Abstract
U.S. history is rooted in the rationalization of family separation to benefit white supremacy, capitalism and mainstream U.S. values. Because of this dark history, the U.S. history has become the world’s leader of legal destruction of families through termination of parental rights. It is the only country in the world that routinely pays people to adopt children whose parents, often women, very much want to be their parent. The Adoption and Safe Families Act, enacted in 1997, wildly changed the legal landscape of the family regulation system. At that time 47% of the children in the system were Black, and the drug war had been targeting Black men for low level offenses, and labeling Black mothers as “crack moms”. The result was an extreme attack on Black families, for which we have yet to recover. Abolition teaches us to unroot oppressive structures, disrupt and dismantle them while simultaneously supporting a praxis of imagination, healing, and building. In this paper, we encourage people not only to work to repeal ASFA, but to interrogate the imagination which entrenched the legitimacy of ASFA. Part I centers the discussion in our imaginations—the world we want to build, and the demands we are making. Part II moves into a discussion about the counter imagination, the ideas and mythology that created ASFA—the legal framework. In this section, we isolate ASFA as a target for abolition and organizing. Part III moves into a practical discussion about ethical ways to mobilize around ASFA. This section is intended to invite the reader to learn, and question, together. It invites questions, thinking, and problem solving in lieu of providing a recommendation.
Highlights
We are directly impacted mothers, community organizations, and allied advocates across the country
We are asking for both ideas to exist simultaneously within the consciousness of the reader, as we argue that freedom must be our North Star, and as a consequence, ASFA will be dismantled
Black children can be children, and Black, Brown, and poor birthing people are trusted with decisions for the care of their bodies and families
Summary
We are directly impacted mothers, community organizations, and allied advocates across the country. [Vol 11:861 antagonist to our story of liberation, focusing on its stifling impact to political imagination and making clear that ASFA is a driver of white supremacy, family separation, and community destruction. We end the Article with invitations to build, learn, and create in lieu of recommendations We end this way purposefully, because this Article is not prescriptive, but rather a memorialization of a time of thinking between a group of women envisioning and embodying change. We implore you to struggle with us, be in community with us, and read the words that we have written with care and time Let this Article sit deep in your soul—talk about it, disagree with it, agree with it, picture it, paint it, dance about it.
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