A review by axmed
New Bones Abolition: Captive Maternal Agency and the Afterlife of Erica Garner by Joy James

challenging hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

some of the many highlights:

The Captive Maternal relies upon function within a world structured
by anti-Black violence, queer and transphobia, patriarchy, capitalism, colonialism, and imperialism. 

Resisting violence is not just a personal affair, it is a political obligation. Self-defense is not violence. 

What one does to resist violence is more important than what one says to denounce it.

[..]

Agape-fueled care is love disciplined by
political will. It transcends the personal and the familial. This is the level in
which the self—that can only manifest within communal—expands its
awareness. Self-love encompasses the collective.

[..]

I would rather curse than curtsy around corrupt state power and corporate funders that perform care without delivering it to oppressed communities. 

[..]

Garner wanted politicians, police, and the masses to know how she felt: uncensored,
raw, and uncut [...] Turning to social media she crafted and weaponized a skill in which
rhetoric laced with righteous rage and called individuals, bureaucracies,
and governments to accountability. Erica Garner’s tweets though were more salacious than headlines and newsroom journalism seeking ratings.

Some of her most pugilistic pronouncements included verbal evisceration of NYC’s Italian
American Mayor, Bill de Blasio, who was married to a Black woman and had
two Black children:
Just
cause you love Black pussy don’t mean you love Black lives . . .
cc @BilldeBlasio.67