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A review by koreanlinda
We Do This 'til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice by Mariame Kaba
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
This is a small book with big ideas. Ideas that will free us. I was a social activist before I read this book, but it made me realize how I was trapped in what is already familiar to me: capitalism plus more. While reading the most part of the book, I was frustrated by Kaba not providing the answer: What is "this"? What do you want me to do? However, at the end of the book, I learned that working together IS our goal. "We'll figure it out by working to get there." And this idea is based on "trust in the power of conscious collective effort" (p.167). I believe this faith in collective effort allows Kaba to preserve her hope despite all the pushback, retaliation, and obstacles in the abolitionist movement, as she states, she is "struggling through all of this" because she is "a deeply, profoundly hopeful person" (p.185).
I never believed that there is any positive effect in punishment; however, I had a hard time imagining how to keep people accountable for their words and actions that harm others. If we don't put them in a prison, what consequences can we give them so they don't commit the same harm again? The answer is: instead of removing the individual from the society, we remove the power and structure that allowed them to commit harm. Whoa! But that is not the end of it. Kaba tells us to center care in this "accountability process." First, we center the care for the person who was harmed, and then we also care for the person who committed harm. That is essential in transforming the person and preventing further harm because, as Danielle Sered says, "no one enters violence for the first time by committing it" (p.146).
Kaba answers a few questions that might occur in readers' minds while trying to understand how this process works. How can the perpetrator of violence participate in the accountability process if they deny their act of harming? She says, "while the person has to be willing to at least begin a process of taking accountability for their actions, they don't need to necessarily be at the point where they've admitted harm" because the process is designed to help them understand how they harmed others (p.142).
With her brilliantly creative writing, Kaba shows how this can look like in Justice: A Short Story (p.157-162). By listening to the mourning of all the families, friends, and community members affected by the violence the perpetrator committed, she gets to see the pain she created and eventually absorbs it herself. Have you ever wondered looking at protesters' cry for a change: does their voice actually reach people who need to hear it? Through the accountability process, we as a society make them listen.
Kaba also clarifies the real definition of violence, unlike what the current laws make us believe. Violence is not just harming bodies through assaults. It includes all acts that harm people's lives such as polluting the environment, corporate crimes, starting wars, locking people up, and forcibly separating families. And it is still violence even if acts are executed by the government.
I loved how Kaba was open to the diversity in the abolitionist movement: not everyone has to be an abolitionist. Besides, there are many people who are new to this idea. Kaba encourages us to be generous with ourselves and each other. She says, "oftentimes when you encounter something for the first time, it raises so much within you, it makes you grasp for familiar things to explain the thing that you may not quite understand" (p.190). That is what I experienced internally as I read the book: I was often frustrated and angry. Now I'm glad I pushed through. Thank you, Mariame, for sharing your stories and wisdom.
Review by Linda (she/they)
Twitter @KoreanLinda
Letter writer at DefinitelyNotOkay.com
I never believed that there is any positive effect in punishment; however, I had a hard time imagining how to keep people accountable for their words and actions that harm others. If we don't put them in a prison, what consequences can we give them so they don't commit the same harm again? The answer is: instead of removing the individual from the society, we remove the power and structure that allowed them to commit harm. Whoa! But that is not the end of it. Kaba tells us to center care in this "accountability process." First, we center the care for the person who was harmed, and then we also care for the person who committed harm. That is essential in transforming the person and preventing further harm because, as Danielle Sered says, "no one enters violence for the first time by committing it" (p.146).
Kaba answers a few questions that might occur in readers' minds while trying to understand how this process works. How can the perpetrator of violence participate in the accountability process if they deny their act of harming? She says, "while the person has to be willing to at least begin a process of taking accountability for their actions, they don't need to necessarily be at the point where they've admitted harm" because the process is designed to help them understand how they harmed others (p.142).
With her brilliantly creative writing, Kaba shows how this can look like in Justice: A Short Story (p.157-162). By listening to the mourning of all the families, friends, and community members affected by the violence the perpetrator committed, she gets to see the pain she created and eventually absorbs it herself. Have you ever wondered looking at protesters' cry for a change: does their voice actually reach people who need to hear it? Through the accountability process, we as a society make them listen.
Kaba also clarifies the real definition of violence, unlike what the current laws make us believe. Violence is not just harming bodies through assaults. It includes all acts that harm people's lives such as polluting the environment, corporate crimes, starting wars, locking people up, and forcibly separating families. And it is still violence even if acts are executed by the government.
I loved how Kaba was open to the diversity in the abolitionist movement: not everyone has to be an abolitionist. Besides, there are many people who are new to this idea. Kaba encourages us to be generous with ourselves and each other. She says, "oftentimes when you encounter something for the first time, it raises so much within you, it makes you grasp for familiar things to explain the thing that you may not quite understand" (p.190). That is what I experienced internally as I read the book: I was often frustrated and angry. Now I'm glad I pushed through. Thank you, Mariame, for sharing your stories and wisdom.
Review by Linda (she/they)
Twitter @KoreanLinda
Letter writer at DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, Police brutality, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death and Slavery