06/03/2025
Whew. Read this twice. Then a third time out loud. Because this right here is what so many of us are waking up to, unraveling, and reclaiming from deep within our bones.
He just described the journey so many of us have taken. Raised right. Schooled right. Dressed right. Spoke right. Played the damn “liberal ball” like our lives depended on it. Because they did. We thought if we showed up as the “good ones” and got a seat at the table, we could shift the system from within. We thought God would bless us.
But what happens when you finally get in the room and realize the table was never built for us? That they never planned on feeding us, just using us and abusing us for their own gain.
That’s when the blinders fall off. That’s when you realize the system ain’t broken. It’s doing exactly what it was built to do.
This is why today’s abolitionist aren’t asking for softer cages or kinder cops. We’re not trying to be the face of empire in a new suit. We’re working to dismantle the whole damn thing. Root and all.
Because yes, when a Black kid meets a cop, they’re meeting the full weight of a system that’s never had their freedom in mind. And you don’t beg bullies to stop bullying. You take away their power.
Today’s abolition is not about rage without vision. It’s about refusing to keep polishing a machine built to crush us. It’s about divesting from systems that punish and investing in systems that care. It’s about dreaming bigger than survival. It’s about building lives and communities where no one has to play ball to be safe.
We don’t want a seat at the table anymore. We’re building a whole new damn house because nobody’s free until we’re all free! ✊🏽
LuzCelenia Arce
“I was a pure, green kid. Two-parent household. My parents sent me to school in khakis with a sweater around my neck. And when I tell you I was a pure kid, that wasn’t a cool trait in the South Bronx. I got bullied. And I hate bullies. My chief antagonist is someone who has more power than me, knows they have more power than me, and leans on me whenever they can. And there’s no bigger bully than the American government. When a sixteen-year-old black kid encounters a police officer, they are encountering the weight of the entire US government. Fu***ng bullies. But my parents taught me to play ball, liberal ball. Education is the only way to beat them. Keep yourself clean, and dress nice. Intern with the right people, get the right jobs, make the right connections, then eventually you’ll land in a position to bring about change. I worked as a paralegal in the District Attorney’s Office. I was a liaison to the community, setting up educational programs and gang awareness workshops. I was playing ball. I was playing liberal ball: yes, the system is fu**ed up. But we can change it. We can change it from within. At one time I was chair of African-Americans for Bloomberg. But I know better now. I know that the more you play ball with them, the more they change you and the more you become them. You become part of the problem, an impediment to the liberation of black people. America respects power, violence, strategy. So the more you say: ‘Let’s peacefully protest.’ The more you say: ‘Oh, there are good police.’ The more you say: ‘Go along, get along, don’t make too much noise’—the further you push us from liberation. White people want you to play the peace game. They want you to keep talking nice, because once you get mad—you’ll mess around and come up on some freedom.”
