Welcome to Keep Up, Up with Liberation!
Dear Friends,
Welcome to Keep Up, Up with Liberation! the first edition of our new newsletter. The month of June has been full of reflection, for us, and the rest of the world. The state sponsored murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Ahmaud Arbery once again reveal the systemic racism that is deeply rooted in our institutions and expose the complicity of those who reinforce violence, anti-Blackness and white supremacy. These systems are being challenged and met with inspiring waves of resistance from the people, led by Black organizers. Honoring our commitment and principles to resistance and liberation, we continue to reflect on how best we can support the ongoing struggles for justice and liberation for Black people. Our hope is that our readers will not only listen to these stories, but live up to the declarations of solidarity and take action in dismantling white supremacy at its core. Our commitment cannot be temporary, and our space will continue to amplify the demands of the Black Lives Matter movement, we recognize that the fight for liberation must happen every day and in every space.
The calls for the abolition of the carceral state become clear in Setareh Ghandehari’s piece If You Said #AbolishICE, Demand #DefundPolice in which she describes the interconnection between the systems of policing and immigration enforcement and how they are “inextricably linked to anti-Black racism and white supremacy”. The inhumanity of detention is only exacerbated during our current pandemic, says Amber Qureshi in her piece, ICE Detention During a Pandemic is Cruel, Inhumane, and Unconstitutional. An attorney with the National Lawyers Guild, Amber Qureshi, echos the call to #FreeThemAll, while detailing the cruel conditions immigrants in detention facilities across the DMV are facing during COVID-19. The early calls to #FreeThemAll were recklessly ignored by officials, and now the safety of those detained is at a severe risk in light of the massive outbreaks of COVID-19 in these detention centers.
In light of the DACA decision we ended June with #MigrantJusticeWeek, dedicating the week to uplifting pieces on migrant justice and the poetic calls to Abolish ICE.
We also hope to hear from you. We recently published our Submission Guidelines, as we continue to expand the stories and voices featured on this platform.
Thank you for your continued support in our mission to nurture a culture of resistance through storytelling. We look forward to hearing from you!
In solidarity,
Team UUWL!
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