“Black femme activists create monthly, task-oriented Safety Pin Box for allies fighting against white supremacy”
“Each of the three box options includes tasks and call to actions that range from individual to group assignments that include everything from data collection to personal improvement to digital network influence to acts of radical compassion. There’s even a one-time “Revenge Box” that you can send to the Trump supporter or white supremacist of your choice, notifying them of a donation made in their name as well as access to a website featuring highlights from the black lives movements and achievements in black excellence. Best of all? Proceeds made from the Safety Pin Box will go towards supporting black women who “do a majority of the labor for Black liberation work and are also the least likely to be financially sustained while doing it.””
SUCH a good idea, I love this. (description from here — http://www.afropunk.com/m/blogpost?id=2059274%3ABlogPost%3A1431907)
I was laughing last week at a post by a black women who started an etsy shop selling stuff with pictures of safety pins on it, as sort of satire and sort of targetted economic exploitation of white liberals (because, of course, getting a safety pin mug is 100% about signaling to yourself and people in your life that you are liberal, and 0% about being visible as a person who knows how to de-escalate identity-based violence and is prepared to do so).
The safety pin is legit as a symbol, legit as an intention, but it wasn’t something that non-white people or Muslims actually asked for, it’s something that white women came up with and popularized and it has no steps beyond wearing the safety pin (no accompanying education, no organizing online or forming physical communities, no training or practice sessions). And those of us who are non-white, non-Christian, non-cis/hetero, etc… have loving friends who express positive intentions but typically fail to follow through on them when the need truly arises.