Days 121 & 122 of AY20-21: two virtual days

I said I was going to write a blog post for every day this year. I am modifying that a bit. I’m going to combine days 121 and 122 of the pandacademic year, the two remote days that were tacked onto the tail end of cycle 8. I’m doing so in part because the remote days have been low touch, low turnout, and low engagement; and in part because I am really behind on blog posts for the year (I am writing this on day 135 of the pandacademic year!).

We scheduled in 14 remote days this year so that we could be together as many days as possible both in-person and in total. These 14 remote days allowed us to have at least a nine day observation period between cycles for those meeting in-person, which greatly limited the risk of a single person putting multiple cells at risk of Covid-19. We have been fortunate that our community has taken the pandemic seriously by masking up and not congregating indoors with others from outside their household or dedicated pod, quarantining if they were not able to adhere to our community practices, and that our community largely supports Covid-19 vaccines. In fact, at least one Learner and one guardian got their first shot over the weekend before day 121, while the other was told he was too young (it was a Moderna batch).

We have had mixed results in terms of Learners showing up for online meetings during the pandemic. We were pretty thrilled to get ten Learners to show up for the morning meeting on Monday. For the morning meeting the game shifting asked only that people sit, stand, or dance during the meeting. Although most Learners had their video cameras turned off, one of the younger Learners broke into dance which made us all smile (even those off camera.

Remote again. Woo hoo.

Most of the folks on the morning call shared how they could be the type of friend they wish they had: listen to people, be there in the hard times, by not interrupting people, be more available, do my stretches (no clue what that means), being honest, challenging people without hurting them, being there for others, be nice.

I then told everyone that one of the shadowers from the prior week would be enrolling for cycle 9. This was a cause for celebration and relief. Each additional person in a Self-Directed Education community adds far more to the community than plus one. This is because each person brings their own unique interests, skills, thoughts, and life experiences that everyone else can benefit from. So going from 10 Learners to 11 would not increase one time connection opportunities between Learners by 9% (1/11), but it would increase it by 11 times (10! vs 11!). I will probably write a future blog post to explain that more clearly. Nonetheless, it is substantial. The reason it is a relief is because we were not at our best the prior week, and we really came up short in welcoming in the new Learners. So to know that one of the shadowers was confident enough of his place in the community was a really big deal.

Speaking of the difficult week, I had planned calls with the four Learners I called out on Friday. On Monday, I had a really great call with the first of the four Learners. We talked about how the Learners stuck to themselves and did not go out of their way to interact with the shadowers, particularly on Thursday. This Learner said, “I was kind of [stuck] in the middle of leaving my comfort zone or staying in my comfort zone.” It was a helpful conversation as it allowed me to better understand the motivation of the Learner, and it helped the Learner better empathize with the experiences of a shadower.

Unfortunately, as is now the norm for our remote days, none of the Learners came to the four offerings that were set up for the day. But that’s okay, we are just holding space for the Learners if they need it, and we found plenty of time to be with each other.

The next day nine Learners showed up for the morning meeting, one less than Monday but still a strong enough showing that it made those who show up appreciate their community. For the morning prompt we each shared a way nature has affected our daily life lately: allergies, wifi doesn’t work in nature, joy from watching two birds build a nest outside their window, feeling crappy outside because of allergies, it is so hot I can’t wear my hoodie, enjoying walks in the neighborhood and noticing how protective deer are of their fawns, I biked this morning and waived hi to so many people because it was so beautiful out, allergies are causing a really dry cough, allergies and stuff, allergies, the sun is helping me produce vitamin D, allergies. Are the allergies really that bad, or are the Learners just too comfortable indoors?

On Tuesday we told the Learners what the cell composition were going to be for cycle 9, and no one seemed to take offense, which was nice. Unfortunately, at least two Learners were planning to be entirely remote, and that stinks, but we cannot wait until they can show up in person again (probably next fall).

On this day the Facilitators again provided a variety of offerings that the Learners did not take advantage of, but Facilitator Ariel and I showed up for an Among Us offering that was hosted by one of the Learners. It was really fun and even though I was tired and anxious to get work done I’m glad I made time to connect with the Learner (and kill and be killed by him).

On Tuesday I also met with the other three Learners to discuss the challenges we had the earlier week. The Learners shared some good ideas on how they can better support others, but I was interested in the general belief that if they can find nothing in common with someone then maybe they have nothing to talk about. I interrogated that idea a bit, helping the Learners to recognize that there is a world of possible shared interests that cannot possibly be explored during an initial introduction. I also questioned whether it made sense to spend less effort to welcome in those who seem the most different (e.g., less shared interests), and how that could play out in terms of supporting those who are already in the minority in society. For example, if we have no Black, trans, or undocumented immigrant Learners, would it not be more difficult to build quick rapport with them, but would that not also be all the more reason to try to make them feel welcome? After all, American society does not have a great record of welcoming in and supporting historically marginalized people, and we certainly have no interest of replicating the harshness of American society at Abrome.

Facilitator Ariel also talked to the Learners about last week. One of the Learners told him that he had a fear of letting people in because of his earlier life experiences. Facilitator Ariel shared that he had the same fears, and expounded upon that to talk about his fears as a Black man in the south. He explained how it had been a hard two days since the Daunte Wright killing (by police in Minnesota), and they cried with each other. Later, Facilitator Ariel told the Learner that we Facilitators believe in them, and our collective ability to grow. They then talked about what they could do in the future to better welcome people in.

Day 111 of AY20-21: lots of social justice conversations

I’m going to try to catch up on the daily blog posts between now and the end of cycle 9, which runs from April 19th to May 11th. I fell behind as things had gotten quite busy with the latest info session and more people becoming interested in going through the admissions process at Abrome, and the age-old problem of thinking that if you’re already behind you can just throw another delayed blog post to the pile.

Monday, March 29th would be our last day before people started coming back from quarantine in the specialty cell that I was in with Facilitator Ariel, the Flying Squad. I wanted to start the week strong with the few who were not in quarantine, so I asked the group what was interfering with our ability to focus on social justice. The answers included that our drop off point was too far west, that some were uninterested, that some were distracted by food, and that some were too focused on spending money. On this day we committed to supporting a Learner’s focus on houselessness, a big issue in Austin right now as there is a campaign to criminalize the houseless. We agreed to walk to a mural of Wonder Woman in downtown Austin that was across the street from an encampment, so that the Learner could hand out cliff bars and water to the houseless and engage with them about some of the challenges that they are facing. We agreed that we would stop by some food trucks to appease the fixation that some Learners had on buying food (that they cannot easily get at home).

One of the Learners who had been wearing hiking boots had been struggling as of late, and we were thrilled to see that he got a new pair of sneakers, which he later reported made his walking experience much more comfortable. With better shoes we were all comfortable taking a different path in search of new experiences. As we walked there was lots of conversation about social justice oriented concerns. Two of the Learners had made comments about how they were uncomfortable around the houseless, so Facilitator Ariel asked them to talk about their fears. This led them to discussing what type of prejudices are common in society, and how such prejudices can infect us.

Meanwhile, on the walk I got to speak with the Learner who was on a mission to learn more about how she could impact the issue of houselessness. She admitted that she did not know how to talk to houseless folks, and worried that she would not be able to talk to them in a way that made them feel comfortable. I suggested that she talk to them as she would anyone that she was meeting on the street for the first time, and then we talked about strategies to do so. Fortunately she brought food and drinks that she could offer folks which would serve as a potential segue into a conversation between two people who are curious about one another. I also brought up my concerns about coming across as someone who is probing people for information, with the assumption that they can solve their problems. Specifically, we talked about the notion of white saviorism, and how that could potentially play into such interactions. The Learner was quite nervous, but eager to consider ways of being that would prevent her from unknowingly doing harm.

When we got to the Wonder Woman mural we took a break to drink water while the Learner who was leading the way prepared to engage with the folks at the encampment. I was really impressed with the way that the Learner acknowledged her fear, and then made her way into the encampment offering support and looking for conversation. Unfortunately for her, it was the middle of the day and hot, so a lot of folks were not available to speak with her. Nonetheless, she engaged with some houseless folks. The two other Learners who had admitted to being uncomfortable around the houseless observed her efforts, and it was nice to see their perceptions challenged.

Then we walked across the Congress Street bridge where we came up on one of the large office buildings, where I noticed a bunch of studs that were placed on the marble that ran along long rows of raised plant beds. I asked the Learners if they knew why the studs were added to the marble, assuming that it was to prevent houseless folks from laying down, which would have been quite topical given the mission for the day. A Learner guessed that it was to prevent skateboarders from using it, and I replied, “actually …” and went into an explanation of what hostile architecture (or anti-homeless architecture) is. Facilitator Ariel then interjected and said that actually that particular type of stud is meant to prevent skateboarders from using it, and then we talked about the differences between anti-skateboard architecture and hostile architecture. It was a really good moment for me to model to a Learner that it was okay to be wrong, and to learn from it.

As we continued to walk, one of the Learners asked me if I was excited about the Godzilla vs. Kong movie that was coming out. I told him I was uninterested in watching any King Kong movies as they were rooted in anti-Black racism. This caught the Learner off-guard, and he explained that his desire to watch the movie had nothing to do with racism, and then he began to talk about how great the movie was going to be. I acknowledged that his interest in the movie was not rooted in racism, but that the movie was, and that I was willing to talk to him about why they are racist. But that I was not interested in talking to him about his arguments for why he would watch the movie in spite of their racist history. He then took the conversation to Facilitator Ariel, who likewise told him that he was not interested in talking about the movie. The day was shaping up to be one that really challenged this Learner’s beliefs.

We continued to walk in support of a Learner’s mission to engage with the houseless, and we focused on walking toward the Arch near 7th and Red River. As we were walking an individual began walking with us, trying to engage with us. One Learner asked, ‘why was the homeless guy trying to talk to us,’ and we asked him why he assume the person was houseless. This led to another conversation about prejudices and assumptions.

After we stopped so the Learner could hand out some more water and cliff bars, we decided that it was time for the Learner and Facilitator Ariel to get some long overdue lunch. We made our way back to Congress so that we could stop at a convenience store where they could grab food. When we arrived, however, there were a handful of Austin Police Officers standing around. All the Learners wanted to go in, so I offered to watch over their bags at some tables reserved for customers of the store. Facilitator Ariel recognizing that I would be out there around APD cops asked me if I would be alright, which one of the Learners picked up on. Facilitator Ariel then explained to her why he asked that given my past experiences with the Austin Police Department, and the need for us all to be watching out for one another.

After Facilitator Ariel and the Learner got some food, and another Learner got himself some seaweed and a drink, we settled in to eat our lunches. I ate a sandwich that I had packed in my bag, while another Learner ate from a bag of chips that he had brought along. It was restful sitting there and eating and talking with one another in the shade, and we were in no hurry to get going. When we finally finished and as we were packing up, Facilitator Ariel got a call from a friend who wanted him to know that they were at the sight of a protest where people were getting arrested. We were only two and a half blocks away, so we decided to walk in that direction.

When we arrived at protest site at 4th and Congress, where Garrett Foster, a supporter of Black Lives Matter, was killed the past summer, we noticed that police had shut down the street and surrounded the group of protesters who were yelling at them. We later found that the police had come up on the protest and threatened to arrest the protesters, to include Garrett’s finance, Whitney, a Black woman and quadriplegic who was with Garrett when he was killed the prior summer. Two white women then positioned themselves between the police and Whitney, which led to the police arresting one of the women, shoving the other woman out of the road, and dumping Whitney out of her wheelchair into the gutter. Understandably, the protesters were outraged by the actions of the police, and from a safe distance I was able to talk to the Learners about what had happened and why the police were so antagonistic toward these protesters in particular.

As the police relocated away from the protesters, and as the protest died down, we began to walk back toward the pick-up point at Zilker Park. During the walk one of the younger Learners expressed how concerned he was for Facilitator Ariel during the incident, and how he wanted him to avoid the police so that he would not be arrested. Facilitator Ariel explained to the Learner that as a Black man he does not get the luxury of just avoiding the police in Austin, but that he would do his best to not engage with them. It was a heavy day for the Learners, as we had several extended conversations about houselessness, racism, and police brutality.

Because of the unexpected stop at the protest site, we really needed to move. While one of the Learners no longer needed to stop at the food truck because he ate at the convenience store, one of the Learners still hadn’t been able to get any food, and that was his main objective for the day. Facilitator Ariel agreed to jog with him to P. Terry’s while the rest of us would go straight to the pickup point. Our path took us by Trader Joe’s, where the Learner had previously gotten boxes of organic jelly beans, and asked if we could stop in to buy some more. I reminded him that he agreed to go straight back, and that he agreed to keep walking. We made such good time that we were able to spin around some bars along the river, and got back to the pick up point with time to spare.

Once Facilitator Ariel and the other Learner joined us we settled in for a great afternoon roundup. We noted that each of us had walked 6.2-7.2 miles that day, and we were able to really dive into some social justice topics. All in all, it was a really great day for us as a Flying Squad.

Meanwhile, at the other cell:

Day 65 of AY20-21: no big deal, just an attempted coup

I entered into Wednesday with much disappointment about the state of American society. Wednesday was not necessarily unique in that regard, as it has been a sense that I’ve had many times over during the past eight years, and a sense that has slowly escalated. On Tuesday, during our end of the day review, one of the Facilitators informed us that the District Attorney in Kenosha, Wisconsin, had just announced that the police officer who shot Jacob Blake in the back this summer would not be charged, a day after an Austin Police Officer killed someone in a road rage incident. Since mid-2012 I’ve understood that police are rarely held accountable for their crimes, and that policing is not an issue of bad apples going rogue. That it is an institution designed to oppress, marginalize, and control the populace in service of systems of power including white supremacy and economic hierarchy. The police killing of George Floyd last spring and the resulting uprising led to a hopeful moment of increased chatter about exploring abolitionist efforts to finally address the issue of policing seriously as a nation, but that was quickly shut down by both the political right and left as “too radical.”

In addition to the issue of policing, I remain frustrated by the situation with the pandemic. Central Texas is now unquestionably in the worst stage of the pandemic, and it seems as though most of the people and institutions have given up trying to seriously stop the spread of the disease. People continue to leave home to congregate with others indoors, restaurants and bars remain open, and schools remain open. And while local government has little authority to prevent irresponsible behavior by people and institutions, even when Austin does the bare minimum to limit potential superspreader events from taking place, the state comes in and undermines such efforts.

Still remote due to Central Texas’ unwillingness to stop the spread

Because the county is in risk stage level five, Abrome is fully remote. It would be irresponsible for us to bring Learners and Facilitators together during this period of uncontrolled community spread of the disease, even though we had been meeting entirely outdoors this pandacademic year. Being remote is an insufficient substitute for in-person Self-Directed Education (whereas it is often a godsend for students stuck in conventional schools), but we are focused on preventing spread within and beyond the Abrome community. All institutions should be asking themselves what they can do to contribute to stopping the spread. And it looks like we will be remote for a while, as people continue to fail to mask up, to congregate indoors, and to not stay home whenever possible; and much more significantly, because businesses and public institutions (including schools) have abdicated any sense of social responsibility by not voluntarily altering their own operations in ways that could influence people to engage in safer practices, or at least by refusing to serve as convenient sites of infection

Morning meeting time

Nonetheless, I tried to roll into the day at Abrome with as much joy and positivity as I could muster. I opened the morning meeting with a request that people please mute when they were not talking, to please not talk over each other, and to hold off conversations until the end of the meeting. That initial statement did a lot to make the meeting run much more smoothly. Trying to get folks excited about their lives and about the lives of each other I asked, “what is the most exciting thing in your life, or what are you most excited about right now?” There were a lot of really great answers: anticipating the Lego Skywalker Saga game being released in the spring, playing Among Us, getting out of bed to play COD with the boys, staying home (because of allergies), getting my driver’s license permit on the 20th, being able to play Among Us, Biden being elected and the vaccine being rolled out, getting a Nintendo Switch, ordering a book written by an Abrome Learner as well as two books recommended by Facilitator Lauren, organizing with a local racial justice collective, having set goals and plans for the year, and learning.

After the morning meeting I had a one-on-one check-in with a Learner who had just enrolled. Some new Learners are quite skeptical of the claims that we make about honoring their autonomy and supporting children’s rights. Some expect that we will eventually try to manipulate them, control their time and bodies, and employ more authoritarian practices to get them to do what we want them to do instead of supporting them on their unique journeys. New Learners are deep in the process of deschooling and the way Facilitators interact with them should not undermine that. We need to build trust before we can do anything else. So my meeting with the new Learner was one of just asking questions about how he was doing, what he was interested in, and what he was looking forward to. We talked mostly about getting other Learners to join him for online gaming.

Immediately after the check-in, I hosted the daily 7-minute workout offering that two other adult Learners opted into, and then I moved into my free write offering. Fortunately, another Learner decided to join me for free write, although unfortunately we could not actually communicate with each other. The meet up location for free write was on Discord and the Learner could not hear what I was saying and I could not hear what she was saying. I spent so much time trying to troubleshoot the problem (that remains unresolved) that I did not get to write during the session. The Learner said she would consult with her tech-savvy dad to see if they could fix the problem on their end.

After free write a Learner had organized a gaming offering and was trying to recruit people to play with him. I said that I was not able to join today, and that I was planning to join every other day (so Thursday). Instead, I called a prospective family that is looking at schooling options as they prepare to move to Austin this summer. The prospective Learner would be in Kindergarten and her mom told me that we had actually met through mutual friends when I was a graduate student at Harvard seven years ago. We had a really nice call about the education landscape in Austin, and I encouraged her to read Raising Free People, Free to Learn, and The Book of Learning and Forgetting, after which she would know pretty well whether Abrome would be a good fit or not.

Yoga time

Next up was Facilitator Lauren’s yoga offering which I dropped in on, as did an older Learner. In addition to the 7-minute workout I did earlier in the day, I had just finished a brisk walk before the yoga session, so I was feeling pretty good about continuing to move my body in healthy ways while staying remote. Yoga, as always for me, was a struggle as I was forced to move in ways that I am not used to. But it was much needed. After yoga, Facilitator Ariel hosted an online gaming offering while I had a support call with one of the Abrome families whose just enrolled Learner is not eager to participate in remote offerings or calls. He told me about how the Learner’s previous teacher in a nearby conventional school would ridicule students during remote learning, and how that may be contributing to his apprehension to jumping online with Abrome. We both agreed that the most important thing to do was to not force the Learner online, and to have plenty of patience. Trust is much more important than attendance.

I then had about 45 minutes until the afternoon meeting so I checked my phone and saw a bunch of notifications. Apparently an attempted coup was underway at the US Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., and of course I got sucked in. Having been privy to a good amount of information about the growing white nationalism movement in the US over the past six or seven years, in part because of my unfortunate run-ins with white supremacists who were helping to fuel the movement, I was left shaking my head at the scenes playing out that so many talking heads and West Point and Stanford people that I knew insisted “could never happen in America.”

I then noticed the language that the media and their guests were using during the attempted takeover of the Capitol. They were calling the Trump supporters, who were willing to use violence to subvert an election in order to keep Trump in power, “protesters.” Just protesters. My mind began to race as I tried to recall the much harsher language that was used by these same folks to describe the people who were protesting racial injustice and extrajudicial killings by the police in the streets this past summer, and ever since I really tuned into the struggle against the same eight years ago. Then I heard the media call them “anarchists.” Not once, but multiple times over. I was floored that these media outlets could see fascism playing out in front of their eyes yet they insisted on labeling it anarchism.

I had to pry myself away from what was happening for the afternoon roundup that Facilitator Lauren was leading. It was clear as people joined the meeting that some were quite aware of what was going on. Facilitator Lauren asked everyone if they were able to go outside during the day, and what they did if they happened to venture outdoors. Multiple Learners gave their response and then added that they had been watching the US Capitol Building get stormed. But there was not much of a desire to discuss it beyond that, and we were not going to force the conversation on the Learners. I made a note to myself that it would probably be a good idea to plan something for tomorrow for those who wanted to process it after more information came in that evening. After the meeting the Facilitators met briefly and called it a day.

After the Abrome day was finished I debated to what degree I needed to keep getting updates on what was happening. I considered that it might be best to unplug and check in later, so that I could take care of myself, or at least take care of work that needed to get done. It seemed that most all of the “protesters” were allowed to walk out of the Capitol Building after overrunning it, assaulting police officers, and ransacking offices. Many of the politicians who had been stoking the anger of those who overran the Capitol were suddenly denouncing what happened, and were now committing to support a peaceful transition of presidential power. So I figured that it probably was not going to escalate again in the coming hours and unplugged to get some work done.

But as I worked I kept analyzing what had happened in the back of my mind. There was a picture the media circulated of a Trump supporter walking through the Capitol with a lectern that he swiped. The media did not call him a looter. There was a video of a police officer fleeing from the mob. The media did not suggest that the officer should have opened fire because he “feared for his life.” There was video of members of the mob posing with police officers for photos as they left the Capitol. They reminded me of so many similar photos from protests all around the country this past year where Proud Boys and other white nationalists posed with cops after those same cops had assaulted people protesting police brutality and racial injustice. And I kept coming back to politicians and the media refusing to call the mob a bunch of fascists, and instead branding them anarchists.

They said that the attack was an attack on democracy and our way of life. That it was an attack on America. That it did not represent America.

And then I was taken back to the incessant demands of conservatives, moderates, and liberals alike that Colin Kaepernick and other athletes find more appropriate ways to protest, and then the great offense those same groups took to the notion of defunding the police. How they demanded that Black Lives Matter should spend their time lobbying politicians to end injustice in the most polite and non-disruptive ways possible, as opposed to being in the streets. How they could not endorse police killing people, but how they could no longer engage with the issue because a Target got looted. How they said they disapproved of white nationalists rallying in the streets, but how they were more disturbed by the antifascists who went in to protect the streets from being taken over by white nationalists.

I just reflected on the peculiar state of the society we live in. A society where fighting against injustice is seen as more disturbing than ignoring injustice. A society that criminalizes those with mental illness but makes excuses for the scores of millions of people who supported the delusions of a billionaire politician. A society that would rather fight for the freedom to put others at risk of contracting Covid-19 than committing to collective action to end the pandemic. The society we see before us is America.

And we won’t change America by trying to go back to the conditions that allowed us to get to where we are today. Instead, we need to recognize the humanity of all people, especially those who do not hold the reins of power. Especially those who have been most marginalized and oppressed. We need to recognize that oppressive institutions and social hierarchies exist, and we must work against them. We should not conveniently ignore them, and we should never support them just because they may not be directly harming us as individuals, or because they benefit us at the expense of others. Instead of working against those who are working for more liberatory and justice-oriented futures, we should invest our time and energy into doing the same. We should walk away from oppression and toward liberation.

And then I committed to going to sleep so that I could be present for the Abrome community the next day. I unplugged and was asleep by 9:30 p.m.

——

Cover photo: Elvert Barnes from Silver Spring MD, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Statement of Solidarity with the George Floyd Uprising

The Abrome community is closely following the international uprising in response to the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in May of this year. We recognize that this horrific event both stands alone and joins a long trend of Black Americans being lynched by police forces nationwide. Just a few weeks ago, Austin police shot and killed Michael Ramos, an unarmed Black and Hispanic man. More recently, Austin police almost killed Justin Howell, a 20-year-old Black man, when they shot him in the head with a “less lethal” munition consisting of lead shot wrapped in fabric. Mr. Howell remains in the hospital with a fractured skull and traumatic brain injury. 

The George Floyd uprising is happening because of decades of Black organizing for liberation and abolition. Because organizing is a slow and often unseen process, these events seem to pop up unexpectedly. However, this moment represents the tireless labor of people like  Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi; Ruth Wilson Gilmore; Mariame Kaba; and countless other Black organizers, scholars, activists, and community leaders. It is the hope of the Abrome community that every white American will find these voices in their own communities, amplify their words and their work, and commit to anti-racism in all aspects of their daily lives.

Some of the local projects that Abrome members are excited about include 400+1 and their accompanying white ally group The Ally Ship; the Communities of Color United coalition; and Mama Sana Vibrant Woman. In addition, this is an extensive list of Black-owned businesses in the Austin area. 

Finally, we realize that white supremacist systems have socialized everyone to value white life and comfort over Black life and safety. The work of anti-racism is lifelong, and Abrome is committed to making available learning opportunities for our white community members to grow in their anti-racist knowledge and actions. Some of us are currently working through Me and White Supremacy. Other excellent books include How To Be An Antiracist and White Fragility. The Center for Racial Justice in Education maintains this list of resources for talking to young people about racism. These resources are a starting point and we at Abrome hope our larger communities will join us in the difficult work of uprooting racism, personally and collectively. 

Black lives matter; Black lives will still matter after current events leave the media cycle. We honor the memories of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland, Michael Ramos, Jamel Floyd, David Joseph, Botham Jean, and the too-many other Black lives lost to state violence. We join Black leadership in Austin and nationwide in demanding that cities defund police and transform public safety responses.

Abrome Weekly Update: June 18, 2017