Loved this one, and not just because I have such big love for South Africa and how its history of resistance can teach us so much. The phone call you mentioned is such a critical case study. I've been reading Jenny Odell's new book, Saving Time, which has me thinking so much of this is about slowing down and respecting how long it actually takes to build bonds, community, trust. Being busy seems like a mundane, White elite flex, but really I think it is at the heart of why more organizing doesn't happen in our communities. I guess I'm just adding a layer to your already great analysis here. I think organizing needs to be more welcoming and less judgmental, and also we have to acknowledge that asking questions and really listening to the answers takes real time.
There's a lovely moment in the movie "Everything Everywhere All at Once" that has resonated with a lot of people, judging by how often I see screenshots of it, and it's an encapsulation of part of what you're saying here. In it, Ke Huy Quan's character observes the following about himself: "When I choose to see the good side of things, I'm not being naive. It is strategic and necessary. It's how I've learned to survive through everything."
I used to think that unless I was constantly enraged and putting forth effort toward the cause, I must not be really serious about it. Reading about pleasure activism, among other things, helped set me straight. It's also helped me get past my own fear of showing up in the wrong way. I do try not to make more work for people who are already doing most of the work, but I also call myself on using fear as an excuse, because who does that serve?
This! I was particularly struck by "a deliberate and cultivated joy" and "He lived in difficult times, and his joy was a strategy."
In the past, I've felt ashamed of my excitability and the sheer joy that I get from "silly" things (aka any time I see a dog), as if I don't see the seriousness of the work ahead of us if I experience joy too. I've been working on letting that go lately and embracing this part of myself instead. The way you talk about joy as a strategy and something deliberate makes me think that it's actually something I bring to the work, rather than something I need to tamper down in these spaces. Thank you so much for this!
Also, fun fact, the first time I used the word trans to describe myself was when I saw a trans artists' work that said "trans joy is resistance" and it hit me so deep that I could no longer keep ignoring my gender. My favorite hoodie has that art and phrase on the back :)
I LOVE the statement, "Fight crap, not other people." That needs to be a t-shirt or sticker or something. :-)
Thank you for reiterating how we have to be welcoming to people and meet them where they are, instead of acting like we are some ritzy club that you should feel honored to join. (Especially when one is signing on to do hours of hard, unpaid work.) It's hard to step into something new, and we need to keep reminding ourselves of that, no matter how awesome it is to finally find a crowd to belong to - that's also part of the problem, once you are in you want to feel *in* and you tend toward the behaviors that ultimately would have kept you out in the first place. We struggle with that at my church - first we were tiny and formed strong bonds, but now that we are growing we have to try to break up the cliques that nourished us in the first place to let more people feel like they belong. So difficult, but so necessary.
And lastly, it always baffles me how conservatism . . . enjoys being mean? Like, do you really like excluding people, locking them out, making them scared? Why would you want to spend your life like that . . . getting joy from seeing others pushed away or beneath you. I choose joy of acceptance, I choose joy from love of my fellow humans, I choose joy from the beauty available to us each day - all around us.
(Sorry if I hijack your comments section, Garrett - your newsletters are just so thoughtful that they spur rants in me!) :-)
This brought me back to the first time I was in an Industrial Areas foundation training with a group Is been organizing with for a few month, and heard them begin to champion self interest as the only source you can organize people around and anger as the only emotion that overcome fear. It blew my mind. Here I thought for the past decade so many of us were out here because we deeply love someone and anger was just the tip of that big iceberg sticking up above the surface when that lived one is harmed? Anger can be fine, though I’ve learned not to always trust it as a political emotion growing up in rural Texas. But I’ve longed for movements and organizing spaces with more emotional intelligence. Thanks for all the ways you’re calling us into forming this work with joy and curiosity and kindness and hospitality!
ps -- I’ve sent multiple messages to my local DSA with something like, “hey guys, I can be useful, organize me!” And never heard a peep. That part hit lol!
My springling, Lena, sent me the summer camp story, because they said that it reminded them of me. And they had forgotten that I already subscribed to The White Pages, at their suggestion. It took me a few days to sit down with the whole, excellent post. The anti-apartheid movement was part of my own political awakening, so this really moved me.
Loved this one, and not just because I have such big love for South Africa and how its history of resistance can teach us so much. The phone call you mentioned is such a critical case study. I've been reading Jenny Odell's new book, Saving Time, which has me thinking so much of this is about slowing down and respecting how long it actually takes to build bonds, community, trust. Being busy seems like a mundane, White elite flex, but really I think it is at the heart of why more organizing doesn't happen in our communities. I guess I'm just adding a layer to your already great analysis here. I think organizing needs to be more welcoming and less judgmental, and also we have to acknowledge that asking questions and really listening to the answers takes real time.
There's a lovely moment in the movie "Everything Everywhere All at Once" that has resonated with a lot of people, judging by how often I see screenshots of it, and it's an encapsulation of part of what you're saying here. In it, Ke Huy Quan's character observes the following about himself: "When I choose to see the good side of things, I'm not being naive. It is strategic and necessary. It's how I've learned to survive through everything."
I used to think that unless I was constantly enraged and putting forth effort toward the cause, I must not be really serious about it. Reading about pleasure activism, among other things, helped set me straight. It's also helped me get past my own fear of showing up in the wrong way. I do try not to make more work for people who are already doing most of the work, but I also call myself on using fear as an excuse, because who does that serve?
Thanks for this piece.
This! I was particularly struck by "a deliberate and cultivated joy" and "He lived in difficult times, and his joy was a strategy."
In the past, I've felt ashamed of my excitability and the sheer joy that I get from "silly" things (aka any time I see a dog), as if I don't see the seriousness of the work ahead of us if I experience joy too. I've been working on letting that go lately and embracing this part of myself instead. The way you talk about joy as a strategy and something deliberate makes me think that it's actually something I bring to the work, rather than something I need to tamper down in these spaces. Thank you so much for this!
Also, fun fact, the first time I used the word trans to describe myself was when I saw a trans artists' work that said "trans joy is resistance" and it hit me so deep that I could no longer keep ignoring my gender. My favorite hoodie has that art and phrase on the back :)
I LOVE the statement, "Fight crap, not other people." That needs to be a t-shirt or sticker or something. :-)
Thank you for reiterating how we have to be welcoming to people and meet them where they are, instead of acting like we are some ritzy club that you should feel honored to join. (Especially when one is signing on to do hours of hard, unpaid work.) It's hard to step into something new, and we need to keep reminding ourselves of that, no matter how awesome it is to finally find a crowd to belong to - that's also part of the problem, once you are in you want to feel *in* and you tend toward the behaviors that ultimately would have kept you out in the first place. We struggle with that at my church - first we were tiny and formed strong bonds, but now that we are growing we have to try to break up the cliques that nourished us in the first place to let more people feel like they belong. So difficult, but so necessary.
And lastly, it always baffles me how conservatism . . . enjoys being mean? Like, do you really like excluding people, locking them out, making them scared? Why would you want to spend your life like that . . . getting joy from seeing others pushed away or beneath you. I choose joy of acceptance, I choose joy from love of my fellow humans, I choose joy from the beauty available to us each day - all around us.
(Sorry if I hijack your comments section, Garrett - your newsletters are just so thoughtful that they spur rants in me!) :-)
This brought me back to the first time I was in an Industrial Areas foundation training with a group Is been organizing with for a few month, and heard them begin to champion self interest as the only source you can organize people around and anger as the only emotion that overcome fear. It blew my mind. Here I thought for the past decade so many of us were out here because we deeply love someone and anger was just the tip of that big iceberg sticking up above the surface when that lived one is harmed? Anger can be fine, though I’ve learned not to always trust it as a political emotion growing up in rural Texas. But I’ve longed for movements and organizing spaces with more emotional intelligence. Thanks for all the ways you’re calling us into forming this work with joy and curiosity and kindness and hospitality!
ps -- I’ve sent multiple messages to my local DSA with something like, “hey guys, I can be useful, organize me!” And never heard a peep. That part hit lol!
My springling, Lena, sent me the summer camp story, because they said that it reminded them of me. And they had forgotten that I already subscribed to The White Pages, at their suggestion. It took me a few days to sit down with the whole, excellent post. The anti-apartheid movement was part of my own political awakening, so this really moved me.
this is a really lovely one-- thank you.
Thank you for this post!