BROCKHAMPTON

psychiatry in its current form as a web of institutions that operates through / for the benefit of race and capital needs to be seriously grappled with if we’re to advance an answer as to what an abolitionist response to psychological / behavioural difference looks like. if we think of “mental illness” as a “real,” “natural,” “neutral” or prediscusive thing such that the only problem (if we even see one) is that too MANY or the WRONG people are getting caught in the net of its institutions (for example I saw someone describe forced institutionalisation as “misuse of mental health resources”)—then we’re not thinking it through adequately. I don’t mean to understate the difficulty of the work of unlearning & reimagining (necessarily occurring in conjunction with work on the ground) that ALL prison abolition does, but I think the naturalisation of mental illness might make this one a particularly hard leap for some people–challenges to the supposedly biological nature of mental illness met with a lot of pushback when some of us started a conversation about it On Here 3-4 years ago, including/especially from mentally ill people.

to that end, some readings connecting psychiatry to race & capital, and connecting prison abolition to deinstitutionalization:

Creating Racism: Psychiatry’s Betrayal

Jonathan M. Metzl, The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease (2010, on libgen) talks about “how race gets written into the definition of mental illness"

An interview with Jonathan Metzl on the book

Liat Ben-Moshe, Genealogies of Resistance to Incarceration: Abolition Politics within Deinstitutionalization and Anti-Prison Activism in the U.S. (2011, dissertation)

– “Deinstitutionalization: A Case Study in Carceral Abolition” (2014)

–, Disability Incarcerated: Imprisonment and Disability in the United States and Canada (2014, also on libgen)

– “Why prisons are not ‘The New Asylums’” (2017)

–, Decarcerating Disability: Deinstitutionalization and Prison Abolition (2020)

Emily Thuma, “Against the “Prison/Psychiatric State”: Anti-violence Feminisms and the Politics of Confinement in the 1970s” on how the Coalition to Stop Institutional Violence “forged an understanding of institutional violence that linked the politics of mental health to the repressive punishment of women prisoners’ agency, and the expansion of medicalized incarceration to hierarchies of race, gender, class, and sexuality”

“Kamilah Brock: Woman held in mental health facility because police didn’t believe BMW was hers”

also check out this prison abolition syllabus, notably the “Carceral Intersections” section

Body and Soul (1925) dir. Oscar Micheaux

The Scar of Shame (1929) dir. Frank Perugini

note the director was white but the cast is all-black

Portrait of Jason (1967) dir. Shirley Clarke

note that I’ve seen this and the doc itself is a bit exploitative and hard to watch in the director’s treatment of Jason but imo still worth a watch for Jason alone

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm Take One (1968) dir. William Greaves

Interesting concept but be warned of rampant homophobia esp. use of the f slur

Black Panthers (1970) dir. Agnès Varda

Again white director but she gives the party room to speak for itself

A Well Spent Life (1971) dir. Les Blank

Suzanne, Suzanne (1982) dir. Camille Billops, James Hatch

Cane River (1982) dir. Horace Jenkins

Losing Ground (1982) dir. Kathleen Collins

My Brother’s Wedding (1983) dir. Charles Burnett

Daughters of the Dust (1991) dir. Julie Dash

The Watermelon Woman (1996) dir. Cheryl Dunye

Down in the Delta (1998) dir. Maya Angelou

And When I Die, I Won’t Stay Dead (2015) dir. Billy Woodberry

Black Mother (2018) dir. Khalik Allah

How to support protestors in the Twin Cities!

(5/29/20) After receiving an incredible outpouring of donations, Minnesota Freedom Fund has announced that “there is an urgent need for supplies and support out in the field. Please connect to the groups doing the work - Black Visions Collective, Reclaim the Block, Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar, and others.“ So boost the following groups, get involved, and give if you can!

Twin Cities orgs needing support:

Black Visions Collective MN - BLVC is a Black-led, Queer & Trans centering organization whose mission is to organize powerful, connected Black communities & dismantle systems of violence. DONATE. Instagram, Twitter, FB. Text @blacklives to 23559 for alerts. Hold local electeds accountable by signing #DEFUNDMPD.

Reclaim The Block - Calling on Minneapolis to invest in violence prevention, housing, resources for youth, emergency mental health response teams, & solutions to the opioid crisis - not more police. DONATE. FB, resources/graphics.

North Star Health Collective - Health providers and street medics working in alliance with mainstream and anti-authoritarian organizations to create a safe and healthy events. DONATE, paypal at [email protected]. Send supplies/checks to North Star Health at 3319 E 50th St, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55417. FB.

MIGIZI - Native youth organization whose offices just burnt down, despite protestors’ efforts to protect them. DONATE HERE. Twitter, FB.

Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar - TCCFJ fights against police terror with a multi-national working class approach. Organizing for an all-elected, all-civilian council with power over the Police Department to hire, fire, and prosecute cops. DONATE HERE. FB.

Communities United Against Police Brutality (CUAPB)- Legal services fighting police brutality. 24hr Hotline: 612 874 STOP / 612 874 7867. DONATE HERE. Twitter, FB

Twin Cities Mutual Aid Resources:

Minnesota Freedom Fund - Legal Rights Center: 612-337-0030, National Lawyers Guild: 612-444-2654. Request bail funds here. Read their COVID-19 statement & make some calls to #FreeThemAll.

Mutual Aid Mourning & Healing Support Signup (for death midwives/doulas, social workers, therapists, and healers)

SouthsideHarmReduction.org (text/call 612.615-9725 to get naloxone, clean syringes, works)

Unicorn Riot Article on Twin Cities Mutual Aid Supplies!

Other Resources & Orgs:

Florida Bail Fund

Existing Campaigns & Mutual Aid Groups in NA by Location

MutualAidHub.org

Where to Support Protestors in Different Cities

Mental health resources for QTPOC

How To Help The Cause When You Need Help Yourself

Also if you donate to ANY of the above groups, send me your receipts and I’ll draw you plant creatures like these!

center for black equity

homeless black trans woman fund

miss major’s monthly fundraising circle

pay black trans women

marsha p johnson institute

google doc full of organizations and funds

as @silkdiary put it:  “ yes, you should feel uncomfortable. yes, it must shock you and strike to your core every time this happens. do not let the repetitive cycle of racial violence numb you to the present, daily suffering of our black brothers and sisters. stop writing and glorifying empathy and tenderness if you are not willing to extend that into practice for your oppressed neighbours of colour.”

Frank Ocean for PRADA SS20

Vandalized by 7000GB.