Mosaic Intersections

Over the weekend, I binged watched all of the episodes of Netflix original series Dear White People, Season 2. I want to share share my thoughts about Chapter 4, when the character Coco Conners must confront the fact she is pregnant. I think the episode was northing short of brilliant, starting with Coco’s unsuccessful attempt to find any results to an online search for abortion options to Coco and the names of states that she and her friend list where abortion care is inaccessible (i.e., Texas, South Dakota), although allowable based on federal law Roe vs Wade (https://ibisreproductivehealth.org/projects/access-health-care-states-heavily-restrict-abortion)  Having us think a black woman college student and daughter of a teen mom who initially leans into parenting only to decide she wants the very thing she imagines for her daughter since birth – Winchester degree and life on the Hill – is intellectually and artistically genius. So as she is saying good bye to her daughter on the first day of college, and speaking over her life the very things she wanted for herself in and after college, she develops the agency to choose self and her dreams, an authentic full circle autonomy. I can completely relate based on my decision not to parent. And I have never been pregnant, ever, by intention. There are things I want to accomplish that I prioritize over parenting. I know what my mother experienced based on her capacity the options that were available to her as a parent and partner – and I want NO parts of what she experienced. And I choose, and prioritize, my personhood over parenthood. Chapter 4 was pure #BlackGirlMagic.  The thing I want for my future child I want for myself, and so, no. I choose me and my dreams first. And that’s Reproductive Justice – the right to have a child, to not have a child and to parent with support, respect, dignity and safety within the context of sexual autonomy and gender freedom. Dope episode.