Trump was already here but so is interdependence, change and self-determination

by Tiny aka Lisa Gray-Garcia

This country was stolen by hate-filled, manipulative wealth-hoarding colonizers like Trump who raped, abused and murdered first peoples of this land and bought, sold, raped and killed other humans for free labor. Trump is already here. He has been here for 525 years.

The Amerikkklan sci fi movie is real. This Trump monster is the logical progression of U.S. white supremacy and colonization.

But lest you think Armageddon has just arrived, please realize that the pseudo-conscious, neo-liberal, land-stealing gentrfiers of the stolen Ohlone village of Yelamu (San Francisco) created and approved a 21st century re-mix of 19th century “ugly laws,” aka anti-poor anti-disabled peoples, deeply racist and classist San Francisco Propositions Q and R, ensuring that we, the unhoused, disabled, trauma-filled, poorest of the poor will be criminalized, police harassed, attacked and incarcerated even more. Trump was already here. He has been here for a long time.

Colonization has taught people from all over Mama Earth that the Trumps of the world are the ultimate example of success. People cross colonizer-created borders, forced to leave everything that they are, all that they love to become Trump. People risk their lives and even die to become Trump.

Our future lies in our decolonized minds, our youth who we refuse to tell lies to. Our future lies in our elders that we care for without institutions, corporations or poverty pimps. This time is about truth, it’s about healing, it’s about love and most of all it’s about what decolonizers, revolutionaries and truth-tellers are already doing and have been doing for a very long time.

And as we enter a time of collective trauma due to this monster-rule, please don’t get lost in it. Remember that interdependence and love and liberation is real too and self-determiNATION is really real: holding each other, caring for each other – not institutions, not corporations but each other – the way we walk ALREADY.

The most liberatory work of the Black Panthers, MOVE, Shackdwellers Union in South Africa and, in the Bay Area, Aunti-Frances’ Self-Help Love Mission, POOR Magazine, Idriss Stelley Foundation, Krip Hop Nation, Deecolonize Academy and Homefulness  were not built with help from the state. They were built by self-determined people refusing to give up in the face of so much existent hate.

This time is a deep message from ancestors and, like POOR Magazine elephant council elder, prayer bringer and co-founder of Sogorea Te Land Trust Corrina Gould just blogged, “We come from baaadass ancestors.” So realize the work we are all doing is that much more serious now and we all need to stay strong and continue the badass organizing work we are already doing. Don’t lose yourself in the circus and recognize politics for what it is: poli-TRICKS.

Tiny – or Lisa Gray-Garcia – is co-founder with her Mama Dee and co-editor of POOR Magazine and its many projects and author of “Criminal of Poverty: Growing Up Homeless in America,” published by City Lights. She can be reached at [email protected]. Visit POOR at www.poormagazine.org.