Creating the Conditions for Violence
“What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
Brevity is our friend.
Less is more.
I’m going to really lean into that for this post, because more and more I’m tapping into my synthesizing mind.
In our world of increasing complexity one of the greatest value adds that any of us can bring is clarity where there is confusion. It often risks being a reductionist and at times being overly simplistic, but in this day and age of information overload, less really can be more.
The nonprofit I work for recently had an all-staff retreat. One of the trainings was on “decarbonization and decolonization”. The session was led by Tanisha Arena, Executive Director for Arise Springfield, a nonprofit whose mission is:
to educate, organize, and unite low income people to know what our rights are, to stand up for those rights, and to achieve those rights;
to educate the community at large as to its common interest in social justice for all;
to promote involvement in the electoral process, to develop self-esteem, and to teach ourselves to fight oppression in all its manifestations.
Tanisha was an incredibly powerful presenter. Using strategically placed questions to spark critical thinking, as well as repetition to drive home some key points (“You cannot out-fund bad policy.”)
There are two quotes of Tanisha’s that are still with me, reverberating in my head & heart like keys dangling together, awaiting to unlock an even deeper truth.
“White supremacy is the Windows 10 of our society.”
It’s often compared to the water fish swim in, so pervasive it goes undetectable because of how much it is like the operating system of our world.
The other quote of Tanisha’s that felt like it had vivid validity, now seemingly obvious, but a sentiment I had never heard expressed before, was:
“Under resourced communities create the conditions for violence.”
I learned a number of years ago that there is an inherent link between race and class. As a systems thinker, the above quote gets at a root cause in a dizzyingly short amount of words, and yields an insight that I’m still reflecting on. I suppose that much of it can be summed up as: we’ve come a long way, and we still have far to go.
Like more and more holidays lately, I am opting out of any 4th of July celebrations. I’ve shared the conflicting thoughts I have in a previous post, linked here.
I’ll sign off with a video clip of the descendants of Frederick Douglass reading one of his most famous speeches “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
With Liberty & Justice for ALL,
Lisa
I did not feel much like celebrating yesterday. This post was perfect!