ABSTRACT
In this chapter I offer a series of reflections toward contextualizing demands for defunding the police - and larger abolitionist projects - relative to women of color feminisms in order to underscore the expansive critical and imaginative implications of this thought and practice. First, I situate contemporary discourses surrounding identity and social justice relative to centuries-long traditions of Black feminisms, focusing on the concept of intersectionality in particular. Next, I reflect on one of the central insights of intersectional feminisms: the interconnection of social justice struggles. Drawing on work of Black feminists and other women of color feminists, I explore how this insight is central to abolition as a feminist strategy. Ultimately, I reflect on how Black feminisms and other women of color feminisms call us to move beyond superficial conceptions of intersectional feminism in order to “build anew” - to imagine and create the world we want to live in together.
