It's All About the Benjamins Baby

I've been thinking about how to amplify mutual aid requests on my Instagram account (@trustmeimasocialworker) for a while. If you are unaware, IG severely limits reach when posting mutual aid requests. For VOCAL (pun totally not intended but clap for me anyway) accounts like mine who are shadow banned every other week, IG limits our reach. Reach for all the things I want to amplify including my #pulluporshutupdonoharm campaign against medical racism. Recently I decided not to try to "trick" the algorithm anymore, I'm over it. Going forward I will share mutual aid requests to my stories and save them to my highlights labeled "mutual aid". Currently I'm in Mexico with no cell phone, so when I get one I'll update the highlights and you'll have a one stop shop/resource to visit.

What is something that I wish people knew about mutual aid? That folks often need ONGOING support. People don't stabilize after a few months of support. Quite often goals are not met and people continue to post and repost which is really taxing and traumatic. If you are new to the concept of mutual aid and want to help, here's what you can do.

Consider if you want to do weekly, monthly or one lump sum.

Choose 1-3 folks to share financial resources with. You can follow my page or pages dedicated specifically to amplifying mutual aid requests.

Donate again the same time next month.

Easy peasy. I know that mutual aid can sometimes trigger a lot of shame and guilt especially with white people. To unpack that you probably need a therapist and no, I'm not being funny when I say that. Many factors influence an aversion to paying a stranger's light bill. A few of them are our internal belief systems about people who are cash poor, bias toward Black and Brown people, and living under a capitalistic white supremacy system hell bent on gaslighting tf out of us by feigning concern for some people but never for all of them. Intentional and consistent giving is harder than the internet makes it seem. For just about all of us codependents living on Rihanna's green earth find it difficult to enforce boundaries. I want you to know that just because you cash app someone for six months doesn't mean you need to continue if something changes like your financial situation. What I'm about to say next some of yall won't like. You are allowed to stop doing something just because you don't want to. You don't have to intellectualize your privilege. That said, it is best practice to at least let the person know that you will be withdrawing support. You don't need to overexpalain, but you should be assertive. "Just wanted to let you know that I'm unable to support you going forward" is suffice. It's also okay for the other person to be upset with you, particularly if you are more resourced and not marginalized. People in need of resources are also typically in need of rest and care, disruptions in giving have tangible negative consequences. That's why it's okay for people to be disappointed and/or angry with your decision to stop. Don't let wanting to be perceived as "good" or an affinity for being liked impact your boundaries around giving. "Good" people aren't performing allyship or giving out of guilt. They're simply leveraging their privilege and the best kind are unapologetically communicative about what they can and cannot do. As I mentioned previously withdrawing financial support can absolutely cause a lot of harm AND it's important to note that saviorism is obsessed with "if not me who". That type of mindset isn't mutual aid, it's charity.

What do you think?

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