ayo,
dropping this episode a bit early for y’all. this is my conversation with shani robinson, one of the educators who was charged and indicted under RICO during the APS “cheating scandal”* and sarah abdelaziz of the abolitionist teaching network. one of the educators facing charges, dana evans, will be up on trial next monday, feb. 14.
while dana’s case is imminent, six other educators, including shani, remain in limbo between appeal rejections and the judicial system. this conversation brings us current with the case—the longest running and most expensive case in georgia history—which has begun to fly back under the radar.
additionally, in this talk, we discuss this case through the lens of abolition, the atlanta way, and the criminal punishment system. whether or not anyone cheated (most of the accused remain that they did not, while others who admitted guilt did so under the acceptance of a plea deal/immunity), no one deserves to be caged or jailed. in this lens, guilt is irrelevant; because in the binary of guilty vs. not guilty the prison system will always have a role. so i try not to get too bogged down into whether or not anyone cheated; it’s besides the point.
my views as an abolitionist (a way of being/living i’m still budding and growing into; so please don’t mistake me as a scholar on the subject, because i am not) help me imagine a world where prisons are not only gone, but obsolete because we have built a society that doesn’t depend on a cruel system of punishment and starvation of humanity. the abolitionist lens lets me imagine a world that depends on recovery rather than blame and fault, which is a freedom all should be able to experience. and until we can all experience that, none of us are free.
* it’s no mistake this case was labeled as the “cheating scandal,” putting the focus on Black educators rather than the white supremacist state that criminalizes them. if this story were reported accurately from the beginning, it would be known as the state criminalization of Black teachers in atlanta, or widely referred to sunny purdue’s white supremacist takeover of georgia schools. of course, that’s not the media system that we have. american media systems were built to uphold a white power structure, and the way these cases are referred (assigning guilt on individuals over the system) place guilt and shame on people who had not yet stood trial which is supposedly designed to rightly determine whether or not someone is guilty. another point of proof that these systems that become sanctified in our culture/politics/government are not democratic at all. the claim “innocent until proven guilty” is a smokescreen and in this case, the educators didn’t stand a chance. i do my best to push up against that in this episode, and i do acknowledge this, but since this wasn’t a media criticism piece, we didn’t get super into it.
hope y’all enjoy the conversation. follow abolitionist teaching network on twitter @ATN_1863 and check out all their resource links here.
solidarity,
aja
————————————
INDIGENOUS LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
this episode was recorded on the ancestral lands of the muscogee (creek) tribe now known as “atlanta, ga.” the episode was produced and published / this post was written WAY UP HIGH IN THE SKY over turtle island (i’m traveling).
written in lowercase in loving memory of bell hooks.
