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Has the government crossed your red line? Let's get you plugged in!
Hey, you! Are you realizing things are really bad? Do you feel like you should be doing something to stand up for your neighbors as they’re snatched off the streets? Is it crystalizing that showing up to a quarterly weekend protest is probably not enough to stop fascism? Thank God, get in here.
Everything feels overwhelming (because it is) and we are very removed from each other, almost as if an ongoing global pandemic broke many already-weak community ties in an individualistic society and we were never given time or resources to rebuild them. There’s good news: plugging in to your community will make you feel better. But sometimes that’s thrown out like an incantation—community community community—with little direction. Telling people who aren’t sure how to help to just start helping is a bit like telling a depressed person to do things that make them less depressed. Enter this post, which will provide suggestions on where to start and the vibe to bring.
It’s fantastic that you’ve realized you want to start doing more to resist the Trump administration and protect your neighbors. I am a firm believer that many people are failing to step up right now because they don’t know how, instead of because they don’t care. Every time I provide resources, I am proven right. Make a commitment to actually do the things. You’ve got this.
Remember, people are already doing the work, and they absolutely want to help you do it, too. Your job has two parts: first, to find the people doing the work in your community, or people close enough to help you adapt their work in your community. Second, to listen to them. Let’s take them in order.
Step One: Find the people doing the work.
Do you have a friend or acquaintance or enemy who does grocery delivery or ICE watch? Text them, right now, and tell them you want to learn from them. Ask them concrete questions: when you can tag along, or who to reach out to in order to sign up for a shift, or what you can donate. If you want to help, don’t just add work to people doing the work. Offer help!
Minneapolis and Chicago’s well-organized responses to ICE surges were possible because of existing local mutual aid networks. You need to be in these networks. This is where you will meet your allies and build your organizing chops. If things keep getting worse, the people you meet through mutual aid will be the ones who can help you figure out next steps. And this organizing is a good use of energy even if ICE never comes to your city. It’s not a waste of time to delivery groceries to people that need them, to volunteer at a community center, or to get to know your neighbors. It’s really delightful, actually.
Once you’re a little plugged in, consider hosting a mini-fundraiser or meet-up. People have been hosting bake sales and clothing swaps and book swaps nonstop. Host friends or acquaintances, tell them to bring a friend, and distribute information about mutual aid networks as a small part of your event. Everything necessary right now will be possible if it’s grounded in community. Hanging out with people and making new friends is also very fun, and we don’t get much fun these days!
If you don’t have an organizing friend and don’t know where to look for mutual aid networks in your area, you could start with:
Local bail funds, which are usually easy to find and plugged in to organizing around the criminal legal system;
Other organizations in your city that work on providing resources to people who are incarcerated;
Unitarian Universalist churches, the Interfaith Alliance, or other religious organizations led by people vocally critical of ICE and the criminal legal system;
Bulletin boards at local bookstores and/or coffee shops that host organizing events;
Searching relevant keywords (“mutual aid” + your city, your city + “organizing,” your city + “abolition”) on Instagram and finding accounts sharing opportunities; or
Immigrants’ rights groups.1
There may not be a mutual aid network in your community. This article is full of resources about how to start one. It’s still worth it to try to find people to learn from, even if they’re the next town over. We aren’t meant to be in isolation!
Step Two: Listen to the people doing the work.
Here comes the hard part. If you’re coming to this work now, you’re behind. That’s bad! You fucked up! And every single person already working on these issues wants you to come and help them and is not going to hold your lateness against you!
What they will hold against you, correctly, is if you show up late and act like you are both on time and somehow also in charge. You are late. You were not listening.2 The longer you deny this, the later you will be. Accept it and move on.
White people in particular often talk about how they want to get involved in racial equity movements or other forms of organizing but don’t want people to get mad at them for fucking up. Nobody is ever mad about people just showing up and doing what’s asked of them, so this usually has something to do with a nebulous fear that people will get mad when they offer ideas or pushback that is ‘wrong.’ First of all, why are you brand new to a space offering ideas and pushback? But second of all, and more importantly, what do you care about more—people getting mad at you when you fuck up, or the murderous racism being done in your name?
You will fuck up. People have a right to call those fuck-ups out. Almost always, this will be done productively and as an educational service to you and with opportunities to grow and make things right. On the rare occasions when it isn’t, again—do you care enough about the murderous racism being done in your name to sometimes be uncomfortable as you try to help? If not, why would anyone waste their time and trust on you? Toughen up.3
Many of the solutions proposed by the people already doing the work may sound insane to you. Please remember these people know a lot more about organizing against a murderous government than you. If you don’t understand addition, calculus is going to sound insane, too.
Anyone now realizing the American government frequently murders people (and that these murders are Bad) has had more than enough evidence to reach this conclusion for a long time. There are decades’ worth of books to read and documentaries to watch and people to listen to that make this point compellingly and predicted our current moment. The people who have been right about this almost exclusively advocate for transformative change to our systems. Hearing them out is likely to be uncomfortable. Discomfort is totally fine! It means you’re growing!
Our whole existence rests on getting people to believe this hellscape is the best we can do, so you’re going to be asked to confront some of your most deeply held beliefs. If you’re just now showing up to help, you need to remember that you’ve been proven wrong and the people challenging the hellscape have been proven right. Shut up and listen for a while. You might disagree with some of what it said or proposed solutions even after you’ve listened, and that’s okay. There are huge disagreements among organizers; if there was universal consensus on the path forward, we’d be much further down said path. But if you don’t make an effort to understand the arguments and proposed solutions, you don’t get to disagree with them. The prison and police abolitionists keep being the ones whose proactive organizing is working. That’s not a fluke.
If you’d like to learn more about the basics of these arguments on your own, I have a starter pack of books that made these concepts make sense for me (and if you buy off that link, I get commission, as do local bookstores). As any frequent reader knows, Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes are the organizers whose work has most shaped my own understanding of organizing, and both publish newsletters on this platform.
Even if you’ve read these things and have a high tolerance for theoretical disagreement and conflict, remember that if you’re new to any group, it’s a good idea to just ask how to help for a while before suggesting totally new structures or programs. With time invested and your feet under you, you can always go do your own thing if needed. Don’t get ahead of yourself.
I know it feels like everything is urgent right now, but things have been urgent for a long time. The human experience is not going to get perfected in our lifetimes. That realization is depressing for a minute, and then an immense pressure release—we are in this together, for better or for worse. It’ll be better if you’re really in it, I promise.
If you’re in Chicago, my number one recommendation about where to plug into mutual aid is Chicago Community Jail Support, which was one of my introductions to Chicago mutual aid. They are also in need of recurring donors.
For those wondering why this is the final bullet point, it’s because these organizations are often led by lawyers and thus rooted in deep faith in the system. You’re more likely to have luck with hyperlocal organizations that are led by immigrants. I am grateful for like, the ACLU, but they aren’t sending you mutual aid opportunities.
Thinking a lot about this article, worth a full read.
A sample: So when white friends call me now, devastated, depressed, wanting to quit—it lands strangely. I understand why people are crashing out. I really do. But it also makes me deeply uneasy. Because it suggests that when they asked to listen to my story, they weren’t actually preparing themselves to believe it.
Familiarizing myself with the concept of ‘right to comfort’ as a core tenet of white supremacy made a lot of things make sense to me. Deconstructing racism is necessarily uncomfortable and will come with conflict. Prioritizing comfort and conflict avoidance makes it impossible to ever really talk about anything hard, which in turn exclusively benefits those already in power.
Hi Rachel! I’m grateful for your breakdown of the breakdown for white folks as well as the practical resources. To be clear, when I say this kinda stuff to whites I’ve observed they interpret it as “anger” so it’s nice to sit on the sidelines.
And I’ve been sidelined 🤷🏽♂️. I’m a big, black, brother in Minneapolis, so I’ve been laying low cuz cops like ICE like to single guys like me out and make examples of us. So I can relate to some of these white folks who late to the party. That is, until recently the general mindset was a vague concern for “y’all” but now that ICE kills whites it’s an urgent concern for “us.”
But from my perch, better late than never. And as long as they get there I’ll consider them on time. But as you pointed out don’t try to act like you been there this whole while lol
This is really such a beautiful resource you've put together. I've heard from quite a few folks that they just don't know how to plug in. This is the perfect pep-talk to share! Thank you for boldly calling people in!