Vanessa Guillen’s story is horrifying. It really is. But the angle a lot of folks are looking at it from completely misses the point imo.

I don’t feel for Vanessa because she’s a soldier. I feel for her despite that. I feel for her because she was a victim of the patriarchal, racist violence of the military despite being an agent of it.

If the military isn’t killing their own, they’re killing colonized people abroad. That’s literally their job. It breaks my heart that vulnerable, colonized people within our borders are sold a line about “protecting democracy” so that they can be used as agents of US imperialism.

So the answer here isn’t, “Hold the military accountable and make it a safer place for women of color!”

We have to dismantle the military industrial complex and the forces (i.e. racial capitalism) that channel poor youth into this murderous industry and brainwash them into thinking they’re “the good guys.”