The work of freedom fighting demands the dismantling of unjust systems. Reform won't do it, and I might add that Trump and Musk's way of dismantling isn't what Jackson is talking about. That's not the kind of change that would transform this society and create a democracy for all of its citizens. Silence will benefit the cruel-would-be-dictators and oligarchies.
Liberation "is forceful and often violent," Jackson argues. Nonetheless, we aren't to think this makes freedom "illegitimate". It "makes it hard". Hard work is no stranger to us! If we have forgotten what hard work means, look with Jackson to the brave and the courageous in the history of blacks in the Americas.
We Refuse, writes Jackson, "reframes the conversation away from the rightness or wrongness of nonviolence and violence and instead focuses on what works by placing black resistance and liberation at the center."
Finally, We Refuse offers three of many stories that exemplify what Jackson calls a "forceful no". They must be told and retold, I believe, again and again, to the millions, constituting our collective story of resistance to white supremacy.
The first story begins We Refuse. It's a story that anchors Jackson because it's familial yet one of the many stories that has anchored black Americans.
The nine-year-old Arnesta has stepped on a rusty nail, and her mother, Mary Bullard, fears her only child could develop tetanus in her foot. Once an infection becomes evident, the child is taken by her mother and grandmother to the closest doctor, "a white man who lived in a big house on the other side of town", writes Jackson. The doctor will help, if and only the mother agrees to give up the child, let her join his family. Forever. She will work for the family, and as Mary knows, be subject to a life of "servitude and sexual abuse".
It's 1915, Alabama. What is possible? Maybe not something that can be seen, but, nonetheless, resides within.
And there, in the doctor's office, it becomes apparent. Mary's mother and the grandmother of Arnesta, picks up and child, and all three leave the doctor's home. We've come to learn that there are, writes Jackson, "everyday natural" remedies. And that's the possibility the grandmother considers.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
