#StopKavanaugh

Tuesday July 9, the morning after Trump announced he was nominating Brett Kavanaugh to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court due to Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement, I was grieving the hardest since November 9, 2016.

I grieve not for me.

I’m 49, I’ve had my abortion, my gay friends who wanted to get married have done so.

As a Gen X white professional woman, I stand to lose very little if we allow there to be a solid conservative voting block on the Supreme Court- although I’m sure Kavanaugh will mess with Obamacare, I have confidence that the State of California will cover me.

I grieve for my children, and for all the young people in my life, who I love as if they were my children, and for their children, those born and yet unborn.

Kavanaugh’s confirmation, if we allow it to happen, will affect them for their entire lives.

They will continue to be executed by police with total impunity, because Kavanaugh stands with police unions.

They will continue to be separated from their parents and suffer extreme abuse, because Kavanaugh stands with the Border Patrol Union.

They will continue to be massacred, on city streets and in their schools, churches, and movie theaters, because Kavanaugh stands with the NRA.

They will not have freedom to marry who they choose, nor to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, because Kavanaugh stands with the religious right.

They will have their civil rights, voting rights, housing rights, rights to a workplace free of discrimination decimated, because Kavanaugh stands with the Ku Klux Klan.

They will continue to suffer from a society where the top 20% of income earners control 95% of the wealth, because Kavanaugh stands with the rich.

How do we know this?

Because those are the endorsers, donors, and voters who got Trump elected by 800,000 votes due to the Electoral College, which is itself a vestige of slavery.

Kavanaugh is 53. He could easily serve for 30 years.

Republicans want to confirm him the midterm elections on November 6 to show their base that they are Making America Great Again by turning America into a living hell for everyone else.

The younger you are, the more marginalized your identity, the more you will suffer under a Supreme Court with a unified conservative voting block.

This is the time, all folks who care.

Women, people of color, parents, poor people, LGBT people, young people, progressive whites.

WE MAKE UP THE MAJORITY OF THE ELECTORATE.

We sent Obama to the White House TWICE.

I implore you.

WE NEED EVERYONE ON DECK.

I don’t want to hear “Kavanaugh’s confirmation is a done deal, there is nothing we can do about it.”

NO IT’S NOT.

Our lives depend on how we stand up fight back between now and November 6. WE MUST #stopKavanaugh

What can you and I do?

• Gather together with our likeminded friends and organize.
• Get in touch with your local chapters of the groups opposing Kavanaugh and work together. The NAACP, the National Urban League, the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights, and many other groups.
• Call, write, email, Instagram, tweet and urge our families and friends to do the same. Let’s make #StopKavanaugh trend EVERYDAY for four months!
• Register to vote and get your friends and family registered too! And make sure you and EVERYONE you know actually vote on November 6,
• Research who your representative is — all 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for grabs in the midterm election. Is your Senator up for reelection? Is he or she opposed to confirming Kavanaugh? And, if so, how specifically is he or she opposing? Tag your elected officials on pics #WeAreRegisteredAndWatchingYou #StopKavanaugh
• Protest and engage in civil disobedience.

On the Fourth of July, Therese Patricia Okoumou captured all of our imaginations by magically scaling the Statue of Liberty to demand children be released.

June 28, I was one of 630 women arrested at the US Senate to protest family separation.

We can and must put our bodies at risk to stop this process. Too much is on the line.

Karen Fleshman, Esq. is the founder of Racy Conversations.

Her mission is to inspire the first antiracist generation in the United States.

43% of Millennials are people of color. 47% of Generation Z are people of color.

When we flip 10% of the white people in those generations- and 10% of white women- to antiracism, we will have a majority antiracist generation that will be transformative.

She speaks and cofacilitates workshops on race nationwide and online and contributes to Huffington Post, Moguldom, and The GED Section.

Karen is a cofounder of San Franciscans for Police Accountability and serves on the workgroup overseeing US Department of Justice recommendations on ending bias at SFPD.

www.racyconversations.com @fleshmankaren