Being "Interdependent"
Happy Monday!
You've heard the term “collective care," but what does it mean? It may sound like fuzzy pabulum, like “mutual aid.” These are phrases we bandy about but may have a hard time practicing. After all, our capitalist society pits us against one another. And yet, it’s an inherently human instinct to look out for one another. And so we're constantly doing battle over how to survive vs. how to live our values. I’ve been thinking a lot about collective care, as I embark on a journey to be an “independent” journalist.
A brilliant woman who was at my Los Angeles book launch event for my latest book Talking About Abolition this past Saturday at the Burbank Public Library, dropped some wisdom at me. Tabatha Jones Jolivet, an academic and activist, suggested I think of it as going “interdependent” rather than “independent.” After all, I don’t have generational wealth to work for free, and so when I ask those who rely on my program, Rising Up With Sonali, to donate a mere $4 a month, I am requesting we enter into an interdependent relationship.
SOLUTIONS JOURNALISM FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE
This program is brought to you entirely by subscribers.
"Interdependent" and never beholden to corporate or state actors.
The same concept was, in a way, underlying the topic of my latest monthly column as Senior Correspondent with the Economy for All Project at the Independent Media Institute. I wrote about the Trump Administration’s attacks on the US Postal Service:
“The right wants to gut the Postal Service precisely because it operates on a model of government serving the collective good, charging the same rate to all Americans, and giving them the same service regardless of location, even though it costs more to deliver mail to isolated rural communities than well-connected urban ones. This is a form of equity.”
We pay for a service that we all rely on - we are interdependent, we are forging equity even if we don't know it. I also discussed the same topic a few weeks back as part of my weekly commentary on The Zero Hour show with Richard RJ Eskow. Watch the interview below:
The right wing hates the Post Office. Its attempts to undermine and privatize the U.S. Postal Service is entering overdrive during Trump's second term. As Sonali explains, the postal service is a crucial public service that provides essential delivery for rural communities, prescription medications, and ballots, and serves as a large unionized federal workforce.
Today, on the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great American revolutionary Malcolm X (jump to the end for my interview with Dr. Ibram X Kendi about his new book Malcolm Lives!), just days before the fifth anniversary of the murder of George Floyd, I'm thinking about how we live interdependently with one another, not just as a vague concept, but as a concrete goal.
Alongside the brilliant panelists who spoke at my book launch on Saturday, Dr. Robin D. G. Kelley, Dr. Jody Armour. Dr. Tabatha Jones Jolivet, Sheila Bates, and Matthew Solomon, was my friend Dortell Williams. He joined us via livestream from Mule Creek State Prison in California and reminded us of the urgency of abolition, as an incarcerated person in prison without parole. Read my op-ed with Dortell that YES! published in early April where we made the case that "Trauma Prevention is Crime Prevention."
And finally, enjoy some photos from Saturday's event. It was fittingly held at a public library - another institution we enjoy as a result of our interdependence!
