. We share space and so we experienced many of the things that come with that space.

We also experience an othering. That where Black folks and Brown folks are kind of these identities are heaped upon us which make us the quintessential other. And so we share kind of these positions in the world that are very similar.

Does anybody wanna give us any other examples of positional solidarity, positional solidarity? If not, we can go on, if you don't have one for us, that's fne.

Okay, so there's another form of solidarity that I think is much deeper, and it's much harder to get to. And the reason it's deeper and harder to get to is because, but more important, is because positional solidarity can be feeting. It can be feeting. We don't always occupy the same spaces. And sometimes those who share positional solidarity are lured into believing that you just wanna be the second to the bottom on that hierarchy. If you're the second to the bottom on that hierarchy then that's a position worth preserving. And so they become more invested in institutions and structures.

But ethical solidarity is about a shared moral obligation and vision for the world. A shared moral obligation and vision for the world. It means things like recognizing, that

Black Power | Week 2 | Page 9 when there's Black infant mortality, that is worse in the United States than most developing nations, that that should be a moral outrage.

That when we talk about Black people dying of COVID-19 at two to three times our population share, everyone should be outraged, even if you don't share that position.

When we talk about Black people killed by the police, and I think about what happened to all of these folks just over the last week, but especially one that hit my heart last Tuesday was Ma'Khia Bryant. This little girl, the 16 year old girl who needed help and was murdered by police at her home. And how all of these systems converged, to steal the life of Ma'Khia Bryant. So we should all be outraged. We should all have a vision of undoing the current system of foster care, of undoing policing as we know it, of ushering in new systems where we build strong families and communities that wrap our arms around Ma'Khia Bryant, that allow her to grow into her fullest self. If you watched, I'm smiling because I've watched several of her TikToks, and just seeing the Black Girl Magic that she absolutely was helps us to know that were her life preserved she was gonna bring, she already did bring, such joy and energy and power and laughter into this world. And so we should have a sense of ethics and morality and shared vision that says Ma'Khia Bryant's life was worth saving.

And so that's ethical solidarity. How do we get to ethical solidarity? How do we get to solidarity in its truest and deepest form? I would submit that the only way to get there is by adopting a abolitionist frame, an abolitionist frame.

And so Angela Davis says,

"Abolition is not primarily a negative strategy. "It's not primarily about dismantling getting rid of "but it's about re-invisioning, "it's about building a new one."

So I'm gonna stop the share for just a moment because I want us to kind of ponder that. I want us to talk through what that means. Abolition is not primarily about dismantling it's about dismantling, but that's not the primary piece. So, what does that mean? If we think about abolition what does it mean that it's not primarily about dismantling or getting rid of. That part is there, so let's actually focus on that. That part is there, what do we have to upend? What do we have to dismantle and what do we have to do get rid of?

Somebody answered those questions. What do we have to dismantle then and get rid of?

Chasity Nunez: I'm Chasity Nunez, she/her, I don't really have an organization but am in San Gabriel and we did develop over this last year the Human Equity, Access, and Relations Committee kind of our DEI commission for the city and I'm on that commission as a commissioner. And I joined the class just for this discussion and for just learning and say,

Black Power | Week 2 | Page 10 what would we have to upend? And what do we have to dismantle is just the status quo essentially. Has, I guess--

Dr. Abdullah: What does the status quo mean? What do you mean by the status quo? Everything?

Chasity: Not everything, it's almost, well essentially, almost everything, because it is so based in a belief and mentality of white superiority that has been in place for so long. And it's so entrenched that essentially you are starting from scratch in some ways, I guess.

Dr. Abdullah: Great, great, so everything, everything, you not scared Chasity, everything.

Chasity: Great, great, so everything, everything, you not scared Chasity, everything.

Dr. Abdullah: Thank you, thank you for that. Someone else, what do we need to upend, dismantle, get rid of? Or did Chasity cover it when she said everything? Becky, do you wanna add.

Becky Avila: Hi, I'm Becky Avila, she/her pronouns, I'm with Safe Place for Youth just touching on what's quite prominent at the moment is our like apparatus of community safety. Policing is one example. So we have to upend that but I think in turn the second part of your question is we also have to rebuild and re-imagine what that looks like and replace it with something.

So just thinking about Angela Davis's comment about if it's not primarily about dismantling I think it's primarily about, I don't know what the antonym of dismantling is but rebuilding or replacing, if you will.

Dr. Abdullah: There's one more person wanna say what needs to be upended and dismantled.

Alli: I see Heather's hand right there.

Dr. Abdullah: Hi, Heather, that's my Heather, Hi Heather.

Heather Miller: Heather Miller, I'm a Rabbi and I founded the organization called Keeping It Sacred. I'm here just to continue to refne my understanding of things and continue practicing, talking about issues. And I think one of the things that we need to dismantle is the supremacy of money over humanity. And I think that, especially in the white community, at some point where we need to give up money, like we just do, we need to re reallocate and be part of that. And I think that true liberation will not come without specifcally white folks getting over this clinging to money and recognition that we need to reallocate.

Dr. Abdullah: Great, great and so Becky started to get to it that this is not just about what Angela Davis is saying is, yes when we talk about abolition we often talk about what needs to be upended so we can talk about abolishing the police, abolishing prisons and jails. As an

Black Power | Week 2 | Page 11 educator, I want to still abolish the current educational system because it is used as a tool to pull people in line. To make them kind of submit to these oppressive regimes.

So we want to get rid of things. It doesn't mean we wanna get rid of the concept. I think that Becky also said this, you know that we still want community safety. We wanna live in safe spaces. We wanna create safe spaces. We're just recognizing that policing doesn't bring that to us.

We still want to have ways of having wealth however, we defne it, right? We just don't wanna tether ourselves to capitalism.

And so I think all of these things are things that bear conversation and do include some component of getting rid of something. But the larger piece that Angela Davis is getting to is that there are two ends of abolition.

So when Mama Harriet Tubman said,

"I wanna topple chattel slavery."

In fact, I don't even know that she ever spoke those words, but the words she did speak are be free or die. Be free or die, right? So what was she imagining? What was she dreaming? In Robin Kelley's words, what was she freedom dreaming? And so she was dreaming about freedom. She was dreaming about what does freedom look like?

So the abolition that was embodied in Mamma Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth and David Walker and Nat Turner and Gabriel Prosser and John Brown, right, was really about freedom for all people, especially Black people, right? Black people cannot be chattel. It's about upending chattel slavery, but it's about imagining and working towards what freedom looks like.

And so I want us to just take a moment to think about what freedom looks like as we think about what Chasity is sharing us. There's very little in the existing system that's worth preserving. It was very little in the existing system that's worth preserving. So what is it that we wanna build in its stead?

When we think about familial structures what familial structures do we wanna invest in? What community safety plans do we wanna have? What does health and health care look like? So I want us to just ofer diferent visions for what diferent things can look like. So someone give us your vision for one of these systems or your vision for what freedom looks like.

Black Power | Week 2 | Page 12 Alli: I'm happy to jump in on this one. and I think about that, you know what that looks like is like not just a prioritizing of mental health for everyone but really being able to come to the table and just as we see our normal body health and everything else that the health of the mind that the mind is treated in such a way that everyone has access to it. And that is like cared for in some way and not just stigmatized, but as a caring as a way of caring for community that we care for the mind.

Dr. Abdullah: We care for the mind, we care for the mind. And who is the “we?” And how does that work?

Alli: I see everyone. I think everyone as well as our institutions, our organizations, the people how we are in family with one another as well I think about my family members as well. Like being able to prioritize that within our families as well, that it's not just a thing like oh let me other this person but how do we embrace them and bring them closer?

Dr. Abdullah: Great, anybody else? [Mischa] I can hop in.

Mischa DiBattiste: I can hop in.

Hi everyone, I'm Mischa, I use she/her pronouns. I'm also from Safe Place for Youth. So I have the delight of working with Becky, who you heard from. Something that came to my mind was food access. A world where everybody has access to healthy, nourishing food, like year round.

It's not a hassle or more of a hassle for one family to bring it home than others. Right now that feels so impossible because of like food deserts or food apartheid, I've heard it been called more recently. And knowing that we actually have the resources to totally upending that and actually providing and, not just everybody in this country, but literally everyone who's living in the world right now, adequate and healthy food.

Dr. Abdullah: Great, because this system, and it's tied back to one of the things that Heather shared is they try to do what's in book into believing that we live in a world of scarcity. That everyone can't have food. But I think that what I hear you saying is that everybody can, right? Everybody can have not just food, but fresh, healthy food. There's plenty for all of us to have at a very basic level, we can have fresh, healthy, clean food, is that right?

Mischa: Yes, yeah.

Dr. Abdullah: Great and let's get one more.

Nicole: Hi, my name is Nicole, pronouns are she and her. I work at iThrive Games and we are in the educational space.

Black Power | Week 2 | Page 13 One thing that I'm really hoping to help create is just upending the way that education happens. I think that children have a unique genius and I'd love to see tools and ways of teaching that help unearth and shine a light and blossom that genius rather than forcing people to learn in ways that actually don't go along with what their work is to do here in the world.

I think there's basic skills that help us to function as a society, but how do we teach people or teach teens and students to fnd out what their ray is of contribution rather than you have to do it like this, or like that.

Dr. Abdullah: That's right, we should work together.

Yes, that's right. Not just what we learn, but how we learn and why we're engaging with our young people in the way that we are. And that they don't come into the classroom as empty vessels as Paulo Frade talks about. That they come in with this base of knowledge and their knowledge base doesn't just come from what they read it's from their experiences. It's from the wisdom of their grandmothers.

It's all of these things that can inform an educational process that's truly liberatory. And so that's one of the things that I think we're seeking to do with this class is engage in liberatory models of education but also think about how to constantly grow what liberatory education looks like.

Nicole: Yeah, thank you.

Dr. Abdullah: So is there anyone else who wants to share something or should we move on?

I wanna assign you a little non-mandatory homework if that's okay. Yep, great. Okay, so here's your homework: in order to get to our radical imaginings, we have to steal back time to actually imagine. We have to engage in our freedom dreams and actually the last couple of weeks I've done a terrible job at this.

But this is what even the grounding at the beginning of this class is about, is about getting back to the humanity and divinity of ourselves. Because the reason the system, one of the reasons the system is set up the way that it is to make you never have a free moment, is because our power really comes from our creativity, from our divinity, from our freedom to dream, from our investment in our imagination. And if we're constantly on this treadmill of having to earn a living, of having to shuttle our children to and from school or fgure out what they're doing on their Zoom class or fguring out now. I'm gonna tell you all my goals, about how to get them a daily pass so they can go to school every day, right? Of about trying to fgure out where they can get a COVID test for the next week or they won't be able to go to school on Friday.

Black Power | Week 2 | Page 14 All of these things that are coming, they keep us busy. The fact that I remember, and I'm not that old, but I remember when you used to be able to go home from work, remember when you could go home from work, you got of work and you had a phone at your house, especially if your family didn't have a lot of money. All you had was a home phone and I guess, if there was an emergency your boss could call you at home. But I never got one of those calls. I was still like a teenager at that point. But you know, if I got of I didn't go home thinking about whether or not somebody picked up their stuf of of layaway at the store I worked at.

You were able to go home and you were able to engage with your family and engage with your neighborhood. And there wasn't very much on TV. I remember making appointment, like Thursday nights, where our TV night because, before Bill Cosby, he was a rapist or we knew he was a rapist, we loved "The Cosby Show." There was "A Diferent World." And we watched those two shows and that was it 'cause there was really nothing else to watch on TV. So we played checkers and monopoly, and we played outside till the street lights came on and we talked with each other and it gave us time to collectively and individually invest in ourselves as divine and human beings.

And so what I want us to do, what I wanna encourage all of us to do is steal back some time so that we can develop a vision statement. Without a vision for the world it's very difcult to be an abolitionist. In fact, I would say it's impossible to be an abolitionist. So I'm gonna encourage you to develop a vision statement.

Oops, I didn't mean to pull mine up, that's mine. So don't use that one. This is what your vision statement should be.

It should paint a picture. It should ofer an overarching worldview. So not just of the systems that we just got through describing, but of the larger world. So beyond education, what does a world look like, feel like, tastes like, sound like, you know, what smells are there, right? Mine is a mix of peach cobbler and jasmine. What does that, and you know what I kind of like, like the musty scent of my 11 year old son, it smells like joy. It's Black Boy Joy.

So what does that feel like? Your vision statement should be narrow enough that it's clear in its direction and prescription so it can't be hijacked by some group that you're not gonna agree with, right? It should be agreeable to and within the grasp of targeted masses because your vision statement is for you and it's also for the collective. It should be concise, meaning you're writing a page, not a book. A paragraph not a complete essay, right? It should allow for the building out of more clearly defned goals.

Black Power | Week 2 | Page 15 Goals exist at a systemic level. We'll do that later after you develop your vision statement. It should be achievable through required collective action. Remember when we fght, we win. So your vision statement is something that can be fought for and won.

So here's just an example of mine. And this is something I go back to at least a couple of times a year and tweak, right? I believe in the development of a world society that respects the humanity and divinity of life. That honors the connections with our creator, our ancestors, our children, our earth, humanity and all that has and gives life. That provides for the material needs of every human being, nourishing food, clean water, warm, safe shelter, quality education, holistic healthcare, a healthy and peaceful environment, as safe and just society. And nurtures the art of individuals that she/he may ofer the universe, the full potential of the blessed gifts with which they have been endowed. Ameliorates class divisions by protecting against poverty and guarding against greed and overindulgence. Restores, honors, and invokes the sacred knowledge, histories beliefs, cultures, and practices Indigenous to African and native people globally. Recognizes and celebrates the essence of individuals as extensions of and contributors to a larger living whole.

So that's the life you're looking at, right? It can be shorter, but you don't want it to be much longer. But it encapsulates really kind of the world that I see. So I started out with a vision for the world and that's what I wrote. So I wanna encourage you to do that.

I also wanna encourage you to be active and remember that there are things that you can do right now in this moment. There's actions coming up. If you didn't get enough of this conversation today then come out today, come out this afternoon. And especially if you're a member of the Labor Union, our End Police Associations rally is every single Wednesday at three o'clock in front of the ACLU building 1313 West 8th Street, and you can join us. There's always music. There's always lots of great energy. So again, join us on Wednesdays at three o'clock.

People's Budget LA, what is this Wednesday? Why is that here? What is that? I don't know, we're deleting that. I think that was supposed to be from last week. Sorry about that.

Okay, "This Is Not a Drill," which is our online political education for Black Lives Matter this week. Tomorrow night we're gonna be talking about May Day. Baba Akili is gonna lead that conversation with several labor leaders and scholars.

And then a week from then, make an appointment for the, set your calendar, because we're gonna give the full presentation of the People's Budget next Thursday, May 6th at 7:00 PM on Facebook.

Black Power | Week 2 | Page 16 If you're not doing anything this weekend or if your plans can change, please join us for the Boyle Heights May Day March, Saturday, May 1st at 11:00 AM. We're gonna start at Chavez and Matthews. This is led by Centro CSO and Carlos Montes, who many of you know is the co-founder of the Brown Berets. He's been a tremendous partner, a tremendous partner in ethical solidarity with Black Lives Matter but also with the Black Freedom Struggle since the 1960s, since he was a young person himself.

And so we ask you to join us, bring your kids. I always bring mine.

Here's some things that you can do right now.

Fill out the People's Budget survey. That's at peoplesbudgetla.com/survey and share it. If you're part of an organization have everybody complete it. If you are part of a congregation send it out to all of the folks in your congregation. If you're in a sorority a neighborhood organization share it because we need as many people to weigh in as possible.

And then we're trying to get rid of the police chief. You can sign the petition at tinyurl.com/freLAPDchiefmoore. We know that they think that because police brutalized and beat protestors over the course of the last year, what they're saying needs to happen is they should be given more money for training. We don't need them trained. We need them of the streets where they brutalize and target us. And so we're saying chop from the top and get rid of the police chief.

Here's other ways you can plug in. Move the Crowd is on Monday mornings at 7:00 AM on KPFK and here's some Twitter handles to follow.

And I think we have about three minutes.

Oh, one more announcement that I forgot to put in this share. Is what is it? FreeRuchelleMagee.org? I'll put it in the chat. We know that the longest held political prisoner is Ruchelle Magee who initially went to prison on a charge. Oh, thank you, Taylor, on a charge for a dime bag of weed. He has been in prison for 58, 53 years, 53 years, 53 years. We don't believe an 82 year old man belongs in prison. We know that we just lost Chip Fitzgerald who was a political prisoner and we lost him a few weeks ago. We wanna free Ruchelle Magee. So please go to freeruchellemagee.org, learn a little more about it. And so we now have two minutes for our closing questions and thoughts and anything else that you wanna share. Nobody wants to unmute themselves and share?

Black Power | Week 2 | Page 17 Nicole: I already did, but I'll do it again. This is Nicole. I just really appreciate broadening my understanding of what abolition means and this element of it's about creating a new really lit me up and thank you for that.

Dr. Abdullah: Good, let's think Angela Davis for that.

Nicole: Yeah.

Dr. Abdullah: Thank you. Anybody else?

Okay, well, I hope to see some of you all in the streets over the course of the next week. I think we're gonna be posting all of these things on the site and I'm looking forward to you all sharing. So be prepared. Sharing some of your vision statements with us next week. Thank y'all.

Students: Thank you.

svpla.org/blackpower-hub

Black Power | Week 2 | Page 18