In this piece, Patrisse Cullors (Black and queer artist, educator, organizer, and co-founder of Black Lives Matter) highlights the intersections between abolition, reparations, and transformative justice. By exploring the relationship between theory and practice, Cullors advocates for a vision of abolition that is rooted in “people’s power; love, healing, and transformative justice; Black liberation; internationalism; anti-imperialism; dismantling structures; and practice, practice, practice.”

Cullors investigates the history of abolition and provides her own narratives of how she has (or hasn’t) engaged with abolitionist practice. Cullors envisions abolition as a two-pronged project of demolishing systems of oppression and repairing histories of harm. Here, reparations and transformative justice work in tandem with one another in the project of creating abolitionist futures.

Reparations, for Cullors, is an internationalist movement that generates both state and community accountability, as well as a promotion of communal accountability for historically disenfranchised peoples. Cullors emphasizes that accountability is key to transformative justice, which is underscored by the belief that no human is disposable and that both structural and interpersonal harm must be addressed through restorative (not punitive) practices.

All in all, Cullors emphasizes that PIC abolition functions as a “cultural intervention” that demands imagination, care, accountability, and community-building.