Caring for myself is not an act of self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare
- Audre Lorde
Every time I hear the word ‘law’ I visualize gangs of militiamen or Pinkertons busting strikes, pigs wearing sheets and caps that fit over their pointed heads. I see a white oak and a barefooted black hanging, or snake eyes peeping down the lenses of telescopic rifles
— George Jackson
I am not well; I could have built the pyramids with the effort it takes me to cling on to life and reason
- Kafka
Treat yourself at least as well as you would treat any of your friends
But no I am a Bad Person unlike my friends who are Good Persons, because of Reasons
The first half of the quote makes sense to me, but the second half seems like a stretch
The second half rings particularly true to me. Cishet patriarchal hegemony feels so threatened by my mere existence as a trans woman that they vehemently have to deny my realness. And i'm sure that as a black lesbian communist in the civil rights era, Audre Lorde felt this much more strongly, as the system did not only try to socially murder her, but actively assassinated black activists, actively worked towards the full suppression of communism, actively worked towards exterminating queer people. When the state wants you dead, survival is a form of resistance.
