In the preface to Letters of Gratitude, educational theorist Derek R. Ford writes that we must "[r]ead how Leon moves from the (now) indisputable fact that his decades in prison ([including] one decade spent in torturous conditions) were due solely to a racist, capitalist system to the desire to build common unity with the recipients. The system he identifies and the techniques it's developed over centuries now to repress-that is to re-press, to press again, to mold-our state of mind into resignation and hatred, isn't denied or bypassed but acknowledged and transcended. It's like watching water flowing over a rock to reach the goal that we're raised not to be able to see or conceptualize: justice for all." Real justice for all begins with abolition-an abolition understood most deeply, and perhaps only, by those who have been directly wronged by the racist, capitalist system. Benson is one all abolitionists must listen to; the words of an insider-poetic, unbroken, shining from behind physical bars-allow those of us on the outside an opportunity to glimpse the profound state of gratitude and courage we all must cultivate in the struggle for a better world, for real justice.
In the preface to Letters of Gratitude, educational theorist Derek R. Ford writes that we must "[r]ead how Leon moves from the (now) indisputable fact that his decades in prison ([including] one decade spent in torturous conditions) were due solely to a racist, capitalist system to the desire to build common unity with the recipients. The system he identifies and the techniques it's developed over centuries now to repress-that is to re-press, to press again, to mold-our state of mind into resignation and hatred, isn't denied or bypassed but acknowledged and transcended. It's like watching water flowing over a rock to reach the goal that we're raised not to be able to see or conceptualize: justice for all." Real justice for all begins with abolition-an abolition understood most deeply, and perhaps only, by those who have been directly wronged by the racist, capitalist system. Benson is one all abolitionists must listen to; the words of an insider-poetic, unbroken, shining from behind physical bars-allow those of us on the outside an opportunity to glimpse the profound state of gratitude and courage we all must cultivate in the struggle for a better world, for real justice.
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