If ever there was a time to understand accountability’s benefits and limitations, this is it.
Holding someone accountable by necessity includes deep critique. It is a person or persons saying, “You did harm, something must be done about this.”
Accountability is a place that can hold space for change. But it should also function under the expectation that accountability isn’t the end goal.
Unfortunately, many throw the concept of accountability around and then propose prisons, police, or punishment as the solution. A punitive system is not accountability, it is merely punishment. Additionally, an election is not accountability.
Always keep in mind that accountability is not the end goal, liberation is. For example, demanding a ceasefire is not the end goal, a Free Palestine is. Do we want a ceasefire? Yes? Will we stop at that? No.
Get into the practice of thinking about what we are planting in place of that which we want to dismantle, of what comes after accountability.
We must imagine, conjure, create, and cultivate what liberation is to us. When we do so, we start setting the foundation and framework for even beyond accountability. We start planting and growing what we actually wanted in the first place.
We will build liberation together.
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