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“Something Else to Be”: A Chicana Survivor’s Journey from Vigilante Justice to Transformative Justice

“Something Else to Be”: A Chicana Survivor’s Journey from Vigilante Justice to Transformative... Lena Palacios Because each had discovered years before that they were neither white nor male, and that all freedom and triumph was forbidden to them, they had set about creating something else to be. --Toni Morrison, Sula (1974, 52) Being "something else" is not a task restricted to the realm of personal identity but extended to social practice as well. I feel intense anger about the violence being inflicted on the bodies of indigenous women and women of color across Turtle Island and how violence, both symbolic and real, has impacted my own life. Rather than advocating for state-driven, pro-criminalization strategies to address gendered and sexualized violence (like carceral feminists are prone to do) or seeking retribution through engaging in vigilante violence or through recognition from both the nation-states of white settler societies in order to address this pain and suffering, I use anger to build communities where interpersonal, intimate, and sexual violence becomes unthinkable and where the carceral state no longer exists either in our minds or in our hearts. Growing up in the shadow of the prison, I have been taught to equate justice with vengeance and punishment with accountability. Driven by a principled sense of http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png philoSOPHIA State University of New York Press

“Something Else to Be”: A Chicana Survivor’s Journey from Vigilante Justice to Transformative Justice

philoSOPHIA , Volume 6 (1) – Aug 6, 2016
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Publisher
State University of New York Press
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Copyright © State University of New York Press
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2155-0905
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Abstract

Lena Palacios Because each had discovered years before that they were neither white nor male, and that all freedom and triumph was forbidden to them, they had set about creating something else to be. --Toni Morrison, Sula (1974, 52) Being "something else" is not a task restricted to the realm of personal identity but extended to social practice as well. I feel intense anger about the violence being inflicted on the bodies of indigenous women and women of color across Turtle Island and how violence, both symbolic and real, has impacted my own life. Rather than advocating for state-driven, pro-criminalization strategies to address gendered and sexualized violence (like carceral feminists are prone to do) or seeking retribution through engaging in vigilante violence or through recognition from both the nation-states of white settler societies in order to address this pain and suffering, I use anger to build communities where interpersonal, intimate, and sexual violence becomes unthinkable and where the carceral state no longer exists either in our minds or in our hearts. Growing up in the shadow of the prison, I have been taught to equate justice with vengeance and punishment with accountability. Driven by a principled sense of

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philoSOPHIA – State University of New York Press

Published: Aug 6, 2016

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