In that way, we are all Kin

A personal reflection on liberation

It’s been a while since I last posted something for y’all. I had previously made a commitment to an every other week type of schedule.

When I made that commitment, never did I think that we would bear witness to acts of violence and an ensuing genocide (it’s more accurate to say that this has been a consistent and systemic genocide for that last 75 years and we are witnessing its escalation.)

Now before I go too much deeper into this reflection, I am going to make this statement for those who don’t know me or my work. I fundamentally believe in Liberation for all at the expense of none.

What that means is that I believe that every human life is sacred, that those that are taken from us too soon as a result of or reaction to any system of dominance is horrifying. What that also means is that while I can sit here as a sociologist, with a focus in systems and cultures of dominance and oppression, more specifically colonialism and imperialism, and very easily explain how violent revolution occurs as a result of violent occupation….what I cannot do is ever justify the loss of a life, of any life. Period.

Anyone’s attempt to try to conflate supporting liberatory movements with a justification for death, is doing so to be divisive and/or to distract us from having conversations about the root causation of that violence and the need for the liberatory movement to begin with.

Now that I’ve made that clear. To my reflection….

As a few of you may know, I have been chosen to speak at a Tedx event in LA in two ish weeks (details here). I found out at the end of September. The theme is “a right to dream”. I was so excited, If I dig deep beneath the emotions I am currently feeling, I can feel that I still am. I had already begun to think through my topic, I was certain that I was going to take this opportunity to tell my family’s story, my people’s story, the story of colonized Algeria and our liberation, as a part of this theme. It was an absolute no brainer for me.

And then, as we rolled into October and the due date for our initial scripts came near, I was frozen. Blocked. I simply could not write. Literally, me, a woman with all the words, a storyteller and podcaster….had none.

It took me until last week to realize that my block was not because I had no words….

I couldn’t write because in the telling of my people’s story, I was telling the story we are watching unfold before our very eyes in Congo, Sudan, Palestine, Yemen, Ethiopia, Syria, Afghanistan and so many more.

The images from these countries that flash across our legacy media news screens, social media, telegram groups etc were the images of my people….. except there was no social media. There were no camera crews. There was no one to tell our story for us.

I couldn’t write, because if I were to begin writing, I would have to face the depth of generational trauma that quietly lives inside of me, of centuries of oppression, subjugation, ensalvement and violence that I have managed to avoid truly facing for 38 years.

So I sat, I sat in silence, stillness, I listened to music of resistance and liberation from Algeria and Palestine and various global populations, in languages I don’t speak but whose music I understood all too well! I hit the heavy bag, I talked to my therapist, my friends and I cried. I cried a lot.

And finally, from my sick bed, up against the clock of the due date, I wrote my Tedx talk….and yes I cried through that as well.

So now for the why, why am I even sharing this reflection with you?

Well, writing is a form of release that I find to be incredibly therapeutic. So in full transparency, this is in part for me. But And Also….

I need everyone to understand that the marginalized voices, the voices of the global majority that are crying out for freedom, for an end to genocide globally, for an end to occupations and exploitation are not just doing it for themselves. When we fight for liberation, yes, we are sometimes fighting for our own people but we know that our struggles for liberation are bound together, and in that way that makes us kin, we are always fighting for each other.

We are fighting for our ancestors who had no one to fight for them or with them. We are calling out for humanity, for everyone’s humanity, because we know, no we can feeeeeel, the impact of oppression. We know what it is to live within systems of dominance, we know this in our DNA, we know it viscerally. We know this in our every day lives because while it may not be as overt in different parts of the world, the violence of colonialism and imperialism is very much present wherever you look.

When we are crying out for freedom, for safety, for humanity we are doing so not just for Palestine, but for everyone else who is oppressed in any way, because as Fannie Lou Hammer said “nobody's free until everybody's free.”

So the next time you interpret someone’s calls for a ceasefire, or an end to an occupation, an end to labor exploitation, to the displacement of a people, to genocide, as a call for another’s oppression, ask yourself….is that actually what they said, or have I just been taught that my freedom, comfort and safety can only be achieved through the literal and political violence and oppression of another?

Is it really that everyone is “against” any one particular population OR is it that indigenous peoples everywhere recognize themselves in each other, that marginalized people everywhere recognize themselves in each other and we are not against anyone but rather we are FOR everyone.

Supremacy culture would have us all believe that we are individuals, separate from each other. That one person’s struggle simply “isn’t our business”. Liberation culture believes that we are interconnected, that we are siblings and kin to each other and that harm to one of us, in any corner of the globe, is harm to all of us. “We are each other’s business” as Amanda Seales said years ago in an IG video.

A side note: I think it’s important to note here, that I am speaking for those who have an understanding of liberatory frameworks and a life ethos that reflects those frameworks. Please don’t be fooled by “freedom” movements who use the language, tools and tactics of the oppressor. There are always people, in every movement, everywhere, that are the most extreme version of dominance culture, but we cannot allow that to distract us from or conflate it with liberation.

For me it’s simple, I will chose liberation for all over and over again no matter the current or future cost to my reputation or career or the names I am called. Because my love for humanity and for all people will always be greater than the sum of supremacist hate. Because if we could all pause for just a moment, and see each other for who we are, past the politicization of our identities, we would realize, that the fabric that makes us human is cut from the exact same spool.

P.S. I’m just going to get ahead of the backlash. Based on the last 40 days, I know for some of you, this reflection will be perceived in every which way other than what is actually being said. For those people, this will be upsetting, in the same way that my phrasing “liberation for all at the expense of none” has been. So do what you must, but… I want to leave y’all with this….whatever you think I said that has upset you so, is that actually what I said, or have you just been taught that your freedom, comfort and safety can only be achieved through the literal and political violence and oppression of another?

Yours in Liberation,

Weeze

An honest text to a friend, sent after receiving consent to emotional dump.