Yesterday a grand jury declined to indict anyone in the death of Eric Garner.
This is a (slightly updated) repost of something I wrote back in March. It feels important to me today to restate this commitment. To say again: I know where I stand, and why. I know with whom I stand, and why.
To say, simply: I stand here.
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A Brief Manifesto
I have lost patience with incremental “progress,” with “it used to be so much worse” (whether that It means racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, younameit). I am tired of any social change that asks the same people to be understanding and patient about their own unmet needs, over and over and over.
When keeping my expectations “reasonable” means always leaving the same groups at the back of the line — when it means accepting that there is a “back of the line” at all — I declare myself done. I am not interested in any progress not grounded in full acknowledgment of the radical humanity of us all.
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A Dream Deferred
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore–
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over–
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
~Langston Hughes
Featured image: Shirin-Banou Barghi
