Our September Read

Confronting the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System

This month’s selection is my new book, Confronting the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System: The Case for Abolition. Over the summer, connease and I went through many possible ideas for this month, but ultimately decided that this book, which was released just a few weeks ago, was the perfect way to begin our monthly selections, following our summer read of Assata.

Toward Liberation began as an exploration of how the written word has amplified abolitionist dreams throughout our history and through today. In many ways, the inspiration for Toward Liberation came from the research I did as part of writing this book. I knew that the emphasis of the book would be on the parallels between the family separations of today and those that occurred during chattel slavery, but as I began to research those historical family separations, I discovered all the abolitionist newspapers and pamphlets written and disseminated as part of a vast underground network to gather support for the burgeoning abolitionist movement.

In these newspapers and pamplets were short stories and poems describing the horrors of children being torn from their mothers’ arms and of the horrible grief and pain that resulted. In fact, the pain and horror of children being separated from their mothers and sold away to strangers was so visceral that it became the key tool used by abolitionists to unite others, particularly white Northerners, in the anti-slavery movement.

Confronting the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System is dedicated to learning from our past and deciding that we can no longer allow the horrors of our past to continue in our present. If the collective understanding of the inhuman and barbaric act of separating mothers from their children could move the nation to act in our past, what if this shared understanding could be understood once again? What if we could see past the mirage of benevolence perpetuated by today’s child welfare system and recognize family separations for what they truly are—state-directed, state-sponsored terror?

Throughout the month, I’ll share some of the stories and poems I discovered as I was researching and writing, as many weren’t included in the final draft of the book. I’ll also share more of the ideas that inspired the various themes throughout the book - themes that I hope will resonate with you as you read. Then, at the end of September, connease and I look forward to gathering together with you via zoom to discuss your thoughts and the ways we hope this book inspires you to act.

Thank you for being a part of this community. we are really looking forward to sharing more with you, as well as learning from you, this month.