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Imperfect Activist 🍉🍉🍉

@imperfectactivista

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Not a main character | Advocate for militant care | The work happens offline | DMs are a blackhole

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CW: R*pe discussed directly in slides 2-3, referred to elsewhere.
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L wanted their story out in the world. Together we thought very intentionally about what to share and how to share it. Sharing their story and working to ensure that others hopefully do not have to endure the same violence is an important part of L’s healing.
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While the jumping off point for this essay is L’s story, we both recognize the problem is not one group of men, one shelter or even one negligent shelter operator. The problem is a system that refuses to care. The solution is housing.
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And we need more people (especially those that are securely housed) to join the fight for housing justice. For too long the people who led this fight have been those least well-positioned in society: homeless, working class, rent-burdened and housing insecure.
We need more people of all backgrounds and means to recognize that this unjust system is shackling us all.
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The solution to the violence L and others face is not better shelters or more “safe havens.” The solution to homelessness is housing.
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Please join this fight in your community.
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Credit: If you appreciated this essay and want to support L you can help to replace the funds that were stolen from L by their attackers (Cashapp/ Venmo to $imperfectactivista / @imperfectactivista with “L” in the notes). L asked that once we have replaced the stolen funds, we direct contributions elsewhere. [This caption will be updated once the $500 need is met]. I remain in awe of the ways that my friend is meeting this moment, helping others even as they process a brutal trauma. We have given “L” anonymity in this very public piece but if we are IRL comrades, you may be able to surmise who they are. They would appreciate and welcome community support so please do reach out to them directly (or to me if you want to confirm their identity before reaching out).
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#housingjustice #housingisahumanright #sexualviolence #collectiveliberation #communitycare taken in Housing Is A Human Right by @imperfectactivista

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24 days ago

ICYMI SCOTUS has paved the way for punishing people for sleeping outside…as if being forced to sleep outside wasn’t already punishment enough.
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Instead of screaming into the void, I wanted to offer up this guide from @thhheohenderson and @wetheunhoused - it provides guidance for how to get to know your unhoused neighbors from the POV of an unhoused person. Our systems are going to continue systeming so it’s up to us to keep each other safe.
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My own additions to this guidance include
✨ Ask and offer your name sooner vs later. This is the foundation on which relationships are built.
✨ Get yourself on eye level (if you’re able); standing over folks who are seated on the ground is its own power dynamic
✨ Stand at a comfortable distance that respects their space and bounds. Don’t invite yourself into someone’s home.
✨ Use your voice to announce yourself if someone has their head down. Never wake someone who is sleeping.
✨ If you’re going to ask an open-ended question like “can I get you anything?” have a few ideas of what you can offer when they inevitably say “like what?”
✨ Definitely do not expect gratitude tho you may get it. It can be incredibly dehumanizing to have to ask for help. If you’re out there for the thanks you aren’t out for the right reasons.
✨ Don’t assume everyone uses substances and don’t judge those that are. Want to help? Learn harm reduction including how to use narcan.
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Lastly learn more about orgs and services in your area (clothing / food banks, community fridges, free clinics, etc). You can’t fill every need every time - you need a community too!!!
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If you have questions about how to do this or tips/experiences to share, please do drop them in the comments 👇👇👇
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Credit: images from @thhheohenderson & @wetheunhoused via Twitter. I stand on the shoulders of giants in nyc incl orgs like @wspmutualaid @sweepalertnyc @thepeoplesbodeganyc @brooklynevictiondefense @evlovesnyc. Also love @remorahouse_dc in DC and @solunderground in ATL (Pls feel free to shout out orgs in your area)
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#housingishumanright #housingforall #mutualaid #communitycare #eattherich by @imperfectactivista

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2 years ago

Electoral politics should only be used to expose the system's contradictions and disrupt its credibility, while our primary energy must go toward organizing autonomous community power beyond the ballot box. taken in Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism by @imperfectactivista

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6 hours ago

Protecting kids shouldn’t be partisan.

📸: @greenbird_wellness
🔖: @united.she.stands & johncarrell64

#oregon #guncontrol #gunviolence #midterms #distortedreality by @imperfectactivista

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18 hours ago

RP @warpaintjournal : “Power reveals character through restraint, while insecurity often reveals itself through control, entitlement, jealousy, and the need to be obeyed. The people who benefit from endless giving can mistake exhaustion for loyalty, reliability for obligation, and kindness for permission. Over-functioning becomes especially painful when belonging starts feeling conditional on how much can be carried. Real strength lives somewhere else - in choosing boundaries without cruelty, accountability without manipulation, generosity without self-abandonment, and love without possession. A person’s character becomes clearest when they hold an advantage, have access to someone’s softness, or could demand more and choose restraint instead. The deepest lesson is simple: kindness deserves choice, competence deserves respect, and belonging should never require abandoning the judgement that keeps the heart safe.”
Post & caption by @warpaintjournal
🎶 @trishesmusic “Everybody worships something” by @imperfectactivista

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a day ago

📸: @greenbird_wellness
🔖: @jaedynmaynard & mahoney5929

#explorar #machismo #patriarcado #patriarchy #explora by @imperfectactivista

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2 days ago

Post/caption by @zeyomnia - “Propaganda is usually presented as something that belongs to the past like dictators, wartime posters, censored newspapers, mass rallies. Convenient, because it lets us imagine we would have been the ones who saw through it. But propaganda did not disappear. It just learned how to look ordinary.

It can arrive as a headline, a viral post, a patriotic slogan, a carefully edited statistic, a terrifying prediction, or even a sentence repeated so many times that repetition starts masquerading as truth.

Edward Bernays understood this long before social media existed. In his 1928 book Propaganda, he wrote: “We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.”

And honestly, that quote feels considerably less historical when you open your feed.
Bandwagon. Fear. Ad hominem. Glittering generalities. Transfer. Card stacking. Name calling. Different techniques, same basic objective: influence what you think before you have enough time to question how you were made to think it.

This isn’t about becoming cynical or assuming everything is a lie. It’s about becoming critical enough to ask better questions:
Who is behind this?
What do they want me to feel?
What information am I not being shown?
What happens if I check another source?
The uncomfortable part is that none of us are completely outside the system.

You are not immune to propaganda. Neither am I.”
Post/caption by @zeyomnia
#Propaganda #Medialiteracy #Criticalthinking #Psychologyofpersuasion #Cognitivebias by @imperfectactivista

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2 days ago

never ever depending on a man
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#economy #unitedstates #inflation #usa #wages by @imperfectactivista

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2 days ago

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2 days ago

Big love to @howbloomrolls for pointing out how our struggles are linked and overlapping. We especially like the part that says “you cannot punish people out of homelessness”

We agree: ONLY HOUSING SOLVES HOMELESSNESS!

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@showmeyourshelter is a digital storytelling project intended to expose the abusive NYC shelter system. We aim to abolish the shelter system in favor of permanent, safe, secure, healthy housing for all.

@showmeyourshelter focuses on the deplorable conditions in NYC shelters. But we operate in solidarity with rent-burdened tenants, NYCHA residents, victims of deed theft & greedy landlords, housing-insecure, street homeless and hidden homeless people.

#disabilityjustice #housingjustice #housingforall #abolishshelters #housingisahumanright All slide have dark backgrounds with combination of white and red text of varying sizes.

HOMELESSNESS IS A DISABILITY JUSTICE
ISSUE
From ugly laws to institutions: our struggles were never by @imperfectactivista

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3 days ago

Thanks to @stopthesweepsdc for this #PracticalAndTactical advice on engaging your unhoused community. Living on the street often means people strip you of your dignity, autonomy and agency. The way we engage our homeless neighbors HAS TO restore what has been stolen.
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In addition to the guidance offered here I would offer the following tips based on personal experience in nyc
1. Approach with your voice before your body, you don’t want to startle someone. Def don’t wake someone
2. Get on eye level (if your body allows), towering over someone is its own power dynamic
3. Exchange names sooner vs later (and be prepared to reintroduce yourself if needed). Names are the foundation for the relationship you want to build
4. Offer cash if you are able - this gives the recipient full agency.
5. Don’t expect gratitude (if you’re expecting thx you’re probably doing this for the wrong reasons)
6. If/when someone offer you a gift, support or care accept it! This isn’t quid pro quo but mutuality builds community.
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‼️If you have additional advice or guidance to offer, please feel free to add it in the comments – collective liberation is after all a group project!
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Credit: Slide by @stopthesweepsdc (do follow them whether you’re in DC or not!!) by @imperfectactivista

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3 days ago

Perfection won’t save us. Innocence is no protector either. As @mohammedelkurd points out “our enemy always possesses probable cause.”
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And who are we (living in relative comfort) to judge the ways that people resist violent oppression? Who are we to insist that people must be chaste, innocent, sober virgins in order to be considered “victims” of rape? Who are we to tell minoritized people to comply with the orders of a racist with a badge and a gun? Who are we to interrogate the victims of violence?
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More importantly who do we serve when we - consciously or unconsciously, unwittingly or intentionally - focus and insist on the innocence and humanity of victims instead of the cruelty, violence and inhumanity of the perpetrators???
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All due and deserved credit for both the text quoted here and the inspiration behind this post goes to @mohammedelkurd. Please do follow him and read his full text “Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal“ also if you’re looking for courage in the face of state oppression, consider tapping into the reflections in “When They Call Us Terrorist” by @osopepatrisse. Eventually, anyone who resist will be considered a terrorist. This topic is too important and too nuanced to limit your knowledge to the small space that socials allows so please go deeper. 🙏
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#AbolishICE #CollectiveLiberation #Abolition #FreePalestine #AbolishPolice taken in The Resistance by @imperfectactivista

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4 days ago