Let's Talk Mutual Aid
Type
Book
Authors
Category
Publication Year
2021
Pages
4
Subject
zines
Abstract
{description:attr_safe}Riley Bataillard
The co-option of mutual aid
by Regan de Loggans Jul 5, 2021 8 min read Share
Back in May 2020, Lenapehoking – where so-called New York City, where I live, is situated – was at the epicentre of the growing global pandemic. Every day felt more daunting than the last. Case numbers climbed and more folx became sick, many never recovering. There was a flurry of calls for mutual aid, and more folx, including myself, began to organize our communities. We were bracing for the impacts of COVID-19 and also for the way we knew the pandemic would amplify existing issues like unemployment, predatory landlords, and policing.
As calls for solidarity and community organizing were answered through expansive mutual aid efforts, those efforts – and the history of mutual aid – were inevitably co-opted. White gentrifiers began what they called “mutual aid” networks without consulting the Black and brown communities whose lands and neighbourhoods they occupied; museums collected objects related to mutual aid without offering fiscal support or reciprocity; and non-profits stole the work of grassroots organizers to placate their funders. There was a lack of consultation with the communities most impacted by COVID-19. In response to that co-option, I wrote a zine called “Let’s Talk Mutual Aid” to help combat the misinformation around what mutual aid is and is not. Here, I expand on what I wrote in that zine, updating it for our current context more than a year into the pandemic. (take from website)
The co-option of mutual aid
by Regan de Loggans Jul 5, 2021 8 min read Share
Back in May 2020, Lenapehoking – where so-called New York City, where I live, is situated – was at the epicentre of the growing global pandemic. Every day felt more daunting than the last. Case numbers climbed and more folx became sick, many never recovering. There was a flurry of calls for mutual aid, and more folx, including myself, began to organize our communities. We were bracing for the impacts of COVID-19 and also for the way we knew the pandemic would amplify existing issues like unemployment, predatory landlords, and policing.
As calls for solidarity and community organizing were answered through expansive mutual aid efforts, those efforts – and the history of mutual aid – were inevitably co-opted. White gentrifiers began what they called “mutual aid” networks without consulting the Black and brown communities whose lands and neighbourhoods they occupied; museums collected objects related to mutual aid without offering fiscal support or reciprocity; and non-profits stole the work of grassroots organizers to placate their funders. There was a lack of consultation with the communities most impacted by COVID-19. In response to that co-option, I wrote a zine called “Let’s Talk Mutual Aid” to help combat the misinformation around what mutual aid is and is not. Here, I expand on what I wrote in that zine, updating it for our current context more than a year into the pandemic. (take from website)
Number of Copies
1
