Meet the plants: WEEDS!
We, the contemporary humans, are addicted to efficiency. That addiction all too often produces narrow identities that don’t celebrate the complexity of existence. This unspoken codex makes its way into our unconscious thinking, through bias,racism, sexism and harm.
Affected by the same desire to be efficient, the way ecologists classify plants is grossly reductive, creating an oversimplified system that continues class biased. Consider the ways society talks about “weeds”.
Green biases projected on to plants normalizes hierarchical language we often standardize and use on humans. When it comes to incarceration and our cultural responses to crime, reductive biases eclipse our ability to celebrate the complexity of our own humanity. Abolitionists work to celebrate complexity, diversity and wholism, even when some of the facts appear to compete. In doing so, we evolve humanity.
People convicted of crimes in the US are often treated like the weeds of our society— ignored, dismissed, or even eradicated. The pesticides and herbicides of society are the cultural infrastructures that reinforce what Isabel Wilkerson calls the american caste system, a permanent classification designed to keep human value hierarchical for the sake of capitalism. Ideally, this field guide inspires us to look at weeds differently, through the expansive lens of abolition, so that we can exercise the cognitive muscles that recognize complexity and potential.
Be inspired by all the survival strategies, so-called weeds model against a world constructed to eliminate them. The human constructed places and spaces where they are told they are unwanted, undesirable, invasive,… and yet they thrive (SURTHRIVAL strategies?). How do we learn from so-called unwanted/invasive/pests to adapt and create our own surthrival strategies in the places and spaces gilded by imperialist capitalist white supremacist hetero patriarchy?!
Did you know the dandelion, North America’s most famous weed is also an incredible healer to humankind and soil alike? Dandelions, Taraxacum officinale are not actually in competition with grasses or other shallow rooted plants. They prefer deep rich soil and their roots often attract beneficial earthworms. All parts of the plant are edible, and have been celebrated by indigenous peoples , contemporary plant enthusiasts and herbalists as a cure-all, tonic, stimulant and anti-oxidant. Dandelions are sometimes seen as symbols of resistance, packed with the potential to vastly propagate (information, ideas, and intentions). The plant is also imbude with optimism we are reminded of when children blow on the pappus to make a wish.