Alan J. Dettlaff | Lightnews

Alan Dettlaff

@alandettlaff.com

3.9K followers 830 following 510 posts

Co-founder of the upEND movement to abolish the family policing system | Writer and co-facilitator at Toward Liberation, an abolitionist learning group | www.alandettlaff.com | www.towardliberation.com

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Alan Dettlaff @alandettlaff.com · Sep 15

NEW FROM ABOLITIONIST PERSPECTIVES IN SOCIAL WORK!

SPECIAL ISSUE: Thinking and Practicing Abolition Through Palestine

All articles are open access and available to download now: apsw-ojs-uh.tdl.org/apsw/index

Purple journal cover with title of journal and special issue.

Alan Dettlaff @alandettlaff.com · 6h

It is a mistake to think democrats caved. It is a mistake to think democrats are cowards. The quiet truth is that democrats want the same thing republicans want. There are not two parties. There is one empire. The sooner we understand this, the sooner we will move toward liberation.

Alan Dettlaff @alandettlaff.com · 20h

Two new articles are out in Abolitionist Perspectives in Social Work this week. The abstracts are below and the full articles are available for free, open-access download at the journal's website: apsw-ojs-uh.tdl.org/apsw/issue/v...

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Alan J. Dettlaff

Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 1d

I don't think it's cowardice. I think that they are OK with what the GOP is doing. The sooner folks reconcile with this, the better.

Alan Dettlaff @alandettlaff.com · 3d

Join the Social Work Activist Collective on November 20 for a conversation on overcoming hopelessness and fear. For our last meeting of the year we wanted to create a space to share stories of resilience and ideas for where we can find collective strength. Join us!

REGISTER HERE: bit.ly/SWACNov20th

Flyer for November 20th event, Overcoming Hopelessness and Fear. Information about the event included in the text post is overlaid on an image of the roots of a tree.

Alan Dettlaff @alandettlaff.com · 5d

I have very little faith that electoral politics is the way to bring about real change, but i hope this sends a message that pandering to the right, throwing trans people under the bus, and supporting a genocide are not winning strategies.

Alan Dettlaff @alandettlaff.com · 6d

New in Abolitionist Perspectives in Social Work. Always open access. Read and download here: apsw-ojs-uh.tdl.org/apsw/article...

Title of the article: "“Where Else Could I Really Go?” Transcarceration as a Frame for Understanding the Role of Skilled Nursing Facilities for Older People Experiencing Homelessness."

Abstract: Skilled nursing facilities are an established destination for older adults who need assistance with activities of daily living that surpass what is accessible and feasible in the community. Homelessness in later life can exacerbate social, financial, and medical disparities that restrict access to quality community-based care. Existing research on homelessness in skilled nursing neglects the documented experiences of care provision with older people experiencing homelessness. Through a multi-case theory building approach using medical charts (n = 38) from a mobile outreach team and interviews (n=30) with cross-sector care professionals, this study examines the conceptual fit of transcarceration to understand skilled nursing’s role in the holistic care of older people experiencing homelessness. Findings highlight empirical overlap of key constructs: (1) anticipated loss of autonomy, (2) expulsion, and (3) containment, as well as (4) case exceptions where specialized programming and informal care insulated patients from risk. Findings illuminate pathways for social workers to support community-based and institutional innovation, and help pinpoint foci of local, state, and federal advocacy to realize liberatory care for older people experiencing homelessness.

Alan Dettlaff @alandettlaff.com · 7d

This is a devastating story of a grandmother who did everything possible to care for her grandchildren and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services who put up roadblock after roadblock and ultimately took her grandchildren away from her.

www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...

Nana kept her grandkids out of foster care. Then the foreclosure notice arrived.

Millions are caring for kin to keep them from foster care. Rochelle gave USA TODAY an inside look at the difficulties many of them experience.

www.usatoday.com

Reposted by Alan J. Dettlaff

awkword @awkword.bsky.social · 11d

"Abolitionist work and abolitionist practice is a valid form of academic inquiry that not just schools of social work but all educational institutions should be studying"

- Alan Dettlaff 
@alandettlaff.com

AWKWORD INTERVIEWS: Alan Dettlaff, Co-Founder, upEND Movement

YouTube video by AWKWORD

youtu.be

Alan Dettlaff @alandettlaff.com · 12d

Join the Social Work Activist Collective (@swactivists.bsky.social) on Thursday, October 30, to learn about the Boycott, Divestment, & Sanctions (BDS) movement and how you can get involved! REGISTER HERE: bit.ly/SWACOct30th

Text that reads: Are you wondering where to begin in the fight for social justice? Join us as we spend the evening together discussing resistance in the midst of the current political climate. Learn about BDS and its efforts in achieving freedom, justice, and equality for the Palestinian people. We hope that you can use this opportunity to engage with this Palestinian-led movement and its work promoting boycotts, divestments, and economic sanctions against Israel. We hope to see you all there!

Alan Dettlaff @alandettlaff.com · 14d

Join us at Toward Liberation on November 17th for a virtual discussion of "Scrap Theory: Reproductive Injustice in the Black Feminist Imagination" featuring author Mali D. Collins. As always, all are welcome (even if you haven't been reading with us this month). REGISTER HERE: bit.ly/TLNovember2025

Cover image of Scrap Theory and a photo of Mali D. Collins, along with information about the event included in the post.

Reposted by Alan J. Dettlaff

PEN America @penamerica.bsky.social · 17d

PEN America condemns the cancellation of a graduate-level course at the University of Houston, “Confronting Oppression & Injustice,” as an egregious example of the censorship spreading across public colleges and universities in Texas. pen.org/press-releas...

Cancellation of Graduate Course at University of Houston a Blow to Academic Freedom

Cancellation of graduate course at University of Houston shows blatant disregard of faculty expertise and a blow to academic freedom.

pen.org

Reposted by Alan J. Dettlaff

Inside Higher Ed @insidehighered.com · 18d

@uh.edu Cancels ‘Confronting Oppression & Injustice’ Course

The course’s axing is yet another example of curricular censorship at Texas public universities. https://bit.ly/4748W06

#EDUSky #AcademicSky #HigherEd

Reposted by Alan J. Dettlaff

TEN DEMANDS (The Abolitionists) @tendemands.bsky.social · 20d

Yes, it took some time, but we promised Google couldn’t hold us back…

TEN DEMANDS finally has a home, again — for #TenForJustice (the demands) and all our easy calls to action!

Check it out: thisisawkword.com/ten-demands

Alan Dettlaff @alandettlaff.com · 20d

Join the Social Work Activist Collective on Thursday, October 30th at 7:00 PM ET for a discussion on the Boycott, Divestment, & Sanctions movement and why every social worker should be engaged in this.

REGISTER HERE: bit.ly/SWACOct30th

Upcoming Events flyer for the Social Work Activist Collective. October 30: Boycott, Divestment, & Sanctions. November 20: Hopelessness & Fear. January 29: Checking In and Touching Base.

Alan Dettlaff @alandettlaff.com · 21d

In this article from our special issue, "Thinking and Practicing Abolition Through Palestine," the authors use an abolitionist lens to explore how the idea of "non-violence" has been weaponized to delegitimize resistance against oppression. Available open access at our website: www.APSWJournal.com.

A woman photographed from the back holding a Palestinian flag overlaid with the title of the journal article, "Lessons from Abolition on the Violence/Non-Violence Binary and the Palestinian Struggle for Liberation."

Abstract of the article: This article examines how social work and public health professionals have engaged with calls for a ceasefire in Palestine following October 7, 2023, and how these calls, in failing to interrogate the structural conditions of occupation, reinforce dominant frameworks that racialize resistance. We first analyze how social work and public health fields have historically operated within a limited framework of violence that centers on individual acts while obscuring structural violence, including settler colonialism, racial capitalism, and imperial warfare. We then examine how Palestinians have historically navigated state repression, focusing on how non-violence has been weaponized to delegitimize resistance while state violence remains normalized. Through a historical analysis of Palestinian liberation movements, we examine the implications of overlooking structural violence on the understanding of resistance in social work and public health. This article highlights how professional social work and public health organizations have reinforced carceral logics through their framing of violence and non-violence, and how an abolitionist framework can reorient these fields toward a more radical approach to solidarity.

Alan Dettlaff @alandettlaff.com · 24d

Resharing my thoughts on No Kings from earlier this year: www.towardliberation.com/p/on-violenc...

On Violence, Nonviolence, & "No Kings"

“Into this atmosphere of totalizing violence, they introduced a counter-violence that communicated their willingness to universalize the disposability of life, if no other options were available.” - T...

www.towardliberation.com

Reposted by Alan J. Dettlaff

upEND Movement @upendmovement.org · 26d

upEND’s Josie Pickens writes for @newsoneofficial.bsky.social about a Michigan mother charged with “food stamp fraud.” When a mom trying to feed her kids gets criminalized, that’s not justice. That’s surveillance, control, and punishment wrapped in the language of “help.” newsone.com/6490272/mich...

Reposted by Alan J. Dettlaff

upEND Movement @upendmovement.org · 27d

Ten Books to Get To Know Me (upEND edition) 📚

And if you want to learn more about #FamilyPolicing and #Abolition, we have a whole #syllabus on our website. upendmovement.org/syllabus/

1. Confronting the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System: The Case for Abolition by Alan Dettlaff
2. Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families--and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World by Dorothy Roberts
3. The School for Good Mothers: A Novel by Jessamine Chan
4. We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America by Roxanna Asgarian
5. Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom by Derecka Purnell
6. We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice by Mariame Kaba
7. We Grow the World Together: Parenting Toward Abolition by Maya Schenwar and Kim Wilson
8. Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare by Dorothy Roberts
9. The Black Child-Savers: Racial Democracy and Juvenile Justice by Geoff K. Ward
10. Border and Rule by Harsha Walia

Alan Dettlaff @alandettlaff.com · 27d

The truth from Miss Major: "The police have been monsters. They're all worthless, unimaginable, horrible people and destructive to mankind in general, especially to my trans and gender nonconforming community…they are the most detrimental thing to ever happen." ❤️🏳️‍⚧️

Alan Dettlaff @alandettlaff.com · 27d

JOIN US this Thursday, October 16th at 6:00 PM Eastern for a special roundtable with the authors of the recently published papers in Abolitionist Perspectives in Social Work on "Thinking and Practicing Abolition Through Palestine."
REGISTER HERE: www.bit.ly/APSWRoundtable

A woman photographed from the back holding a Palestinian flag overlaid with information about the webinar contained in the text post.

Reposted by Alan J. Dettlaff

TEN DEMANDS (The Abolitionists) @tendemands.bsky.social · 27d

The Ten Demands for Justice provides the roadmap to abolition — with each action chipping away at an inherently, intentionally unjust system.

Read all 10 here, and print this PDF to bring to your city council members.

drive.google.com/file/d/1MKG3...

web.archive.org/web/20240622...

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Steven Heydemann, Joseph Schafer , and 11 more Anna O. Law, Steven Heydemann, Joseph Schafer, Juan Cole, Sanford F. Schram, Melanie C. Green, Janet Murray, Rebecca Tushnet, Alan Richardson, Julia Lynch, Bessma Momani, Michael D. McDonald, Sarah Roberts, Rebecca Zorach

Alan Dettlaff @alandettlaff.com · Oct 11

Yesterday I was told that the class I’m scheduled to teach this month, Confronting Oppression & Injustice, is no longer part of our curriculum. This is a required class yet there was no discussion, no faculty vote, just an email saying the class no longer exists. This is what it’s like in Texas now.

Reposted by Alan J. Dettlaff

TEN DEMANDS (The Abolitionists) @tendemands.bsky.social · Oct 11

Anarchism and chaos aren’t the same.

Anarchism and abolition go hand in hand.

Both with a focus on building a more humanistic society through interconnecting self-sustaining communities.

Something we need now more than ever.

Here, anarchist Eric King and abolitionist @awkword.bsky.social discuss

The Pun Show: I am not a terrorist!

YouTube video by Machine Pun Kelly

www.youtube.com

Reposted by Alan J. Dettlaff

Barack Obama @barackobama.bsky.social · Oct 9

My statement on Middle East peace

Alan Dettlaff @alandettlaff.com · Oct 9

Do not stop calling for a free Palestine.

Reposted by Alan J. Dettlaff, Brooke Harrington

awkword @awkword.bsky.social · Oct 8

Cops used 83,000 cameras to track a single abortion patient — on her abuser’s tip.

Cops Used 83K Cameras to Track an Abortion Patient—on Her Abuser’s Tip

Turns out the cop was also an abuser

jessica.substack.com

Reposted by Alan J. Dettlaff

Inquest @inquest.bsky.social · Oct 8

"Hospitals and health-care providers are duty-bound to care for all people who come through their doors, and care for them well. Our current policies policing free movement and drug use are not working." Dr. Divya Manoharan on how hospitals fail their patients who use drugs.

Patients Need Care, Not Policing - Divya Manoharan - Inquest

Providing hospital inpatients who use drugs with safe ways to do so is a critical part of what it means to “do no harm.”

inquest.org

Alan Dettlaff @alandettlaff.com · Oct 7

ICYMI: JOIN US on October 16th at 6:00 PM Eastern for a special roundtable with the authors of the recently published papers in Abolitionist Perspectives in Social Work on "Thinking and Practicing Abolition Through Palestine." REGISTER HERE: www.bit.ly/APSWRoundtable

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