It is what it is.
How we got here and how we win
Today, on my 45th birthday, my partner hit me with “you’re the only thing I like about the number 45”.
Of course, it got me thinking. Do I have anything in common with this monster? Our so-called Commander in Chief who callously said “it is what it is” in response to the devastating death toll due to COVID-19. But “it is what it is” is the phrase that got us here. It is our complicity in the history of racism that continues to this day. It is our resignation to a broken politics that feels irredeemable. It is our inaction in the face of systemic state violence and deliberate inequality. “It is what it is” is how we’ve gotten to avoid the painful truth of our suffering at the hands of a system that refuses to take care of us.
We don’t just have a Donald Trump problem, we have a white person problem. As Jill Filipovic said, “monsters don’t make us, we make them”. We should all be looking in the mirror right now and asking not just “what is in the way of a New America?” but “how am I in the way of a new America?”.
The only way is through.
Kerri (she/her)
Art by @sallyrumble
Donald Trump has revealed the depths of the country’s prejudice—and has inadvertently forced a reckoning. The question is: Is this the beginning of the end of American racism? [click to tweet]
How do you defeat a 50-year political family dynasty? You run on defund the police, the Green New Deal, and Medicare for All. Cori Bush is showing all of us how to win. [click to tweet]
“Normal led to this. Normal was a world ever more prone to a pandemic but ever less ready for one”. How the virus brought the world’s most powerful country to its knees. [click to tweet]
Voting is important, but it’s not the whole story. How movements made this moment possible. [click to tweet]
What If We Radically Reimagined the New School Year? What If We Designed a School Year for Recovery? What if we really listened? What if we made life the curriculum? [click to tweet]
An explosion has devastated Lebanon, leaving 78 dead and over 4000 injured. Here’s what you can do:
DONATE to @impact.lebanon for disaster relief
SHARE @locatingvictimsbeirut so that they can help reunite families
BOOST @open_houses_lebanon as they are helping people affected by the explosion find shelter
GIVE to @beautifulpeople.lebanon @lebanonneeds @foodblessed @beitelbaraka
Last night’s big victory goes to Cori Bush, a nurse, mother and Ferguson activist, who unseated a 50-year family dynasty in Missouri. Bush ran on defund the police, the Green New Deal, and Medicare for All. This win follows in the footsteps of Jamaal Bowman of NY and Marie Newman of Illinois, both of whom defeated the incumbents with bold progressive platforms. These campaigns are showing us how to win in November - it’s not about “them”, it’s about us. Even Rep Rashida Tlaib said this week that while she’s not endorsing Biden, she is gonna fight like hell to get him in the White House and ensure progressive victories up and down the ballot. 2020 is not about heroes or charismatic leaders, it’s about progressive unity. And if we can build collective power around bold progressive issues that matter, we can win. Join us next Thursday 8/13 at 4pPST for an organizing meetup on how to VOTEWELL and win.
Art by @_shethepeople
In our latest CTZN Podcast, Micky Scottbey Jones talks about how we need brave spaces, not safe spaces. Brave space rejects performance and perfection and embraces vulnerability, not knowing, courageous accountability and repair. It requires bravery and it is exactly what we need in this moment. Check it out.
