Couldn't tell if anybody cared 'cause nobody spoke up
What’s up. I updated my As Indie As Possible news list1 to include podcasts and newsletters, especially my recent best find, ‘Home With The Armadillo,’2 a most thorough abortion-news Substack published at ground zero abortion-hostile territory. I highly recommend subscribing if you value keeping up with the continued assaults on your freedom to make your own choices about your body, or if you care about someone who has just lost their right to bodily autonomy.
Here’s some highlights (lowlights) from last week!
Could states enact Fugitive Womb Laws?3
South Carolina wants to outlaw websites that provide information about abortion.4
Oklahoma’s Metropolitan Library System is telling librarians what words they cannot say.5
So I hear: Leave it to the states to decide these matters like protecting the right to privacy. Hey. These matters are our rights, and that is not something that is up for debate. Oh wait - it’s totally fine if you only believe in human rights for white dudes? Ooohh okay.
I hear: abortion is only acceptable in the case of rape or incest. So what you’re saying is….a person only has bodily autonomy after they’ve been violated. Got it.
Here’s what really blew my mind this week and kept me moving - listening to podcast interviews with Dorothy Roberts. After I heard Kelly Hayes interview Professor Roberts for Movement Memos,6 I sought out more interviews with her. She is brilliant and compassionate and has a decades-long background studying foster care in America.
I came across the podcast Millennials Are Killing Capitalism. Y’all, episode 151 - 'They Know the Terror'7 blew my mind.8 I can’t emphasize enough how thoroughly Roberts lays out the facts of a 30 billion dollar "system designed to disrupt Black, Native and impoverished communities by taking their children away." I think what the average person doesn’t know about the systems of harm that dominate and police families in this country - especially Black and Native families - is gutwrenching, and I hope I can do my part to increase awareness about how the child welfare system operates, and about the criminalization of poverty. Again, here I am kicking myself about what I didn’t know (or - probably more accurately, what I previously could not accept),9 but also - if you don’t know either, then I’m calling you in.
Also essential listening is a 2019 episode of Intersectionality Matters.10 The amaaaaazing law Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw conversing with Professor Roberts, and it. Is. Stellar. Their discussion is key for understanding the American history and contemporary perpetuation of reproductive violence against Black women. You can also learn more by reading an interview with Dorothy Roberts in the Boston Review.11 Her latest book, published in April 2022, is Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families - and how Abolition Can Build a Safer World.12
I feel like it’s important for me to say yes, I know I’m snarky and crass. But I do want a safer, just world - for everyone. I’d love for you to stick around while I share what I’m learning. If you’re still here, thank you. It means a lot to me.
This week my Substack post title comes from Elle King!
Carrie This Ram Jam 💥
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O1GjqzGpz9RjzpvBipk_8qaov_Q-rB-5HEY2jDXNCnU/edit
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/right-to-travel-abortion/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/07/22/south-carolina-bill-abortion-websites/
https://www.vice.com/en/article/4axwqw/oklahoma-threatens-librarians-dont-use-the-word-abortion
https://truthout.org/audio/the-end-of-roe-will-lead-to-more-family-separation-and-child-disappearance/
Yes, I said “blew my mind” twice in this post, and sadly missed it on multiple edit passes! Leaving it here as an accurate depiction of my current mental state = 🤯 x 2 !
https://www.colorlines.com/articles/intersectionality-matters-podcast-exposes-attacks-black-motherhood
https://bostonreview.net/articles/the-benevolent-terror-of-the-child-welfare-system/
https://bookshop.org/books/torn-apart-how-the-child-welfare-system-destroys-black-families-and-how-abolition-can-build-a-safer-world/9781541675445