Red Prepper Release Week, Good News & Advice
Red Prepper comes out Tuesday!
This book would not be here if I hadn't started When/If. And When/If probably wouldn't still be active if not for the support, financial and otherwise, of you, my dear readers. I truly appreciate everyone who has continued to support my work, especially while it flagged (and is still flagging) due to the time and effort I had to and have to take toward Red Prepper. In no small part because of you, folks who would never have been exposed to these ideas–or perhaps shunned them as the work of the far-right–might pick up a can of beans and prepare for a rainy day. More importantly, they might look around themselves, see the boiling water, and start talking to their friends and neighbors about it. You helped make this happen. Thank you.
I will be reading at Prologue Bookshop in Columbus, Ohio this Thursday, at 6:30. If you're in the area I'd love to have folks come by! I will read a couple passages from the book, take some questions, and be joined in conversation with a local activist about mutual aid and community work.
Good News
The people are rising up around the globe. In France, in Spain, in Albania, India, Italy, Greece, Belgium, Ecuador, Chile, and I'm probably missing a few. You've almost certainly heard about the whiter of these protests, but I think almost across the board these protests are for basic rights like housing, schooling, and free elections. And this isn't a toothless No Kings protest, either. Cops are getting their shit rocked and things are being set on fire.
I think we're all waiting for the final straw, here in the States. And that's understandable. Cops here are quicker to shoot than in most other countries, and that's not something to simply disregard; protesting–rioting–is very dangerous. And let me repeat it is not our only recourse. But. We have done it, and we've done it in the recent past. More importantly, we have done it led by people who are more likely to be hurt, killed, or incarcerated by the system than most of the folks reading this. Black people, and people of color more broadly, have led these struggles just as they have led mutual aid and community defense since before you entertained the idea that maybe the Dems aren't so good, after all. That's not to denigrate you; it's to remind you that while you may only now be coming to the precipice from which some manner of rebellion seems a reasonable response, marginalized communities have been living there. If there are movements in your area that are organizing, join them.
If things feel bleak to you, and if it feels like you're being backed into a corner, it's probably because you are. Don't let the fact that you have a big TV, four streaming subscriptions, and DoorDash on the way delude you–these are our bread and circuses. Conveniences meant to make us go to work tomorrow, to sell our lives for the money to lease them back hours at a time. Yes, our quality of life may be higher than earlier in history, but that doesn't mean we are not being exploited, stolen from, and threatened. We have been given a shoddy, landlord-special, gilded cage. And for some of us, it ain't even all that gilded.
My advice to you is not to pick up a rock and throw it through a window tomorrow. My advice is to have an honest conversation with yourself and those closest to you. Find the line, the point at which you feel you cannot take any more. Agree upon it. Write it down. And when they cross that line, let it be known. More important than that, if, in your city, your county, your borough, someone else's line gets crossed? Join them. In France disparate movements have united with explicit demands of the government, and they are setting things on fire for those demands. They are not waiting their turn. I'm not saying things absolutely have to be set on fire here–for legal reasons, I'm expressly not saying that. But if tomorrow a group of kids walk out of their schools in protest of ICE abductions, don't ignore their momentum because you are more concerned with the price of diesel. Join them. More than one thing can be wrong and be on your list at a time. Part of the argument for why mass uprisings are difficult in this country is how spread out we are, how big the country is, and how different. If we simply agree that your problems are my problems, however, those differences shrink. This is solidarity. Have your one issue, but don't wait for your turn when someone else's line gets crossed; join them.