In this week's episode, part 2 of 2, we continue our discussion about the need for outside-the-box thinking by asking what gets in the way. Our conversation leads us to the realization that the resistance to facing and confronting fear and other difficult emotions can keep us in unjust and inequitable systems.
Read MoreFall may just be a couple months away, but August has just arrived and summer ain’t over yet! The Joyous Justice team is SO excited to share with you some of what’s been on our reading and audiobook listening lists this summer. If you’re in search of a compelling read, find yourself with some time or you’ve already made it through your own list, we hope these gems serve as inspiration for what to pick up next!
Read MoreI picked up We Do This ‘Til We Free Us because I wanted to better understand the principles of the Abolitionist movement (and because the good folks at Anti-Racism Daily recommended it!). The prison abolition movement, as envisioned and articulated by Mariame Kaba in this collection of essays and interviews, is as radical as it is beautiful. When I say “radical” I don’t mean “irrational” or “impossible.” I mean “profound,” “paradigm-shifting,” “mind-blowing.”
Read MoreIn this week’s episode, part 1 of 2, April and Tracie think about new paradigms for the future. Inspired by a song, we use the prison abolition movement & criminal legal system as well as Western medicine as points of reference, investigating the ways inherited systems, received as “natural,” are in fact human constructions which can be deconstructed (and reconstructed!) for a future that is more equitable, sustainable, and just.
Read MoreTracie brings up a recent NFL announcement that they will change a racist policy, just another example of the systematic, racist oppression that permeates US society. This leads to a discussion between April and Tracie about the racism found within the United States medical system and why developing an effective racial justice analysis is so important.
Read MoreIn this week's episode, April and Tracie discuss Eric Ward’s Skin in the Game point about the conditional whiteness of Ashkenazi Jews, unpacking (with both/and thinking) the reaction some Jews have regarding their whiteness. April uses her experiences as a United States citizen living in Senegal to explain how conditional privilege operates.
Read More“As Jews and in the spirit of many Jewish values and laws, we should work to ensure that our lives move us and our society in the direction of justice and are not complicit in the systemic harming of people based upon their identity and or appearance.” - April N. Baskin
Read MoreIn this week’s episode, we talk about the importance of affinity groups, which are spaces for people with shared identity to safely unpack dynamics around oppression. Though it may feel counter-intuitive, affinity spaces are actually important tools as we develop our liberatory consciousness.
Read MoreIn this week’s episode April and Tracie reflect on Juneteenth and continue to think about how liberation from enslavement looked different for Jews and Black people. April also shares the ways in which the importance of rest from labour is an important lesson that resonated with her this Juneteenth.
Read MoreMy relationship to Juneteenth has been evolving over the years, both as a result of developing and deepening my liberatory consciousness and because of what happened right around Juneteenth last year. On Freedom Day 2020, I was in the midst of what I now refer to as the Deluge.
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