Black Community-Warrior Love:
Sister Washington didn’t go for the illusion. For Tanya and for AYA, community warrior is not an abstraction. While there are gradations of a warrior’s fight - from mild to severe, they all include actively challenging three things: people, policies, and/or practices that agress upon our people.
Come celebrate love anointed by the elders and wrapped in the service to the family, the community, our people and our cause for freedom, self-determination, and sovereignty. Sometimes “Free the Land” starts with the land that you’re living on right now!
For Community-Warrior Love we are pleased to Honor Sister, Professor, Mama, Tanya Washington. Tanya’s fight has been a local affair, yet it touches us all. Driven by her identification with and love of our community, she chose not to abandon it for personal comfort. Instead, she’s used her scholarship as a lawyer, professor and organizer to defend the homes and families in Peoplestown from government and corporate take-over.
Tanya’s example of Community-Warrior Love underscores the fact that only love birthed by active community loving (the action verb) protects and uplifts the community. By contrast, the individual “just-you-and-me” love is created by aliens and it depends on alien affirmations and material acquisitions. Such love can only serve aliens.
Tanya Washington (center) State Senator Vincent Forte (right) |
When the city of Atlanta sought to buy and demolish homes in Atlanta’s Peoplestown community, many abandoned their homes in face of the Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s strength. Other residents resisted. Tanya Washington, an expecting mother, who also lives in the neighborhood, stood with the resisting residents.
A law professor at Georgia State University’s School of Law, she used her legal knowledge and her pregnant body to stand with the likes of 93 year old, Mattie Jackson. She spent the night with other protesters like elders Robert and Bertha Darden outside the Atlanta city hall.
While the fight is not over, there is light. Mrs. Jackson will be able to stay in her home. Come help us lift them up to continue the fight, and let’s celebrate Professor Tanya Washington for her demonstration of Community-Warrior Love.
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