Our Vision

We demand a world where the integrity of all families is valued and family ancestry is held sacred. In this world, families are supported and given the resources they need to thrive, and the family death penalty, or termination of parental rights, no longer exists. In this world, we are building healing space for families who have been forcibly separated, and we are collectively building a vision of how to hold families together through all our complexities and experiences.  Our village resurrects, and the sound of communal joy resonates from home to home, person to person.

 The world we demand is a world built for us. Black children can be children, and Black, brown, and poor birthing people are trusted with decisions for the care of their bodies and families.  It is filled with love, understanding, joy and peace.  It has fields of sunflowers, lilies and other flowers giving fragrance to the world.  It feels like freedom and it tastes like abuelita’s congri, our sister’s fried chicken, fresh mango, and mama’s macaroni and cheese. When we look at people’s faces, they are happy, because for once, Black people are living without fear.  They are not worrying about who is knocking on their door, or feeling a panic when they get a call from an unknown number, and they rest easy knowing their children are safe.  Black daughters are safe.

We demand a world where people have time to spend with their family, going to museums, parks, vacations. It is a world without war, poverty, racism, hatred or mayhem. Language is not a barrier, but a thread of understanding.  This world utilizes a true barter system, without capitalism, with adequate housing for everyone, employment that suits all skill sets, and an education system where we are taught the truth about our heritage and about other people's heritage, not a colonized fantasy.

We demand a world where we are recognized for our actions and the substance of our beings--not judged for the substances that may sometimes be in our bodies. In this world, it is understood that healing is non-linear, and that old injuries can resurface afresh many years after the original wounding. The passage of time does not efface a person’s need or deserving of care. The way someone copes with their pain is not a commentary on their love for their children. Asking for help is not an admission of incompetence, nor does it grant permission for the helper to take what is not offered. In this world, substance use is recognized as a normal part of human existence, and it does not transform into harm when it is done by a person of color or a poor person. In this world, those of us who live with addiction, or trauma are afforded the space, time, and support necessary to heal and our children are allowed to be participants in that healing. In this world, our children learn that adversity can be overcome, that mistakes can be forgiven, and that the experience of suffering does not make permanent outcasts of us. In this world we are not always perfect. We are not always liked. We do not always make good choices, but we still have the right to come home to our babies each and every day.

We demand a world where systems do not dictate the futures of families, nor are the complexities of human pain, love and need reduced to checklists and algorithms; where there are numerous community-based alternatives to provide the rites of passage for healing.  For example, when a person gives birth, there is a community member that can stay with the parent and children if so desired. Families stand together: babysitting each other’s kids, giving each other breaks, honoring the need for time apart and together.  We have eliminated the fatigue, grief and death that are constantly imposed on Black women, birthing people, and caretakers.  Neighbors become aunties, and strangers are now our extended families.

In this world, we govern our own communities, and have participatory policy making.  Parents and community leaders support each other.  We come together with our children, eat food, make decisions, and watch the babies play.  Hate is buried. Love is a verb and we see it in action.  Our differences are no longer weapons used to divide us, but rather kindle for curiosity and unity.  We build, and practice building, with the understanding that our liberation is intertwined. All top-down systems are eradicated. Instead, grassroots efforts anchor us and lead the fight for the health and well-being of families.  

In the future there will be mistakes, but those mistakes will be allowed to fuel growth, instead of being held over us as perpetual bludgeons named “shame” and “humiliation.” We would be living in a world where practicing the skills to end harm, mediate conflict is an imperative.  We would generate stamina to endure the ebbs and flows of disagreement, and understand this as a practice of joy not a necessity born out of fear.  It will be our duty to eliminate the pathology of anger.  It will be our duty to develop and normalize the reflex to “step up” and “step in”.   What is now considered hard, will be considered routine.

We hear our world as clearly as we can see it. It sounds like flowing water, waves clapping against rocks, the crescendo of a waterfall, a breeze strumming its gentle tune through the autumn leaves. It sounds like birds chirping in the distance, their melodic banter a symbol of the peace we have achieved. But most of all it sounds like the voices of our children.

In this world, all of us would wake up and hear our kids in the morning.  We would call out to them and hear them answer, “mom.”   Our grandparents, mothers, and children would be chattering.  Sometimes the words would be hard and sometimes the words would be soft.  We hear bickering in this future, over things like what to eat for breakfast or what games to play and what clothes are okay to wear. We reminisce about hard times-- when we battled together and battled each other.  Then we hear silence, sighs, laughter, and silence again.  In this future, our days end with our eyes closing, and deep rest.  We wake up and hear each other's voices again. There is a repetition in hearing each other; our families are the soundtrack of our future.

  And if we must live in a world where we battle, it will be with an army united. Millions upon millions of people of all backgrounds, races, nationalities, professions, generations, orientations, and inclinations will stand together with the clarity, strategies and power necessary to dismantle the systems that once kept us apart, down to the very rubble of their foundations.  When we fight, we will do so with the confidence and knowledge of our collective experience, with the power and endurance that comes from knowing we will accept no other outcome than to win.   Then, when it is all over, we will breathe, we will rest, we will rejoice--and then keep building.

This is our vision. This is our demand.  Again, we are no longer asking.