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Bird Uncaged
Bird Uncaged: An Abolitionist's Freedom Song | Marlon Peterson
5 posts | 1 read | 2 to read
From a leading advocate for prison abolition and transformative justice, a moving memoir about coming of age in Brooklyn and surviving incarceration -- and an urgent call to end all the cages that constrain us. Marlon David Peterson grew up in 1980s and 90s Crown Heights, a devout Jehovah's Witness raised by Trinidadian immigrants. Amid the routine violence and crack epidemic that would come to shape the perception of his neighborhood, Peterson spent his childhood preaching the good word alongside his father. The specter of the American Dream loomed large, and with his achievement of 6th grade valedictorian, it seemed within reach. But in the aftermath of physical and sexual trauma, Peterson made a series of choices that led to his first arrest, getting shot, and his participation in a robbery that resulted in two murders. At 19, Peterson was charged and later convicted; he served seven years in prison. During his incarceration, Peterson immersed himself in anti-violence activism, education, and prison abolition. He continues this work today. In Bird Uncaged, Peterson recounts his coming of age story, challenging the typical "redemption" narrative and our assumptions about who deserves justice. With vulnerability and insight, he exposes the hollowness of the American Dream; the daily violence and trauma of poverty, policing, and enforced masculinity; and the brutality of incarceration. And he reveals the many cages -- physical and metaphorical -- created and maintained by American society. Bird Uncaged is a 21st century abolitionist memoir, and a powerful debut that demands a shift from punishment to healing, an end to mass incarceration, and a new vision of justice.
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JenniferEgnor
JenniferEgnor
Bird Uncaged: An Abolitionist's Freedom Song | Marlon Peterson
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The author shares the story of his life with us, telling us of the profound lessons he learned. His childhood, his adolescence, and adulthood. At 19 years old, he found himself in trouble, ending up incarcerated for 10 years. During this time, he earned a degree and became an activist for incarcerated people. He speaks deeply about being treated as worthless, like an animal, behind bars. This is done by design. It won‘t change anything. ⬇️

JenniferEgnor We all know America has a problem of mass incarceration, police violence, and systemic racism. All of it plays a role in abolition. Maybe one day, we will have this reckoning and create systems of compassion, not systems of oppression. We can create a world without bars together. That world is possible. (edited) 2w
19 likes1 comment
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JenniferEgnor
JenniferEgnor
Bird Uncaged: An Abolitionist's Freedom Song | Marlon Peterson
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America‘s refusal to listen to what Black people ask, plead, strategize, and demand is the core of the American sickness. Justice is undoing all that is needed to acquire redemption from brokenness. More than seventy million people decided against a simple act of solidarity of firing a man whose presidency unmasked the truth of America: that it is a brittle republic that depends on lies to survive. And Black Lives Mattering is a way out for⬇️

JenniferEgnor America—a road to redemption. Abolition is a route to restoration. Being un-American is the undoing necessary to create anew. See, when Breonna was executed; when Big George cried for his mother; when activists demanded the reallocation of police budgets to community resident resources, America only heard defund American deceptions. Instead, they took a knee with protesters. That‘s not what people in the streets requested. They—we—want less⬇️ 2w
JenniferEgnor policing, not because our communities are trouble free, but because policing is a part of the trouble. Policing has always been part of the American brokenness, even before cell phones, even before camcorders, even before Malcom, even before Ida B. Wells. We want America to stop policing us because policing is synonymous with our death by mistake, by malpractice, or by intention—it‘s always our death. Abolishing policing is a proclamation ⬇️ 2w
JenniferEgnor that we can do bad by ourselves. It is also an exclamation that we can create better communities if police give up some of that money that is spent killing us by mistake, by malpractice, or by intention. The doing away of policing is a doing away with the need to be policed by armed people. But, America believes in armaments more than it believes in its lies of white racial superiority, more than the possibilities of the people here, more ⬇️ 2w
JenniferEgnor than it believes in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And in my experience, people cling to weapons when they are scared. I don‘t know if I live in a terrified nation, but I know that this nation is terrified of people who look like me, which makes people like me terrified of this nation. All of this fear suffocates space for love. Love for others makes you want to undo behaviors that hurt. 2w
14 likes4 comments
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JenniferEgnor
JenniferEgnor
Bird Uncaged: An Abolitionist's Freedom Song | Marlon Peterson
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An enlightening episode to listen to (and a podcast to subscribe to…), while you read this book. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/code-switch/id1112190608?i=1000683056935

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quote
JenniferEgnor
JenniferEgnor
Bird Uncaged: An Abolitionist's Freedom Song | Marlon Peterson
post image

Abolition is a politics of creationism. Wanting to end policing is wanting to create thriving communities that do not need an armed state security force that has no true legislative and judicial accountability. A world without prisons is the manifestation of solutions to socioeconomic problems. Abolition is wanting to live without fear. Have police succeeded in establishing societies of safety? Have prisons? Has parole? Probation? ⬇️

JenniferEgnor Deportation? No. No. No. No. And, no. 3w
16 likes1 comment
quote
JenniferEgnor
JenniferEgnor
Bird Uncaged: An Abolitionist's Freedom Song | Marlon Peterson
post image

We are always dying at higher rates than white people from one thing or another, yet they are the ones always complaining about being replaced or outnumbered. That delusion shows up in America and its prisons. Incarceration is the direct result of white people believing that they need to dehumanize everything Black in order to prosper. Prisons are built on former slave plantations in the American South. The same tactics used to break a slave ⬇️

JenniferEgnor are used to break an inmate. None of that prevents this nation from investing billions in an institution born out of chattel slavery. 3w
Sleepswithbooks I just added this to my TBR list. 2w
JenniferEgnor @Sleepswithbooks books like these are eye openers. I have another one coming up in my next stack. Just Mercy was really good too…highly recommend. 2w
Sleepswithbooks @JenniferEgnor - “Just Mercy” was incredible. I‘m so grateful to this site and all of you for expanding my reading 🫶🏻 2w
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