Great discussion. As someone who doesn’t consider themself as an activist, but has spent the last 3 years working with and being in connection/communication with them and discussing ways forward for our people, a huge constraint is that the good or right ideas don’t matter. If you’re not well connected or have high visibility, what you say doesn’t matter. And what does that mean for the Black people activists and organizers are in service to? I’ve discovered that we are not people centered. We are leader centered. We are organization centered. Because if our people knew the type of clout chasing and nasty politics that took place within the liberation movement of today, we’d be having very different conversations. Our biggest constraint to freedom are the gatekeepers in this movement: from grassroots leaders to those at the top of the hierarchy.
Great discussion. As someone who doesn’t consider themself as an activist, but has spent the last 3 years working with and being in connection/communication with them and discussing ways forward for our people, a huge constraint is that the good or right ideas don’t matter. If you’re not well connected or have high visibility, what you say doesn’t matter. And what does that mean for the Black people activists and organizers are in service to? I’ve discovered that we are not people centered. We are leader centered. We are organization centered. Because if our people knew the type of clout chasing and nasty politics that took place within the liberation movement of today, we’d be having very different conversations. Our biggest constraint to freedom are the gatekeepers in this movement: from grassroots leaders to those at the top of the hierarchy.