I'm at the coliseum for the #ReclamationRevival teach-in

There are about 10 people here now, setting up

I may be tweeting a little slowly; I didn't go to sleep until 6am, and didn't sleep very long, so I'm mostly running on jelly beans and coffee

Rebecca says we'll get started in five minutes, and points us to a poster + sticky note setup similar to last time

The poster says "what is harm to you?'

Folks are writing their answers on sticky notes

There are also posters with info on: retributive justice, restorative justice, transformative justice, need-based justice, abolition-o-graphy, and covid-19

50-ish people here now

. @realwizkaliaa has her flag again, and is doing some spinning

Rebecca is starting us off now

"We're fighting for Black lives, and we're going to win!", they say

They walk us through some covid safety tips, remind folks to pick up their trash, and direct us to a table with some info, flyers, and water

They're now reading the demands

The info on the table:

Rebecca directs folks to this link: http://linktr.ee/rvauprising 

"This is not science fiction. We're not just waiting and hoping for this to happen. We're taking the streets every night"

We're now chanting "I believe that we will win!"

Another speaker is up now, breaking folks into groups by astrological sign lol

The groups are introducing themselves by saying their name, doing a movement, saying a phrase or song, then the whole group repeats it

Why are there so many Alex's in the Gemini/Capricorn group?

Now the groups are splitting into pairs, and are going to discuss what harm really means

The speaker says that we often think of harm in terms of harm to oppressive systems (white supremacy, cishetero-patriarchy, capitalism, etc.) instead of harm to people

(I'm curious how much tonight's curriculum is a response to what happened last night, and the city government's response today; e.g. saying that the "violence" that occurred was "unacceptable", VCU's email saying that $100k worth of damage was inflicted)

The groups have now reformed, and are discussing what the pairs came up with

The speaker is now giving the groups prompts related to last week's homework (imagining non-police forms of public safety). The prompts are situations that would typically result in calling the police right now. Folks are discussing what would happen w/out cops in these cases

(I'd love to actually be in one of these groups, listening and having these discussions, but I'm too brain fried )

Folks are gonna perform their scenarios in a few minutes, which should be fun

These teach-ins are really great. They're like the best parts of my favorite college classes, but about more interesting and important topics. They're also way more welcoming and inclusive than almost all of my college classes

The first group to perform gets t-shirts!

Their scenario is a drunk driver crashing

*crashing and hitting someone

A medic and trauma counselor shows up for both the person who was hit, and the driver

A mediator shows up to help reconcile things between the driver and the victim, who are neighbors

In this scenario, there's no police or capitalism, so no worries about jail, criminal records, insurance/medical bills, etc.

That lets both parties focus on real justice

The justice process is directed according to the wishes of the victim

Next scenario is similar; also a drunk driving crash

This group has a shorter term solution: an alternative to 911 that is just for medical situations, plus single payer healthcare

Next scenario is an elderly person who's having a mental health crisis (dementia/Alzheimer's)

This group apparently has a social worker in it

The non-police solution they have is calling for a social worker who's trained for this

In addition, regular citizens would be trained in how to respond until the social worker shows up

And that's all the groups who want to present

Marla and Charles are speaking now. They're going to lead us in a "laughing yoga" exercise

We start by faking laughter, because your body can't tell the difference between real and fake laughter

Now doing some breathing exercises

We're clapping and chanting "ho! Ho! Ha, ha, ha!"

Now more deep breathing and laughing

Charles is leading us in meditation now

Marla is with RVA26, a group that's doing yoga and racial healing discussions every other Wednesday at 8am at MDP. They're doing one this Wednesday

Marla's now giving us facts about policing and prisons

94% of people in federal prisons are nonviolent, and 47% of people in state prisons
74.4% of folks in local jails haven't been convicted
42k in ICE concentration camps
44k youth in prison
22k involuntary commitments

It probably goes without saying, but Black people are disproportionately represented in prison populations

Marla cites Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis, and says we should all read it (it's on my list, but I'm so busy )

Mass incarceration had little impact on crime rates, per Angela Davis (less than a 1% decrease, according to The New Jim Crow, which I was listening to on the way here)

(lots of good facts here that I can't keep up with)

We need to rethink what happens when the social contract is broken, Marla says

In response to the question "what is justice?" people yell out "accountability", "owning when you cause harm", "reparations", "decommodifying housing", and many other things

Marla is now giving an overview of retributive justice (punishment for crime) and need-based justice (e.g. social services)