Settlements & Sentences Aren’t Justice — Abolition Now!

“Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn’t fit in with the core belief.”

Frantz Fannon

In amerikkka from the time we are very young we are taught that “the bad guys go to prison.” We are taught that prison is the worst place to be but “if you can’t do the time don’t do the crime.” It is with this colonized framework of thinking that so many of us engage in this idea of justice. Justice by definition has to deal with fairness or righteousness. Therefore we must understand justice cannot be found in colonial governments and structures because there is absolutely nothing fair or righteous about settler-colonial imperialism. How can a country formed under the land theft and genocide of Native Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island be just? How can people, companies and structures who have built their wealth off the enslavement and exploitation of Africans ever believe in fairness? How can a country that since the 1800s has forced labor, passed exclusion acts, placed thousands in internment camps…