“Curing” What Truly Ails Us: Reflections on Movement Strategy in the Time of Coronavirus
You already know that organizing, which was already hard, is now bananas. COVID-19 exacerbates the impact of racism and patriarchy on our bodies, on our livelihood, on our lives in ways we never imagined. The most oppressed are the most at risk. Our old tactics of showing up and showing out in numbers puts our people at risk. And the “essential” workers best positioned to throw a wrench in the machine are either mostly unorganized or health workers who cannot ethically engage in work stoppages. A notable, potential exception, of course, is the current organizing at Amazon.
Time for an Organizational Justice Tune Up?
It’s that time of the year when the gyms are full of the well intentioned, ready to lean into a healthier lifestyle. Why not take the new year to set new patterns for a healthier organization? Here are four ideas from Higher Ground Change Strategies for “tuning-up” your organization’s justice game. 1. Conduct a personnel […]
Toward Movement Grace: Criticism, Self-Criticism and the Wisdom of Silence
Beef. It’s been a part of our work for millennia. We disagree – sometimes over big ideas and basic values. Sometimes over little ideas and tactics. What makes a disagreement full blown beef? Usually it’s a lack of movement manners – a kind of grace – that forgets the humanity of the folk “on the […]
Lessons from Wakanda: What Black Panther Raises for Black Organizing
I could not wait to see what Ryan Coogler and team were going to do with Black Panther. As a kid, opening the comic book meant entering a world where brave and brilliant Africans ran a nation, away from the gaze and grasp of white supremacy. Well, mostly, anyway. In the “real” world, we were […]
Beyond Case Justice: Reimagining Remedy for the 21st Century
while much of our work is focused at the level of individual case advocacy in a system that is patently unjust, our opponents operate at the structural level of policy, procedure and cultural norm by making guns and extrajudicial killings “normal” and “justifiable” – when used by whites or those reaffirming white supremacy values.
Remembering Dr. King, the Black Community Organizer
As the nation commemorates MLK Day, there is a strong temptation to get stuck in a kind of nostalgia for the good old days of a simpler civil rights movement; a movement without angry Black people, afros and shattered glass. And in that nostalgia, sweep under the rug that, although the civil rights movement helped […]
Fight #FakeFairness: Contesting Confederate Control of the Nation’s Narrative
Durban, South Africa, September 2001. I was walking through the huge exhibit hall as part of the World Conference Against Racism – a convening of thousands for racial justice worldwide. There in the midst of teach-ins and health educators and organizers stood a rather nervous crew of white South Africans. They were encouraging passersby to […]
Solutions
Reflections from Higher Ground No.1 The ‘Rigged Game’ Few of Us Are Talking About The current president has made much of the “rigged game” of electoral politics. And he is right. It is rigged – for his benefit and people like him. The very structure of governance in this country stacks the game against people […]
Change Communications: Naming Racism
In the current political climate where some forces are becoming even more strident in their efforts to advance racism and white supremacy and more organizers are courageously pushing to address racism head on, there are some advocates concerned about “triggering” potential supporters by bringing race (or really, racism) up in their communications. I want to […]
The Power of What If
“Everything begins with an idea in our mind, then is created, brought from the abstract to the physical. Just as things are built with our hands, they are built with our minds.” Ernest Holmes, metaphysicist, spiritual leader and New Thought pioneer “Free your mind and your ass will follow.” George Clinton, composer, philosopher, progenitor of […]