Growing Intersectional Justice Together

We are living in a time where the experiences that map our margins* lay bare the falsehoods of anything but intersectionality.  Every day, we are subjected to messaging that insists we select a single issue to trumpet, to stand behind, to choose as the most important when we head to the polls.  Decolonization asks us to instead bring ourselves back to the land, where we have always lived.

Notice that when we steward the land, as farmworkers, we cannot ignore the harm that has been done and that continues to be done.  The thread of power, of ownership, of who has a right to each parcel and when, has to be traced. The harms of the genocide, enslavement, and scarring of this land must be named as unacceptable tragedies that are ongoing. The continued prison-industrial complex and military regime as a throughput for building wealth for capitalism as a machine for the fascist powers cannot be understated.  They have built the undertow that led to this moment, drowning in control and coercion from our government.  We have come to witness this in ICE raids, detention camps, and the murder of multiple protestors.

What could we grow if we asked less of our borders and more of our gardens?

When we make room for a body that holds more than one map, we make room for narratives to shift, we re/distribute more resources, and we find an extra seat at our table.  Building community, stretching our capacity to co-create, and eating more with our neighbors, who wouldn’t want a little more of that?

It’s important not to be solely idealistic and to root this in a call to action.  Now that we have recently voted here in Durham and statewide in NC, we can hold our new leaders accountable.  

We honor that any commitment to disability and food justice requires a commitment to immigrant justice, as we uphold the principles of intersectionality and cross-movement solidarity.

Together, we can interrogate what is or isn’t available and for whom in our community. What can we shift?  What can we build?  What can we abolish?