I don't want Harriet Tubman's face on a $20 bill

I want liberation

Hiii I’ve been using my oven as a toaster. Anyone else? Today I’m sharing my feelings about the “effort” to put Harriet Tubman’s face on a $20 bill. Onto the news…

News that made me say it’s good to do nothing

Amid multiple genocides, people being deported right and left, state anti-Black racism, someone has decided that their priority is to get Harriet Tubman on the 20 US dollar bill. Listen, I’m not here to shame anyone about poor prioritization. I, too, have been terrible at prioritizing in my life. Did I once choose to go out and get wrecked even though I wasn’t fully packed to start moving the next day? Absolutely. Have I chosen to do stand up every night instead of dealing with my mental health? Emphatic hell yes. No one is perfect, I’m not asking anyone to be perfect, I’m just asking, can we please stop doing things that we shouldn’t be doing and start doing things we should be doing? Or do nothing at all?

Seriously, it is better for you to do nothing than to do something that you shouldn’t be doing. For example, saying hi to a cop. It is better for you to stay at home and twiddle your thumbs all day than say hi to a cop. Twiddling your thumbs is relaxing and good for you. Saying hi to a cop sends a message to state-sanctioned criminals that we condone their existence and the violence of the state.

Putting Harriet Tubman on a 20 US dollar bill is another thing that we should not be doing. If you are thinking, oh Marcela, why don't you want to honor a freedom fighter? That’s exactly why I don’t want her on a 20 US dollar bill. I honor Harriet Tubman so I don’t want her existence to be marred by being placed on something meant to oppress. Harriet Tubman was a freedom fighter and money is meant to enslave us. Putting her on a piece of paper is pretty disrespectful and counterrevolutionary. It sends a message that someone who fought for freedom endorses something that is used to commodify every single aspect of our existence, turning us into wage slaves. What’s next, putting Malcom X’s face on NYPD cars?

American dollars only have the faces of villains on them now and we should keep it that way. Every single time someone pulls a bill with an enslaver on it, it should remind them, hey, George Washington is on this piece of fabric because this piece of fabric is evil. (Yes, in case you didn’t know, “paper” money is made of 25 percent linen and 75 percent cotton. See, I taught you something today. Don’t ever say I never taught you anything.)

I don’t want someone looking at a 20 US dollar bill and thinking, oh cool, Harriet Tubman is on this because money will free me so I should accumulate as much money as possible. That is the lie of Black capitalism. The lie that Black people will find liberation through accumulation in a white supremacist system instead of through collective liberation. Money will not save us. Community will.

So instead of spending our time and energy placing our heroes on symbols of oppression, why don’t we spend our time fighting for liberation wherever we can? Harriet Tubman freed enslaved people, maybe instead of putting her on a bill we could all take longer lunch breaks and liberate items from our workplaces to feed our communities. For example if you work at a grocery store, maybe you should consider using your workplace as a free community pantry.

That’s it for the news but don’t go yet

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Your favorite anarchist comedian/poet/social critic,

Marcela