No Human is a Commdity

I have a lot to say and there is much more to be said. White LGBTQ people, there’s a binary mindset we too often perpetuate that shows up around acceptability and around retributive (punishment) versus reparative (wholeness) justice. And yes, I include non-binary people I’ve encountered in our community too. And yes yes I think this also falls along economic lines in interesting ways …

My poor white Christian cousin who uses binary gender language but invites me every holiday and would never kick me out of their house is not my enemy. And yet that is the very person many would shove from the circle because she hasn’t figured out pronouns beyond binary and is a very southern cishet woman. Being concerned with something like that can become rapidly akin to being concerned with the presentation and not the content.

If my cousin invites me to visit every time we interact, wants to hug every time we visit, wants to cook for me to nourish my body, that is love. Despite the little hurt of the wrong pronouns, I can see the deep roots and endless aquifers of love underlying every action. (that isn’t to belay that its hard to live with those situations, but rather that love can still be seen and felt even when there is nothing material to give)

But in a rich person’s house, there is nowhere to spit but his face. Because for the rich and powerful, a person is often only a commodity. And in capitalism we have allowed rich people’s very ethos to infect everything, even our ancestral roots. Everything is a commodity now.

But the poor know, no human is a ever commodity.

Economic certainty is a curse. The human animal is beautifully adaptive. There is more to being on our side than perfect language and perfect deeds.