WARNING TO THE LOVING, THE NURTURING, THE HEALERS: The systems we fight do not always come with burning crosses or slurs. Sometimes, they show up a
WARNING TO THE LOVING, THE NURTURING, THE HEALERS:
The systems we fight do not always come with burning crosses or slurs. Sometimes, they show up as funding proposals, friendly slogans, or new “reform” laws. Sometimes they speak the language of care.
That’s how rearticulation works. Power does not always destroy itself—it reshapes. It reinvents itself in ways that appear new, progressive, and necessary, while still targeting the same communities: the poor, the Black, the displaced, the girlchild, the defiant.
Our deep, spirit-led capacity to love and heal can sometimes leave us vulnerable to these shifts—because we’re looking for peace. We’re building better. And we forget that injustice never shows up saying, “Hi, I’m here to harm you.” It comes with a smile and a budget.
Let us learn from history—because we’ve seen this before.
🔁 1. From Slavery to Convict Leasing
When slavery was abolished, the South didn’t lose its labor force—it repackaged it. Black people were imprisoned for “vagrancy” or “loitering” and leased out as labor.
Black girls were among the imprisoned—forced into grueling labor and abuse under a system that claimed to be about law and order.
The chains changed shape, but not their purpose.
🔁 2. From Jim Crow Schools to the School-to-Prison Pipeline
After school segregation was ruled unconstitutional, many schools resegregated through housing policies and targeted discipline.
Today, Black girls are suspended, expelled, and criminalized at alarming rates—for wearing natural hair, defending themselves, or “talking back.”
The law changed. The harm rearticulated.
🔁 3. From Welfare Rights to Welfare Policing
In the 1990s, “welfare reform” was sold as empowerment. But it was built on a lie: that Black mothers were irresponsible and needed control.
Aid was cut. Surveillance increased. Families were broken.
The new system came wrapped in respectability and racism.
Same control, new language.
🔁 4. From Protection to Punishment
Black girls have long been institutionalized under the guise of “saving” them—from truancy, “immorality,” or exploitation.
But the institutions they were placed in were cages.
They called it reform.
We call it what it was: violence.
🔁 5. From Anti-Trafficking to Carceral Rescue
Modern anti-trafficking laws claim to “rescue” girls—but often arrest them instead.
Black and Brown girls fleeing abuse or poverty are labeled as criminals or runaways.
Instead of sanctuary, they get locked cells.
The carceral system now wears the clothes of compassion. It is still the carceral system.
💭 Beloveds, Here’s the Truth:
Rearticulation is sneaky. It slips under the door while we are busy praying, organizing, teaching, feeding, nurturing.
By the time we notice, it is fully funded, fully trained, and working against the very communities we swore to protect.
This is not about paranoia. It is about pattern recognition. About refusing to be lulled into sleep by new language and rebranded chains.
💖 A Loving Call to Action:
Stay Awake: Question every reform. Who profits? Who suffers? Whose story is centered—and whose is silenced?
Trust Your Ancestral Knowing: If something feels off, even if it sounds “progressive,” investigate. Listen to the margins. The edge-dwellers often see it first.
Protect the Black Girl First: If the reform doesn’t center her safety, her wholeness, her freedom—it is not liberation.
Keep Naming the Pattern: Teach this. Preach this. Write this into policy, curriculum, and ritual. Name it even when your voice shakes.
We are the descendants of women who survived the whip, the cell, the silence. We know what to watch for.
And we will not be reshuffled.
#Rearticulation #WeSurviveAbuse #BlackGirlsMatter #StayVigilant #ProtectTheBlackGirlFirst #HiddenHerstories #BlackFeministFuture #HealingIsResistance
