Harriet Tubman
A Radical Women Book Club Discussion
This has been a week, hasn’t it?
ICE thugs (Nazi Germany anyone?) terrorizing hard working people and brutally separating families in sanctuary cities.
The President unlawfully usurping the authority of the Governor of California to send unasked, unnecessary and unwelcomed National Guard troops into Southern California. Pissed off at the blowback, he doubled down by sending in the Marines. Did I mention his threat to arrest a sitting governor?
To those considering protesting at his sham birthday/Putinesque military parade: You will be met “with very heavy force”. And to protestors around the country: I will send troops to your city too.
Meanwhile, federal agents shoved, handcuffed and removed a U.S. Senator who dared ask a question at a news conference by the Homeland Security Secretary. If a powerful U.S. Senator is treated that way, one can only imagine what’s happening to the disenfranchised out of the public view .
What does any of this have to do with Harriet Tubman you ask?
She didn’t have a vote, she had no agency to publicly protest deplorable conditions—she was owned by another human being. And yet she resisted. She fought. She went underground when necessary and she won.
We have so many more advantages, so much more agency today—what will we each do with ours? How shall we stand up?
And speaking of Harriet, how maddening is it that she was underestimated over and over again, while her contributions were discounted? Does Harriet’s story change your view of what resistance—and defiant action—can look like today?
Would love to hear your thoughts on this…
Cheers,
Rochelle