Let Love Fuel the Fire This Time

Drafted by Aaron Goggans, and reviewed and approved by BLM D.C. chapter leadership

Website: https://wellexaminedlife.com/

Donald Trump has no intention of making America “great,” let alone safe. Now in his 4th week in office, Trump’s agenda of orchestrating a dangerous grab for authoritarian executive power is once again weaponizing anti-Blackness and xenophobia. Trump and chief strategist Steve Bannon, a known white supremacist, are taking their lead from an effective and bloody totalitarian framework: Attack every statement of fact with a question of motive, misdirect until facts no longer matter, and shock the body politic with violence and escalating threats until it is too depleted or overwhelmed to recognize the prevailing agenda.

As many have indicated, Trump’s “alternative facts” are merely the things that must be true to justify what happens next. Trump’s executive orders on policing are meant to stir people’s fears and invent and feed a desire to “fight crime,” but if history is any guide, “what happens next” will be the massive reinvestment of state violence against Black bodies. The truth is that being a cop is safer than it has been in decades. The police are not under increasing threat. Crime has been trending down for decades.

Trump’s interest is not the physical protection of the police — it’s to give police more legal cover for their brutality.

They will continue to say that it is because some of us, immigrants and Muslims, pose a significant threat. They will say that it is for our own good, to end violence in Black communities. They will they will tell the story that gun violence can only be solved by militarized policing. In reality, the coming escalation of violence will be used to stoke the oppressive cornerstones of our country — racism, ableism, cis-hetero patriarchy, white supremacy and the tenets of capitalism. This will further divide, isolate and frighten people, allowing an emboldened regime to seize more power, wealth and infrastructure.

Inevitably, social and political disparities will get worse before they get better. Frustrated conservatives will continue buying into the president’s delusions and falsehoods. Liberals will remain devoid of the necessary backbone to enact effective leadership in the face of fascism. Court orders will be ignored. Calls for reason, objectivity and morality will be set aside. And the international community will not be able to rein in the unbounded actions of the last remaining superpower.

There will be no justice in America — except the justice that we make by putting our bodies on the line and our hearts in each other’s hands.

Since BLM’s inception, we have been guided by the knowledge that none of us can truly be free until all of us are free. We understand Dr. King’s “inescapable network of mutuality” all too well. What happens next will have lasting ramifications for EVERY community. If your abstract freedom is predicated on the visceral exploitation and brutality of marginalized communities, you are not free. You will be policed by your fear and by your desire to belong to a fictitious “great America.” Your volition will be robbed from you as thoroughly as it is from those whose chains are made of iron.Your maleness, your whiteness, your wealth, your nation of origin and your mother tongue will not save you. We may not all be in the same boat, but the coming tide will sink us all if we do not rise in unity.

But unity is a tricky thing, and it cannot be based in some abstract human sameness.

Our unity must be forged in the fires of solidarity. It must be forged in the streets when we assert our power, in our meetings where we plan and strategize, and in our living rooms as we re-learn how to love and support each other. Our unity must come from an understanding that though our identities and privileges place us on different battle fields, we are fighting the same war to end injustice.

In the next few months, our resistance must come, as the Zapatistas taught us, “from below and to the left.” No authority can save us. Capitalism and wealth cannot save us. We must stand together and build the power to stop Trump’s agenda while also retreating from his grasp. And we must also remember that Trump is neither the beginning nor the end of our oppression. He is merely a symbol and manifestation of what we have always known to be true.

Our path forward is self-evident.

• We will continue our call for the abolition of policing and the liberation of Black people.
• We will continue to stand in solidarity with all communities under attack, especially our Black muslim, Jewish, immigrant and trans families.
• We will build diverse coalitions based on transformative relationships between front-line communities that support and constructively engage the leadership of Black people with multiple intersecting marginalized identities.
• We will continue to educate ourselves on the history of Black resistance and anti-fascism so that we are equipped to face what is coming.
• We will be strategic with our energy and prepare for the marathon of resistance.
• We will invest in networks of support, refuge and sanctuary that can protect and sustain us through these dark times.
• We will build neighborhood and community defense networks to keep us safe.
• We will continue to invest in community accountability, peacekeeping and other alternatives to policing.
• We will build autonomous spaces where we can meet all of our needs away from state and corporate oversight and surveillance.
• We will encourage our allies to open up their own fronts of resistance against the Trump agenda so that our decentralized diversity of tactics can overwhelm their centralization of power.
• We will do all of this grounded in self-love.

And that last part is incredibly important. We must continue to move from a place of deep abiding love for Black people and Black communities. We must continue to extend that love to all who seek to free Black people, and so all people, from state-sanctioned violence. And we must let love fuel the fire that will, at long last, lead to our liberation.