Schools in the greater Philadelphia area are among the most segregated in the country, and they are also heavily policed. Instead of giving cops a role in the show's storyline, Brunson includes abolitionist-aligned themes, like offering care, grace, and protection to the most marginalized members of a community; relying on the community to improve and increase the school’s material resources; and keeping school resource officers and cops out of the narrative entirely.
Abbott Elementary invites us into a world that's possibility-laden and imaginative. The show asks you: What does it actually feel like to be a Black student? What should it feel like? One of the many central challenges of abolitionist organizing is simultaneously grappling with how to move through an anti-Black world designed to oppress Black peoples globally while imagining, organizing, and building a new world that ushers in Black liberation.
Patience, grace, humanity, and care are shown throughout Abbott Elementary– a model of deep understanding from which we can all learn. As Unitarian Universalists, we are committed to the Principles that move us to work together to transform racist structures and uproot policing systems.
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Without cops or school resource officers roaming the hallway, Abbott Elementary invites us into a world that’s possibility-laden, imaginative, and abolitionist.
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