Oppression without poverty means not always having to deal with it.

queeranarchism:

One day I need to write a really long piece on all the material ways not being poor anymore shelters me from oppression. Not just the ‘very rich people can afford surgery and lawyers’, that part is obvious. It’s all the small things about having the basics.

Not having a flat share means I do not have to negotiate my right to exist in my own home, having a small garden shielded from view means I can be outside without having to present my existence in a way that won’t agitate strangers, having food in storage means I do not have to deal with anyone when I just do not have the energy to do so. Having a spare bike means I do not have to deal with the troubles of public transport when I don’t want to.

Because of all these things I can rest, I can eat, I can feel the sun on my skin, without having to consider whether I want to expend the energy of existing in public spaces where any moment could be hostile. Not every moment, but any moment, and that’s what makes it so exhausting.

And having all this shelter sometimes almost make me forget the times before I had these basics, the times when every place in my life could at any moment become a potential battlefield because someone might see me as something undesireable to be policed, restricted or destroyed.