There Is a Role for Everyone in this Constant Struggle for Justice
It has been over a week since the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers. Since then, I have been filled with emotions of sadness, anger, and pain. To express the feelings I had bottled up, I took to the streets to protest.
For those who haven’t been in the streets to protest, you may have been left trying to figure out how you can best serve the movement for Black lives and social justice. You may even believe that you have no role in this movement. There is a role for those who want to protest in the streets, but there is also a role for you, too.
When protests first started happening in Philadelphia, I made signs, prepared my “protesting bag,” and participated in the demonstrations prepared by organizations including Black Lives Matter Philadelphia and Philadelphia for Real Justice.
I’ve always felt the need to be a part of protests. For me, it dates back to my time as an undergraduate student at the University of Tennessee when our Office of Diversity and Inclusion got defunded and students demanded justice. Or the time where the university took no action to address instances of blackface, and all I could think about was protesting in the offices of administration rather than focus on my studies. In either case, including others not mentioned, I took to the streets accompanied by others who felt the compelling need to shout and demand justice.
More recently though, I’ve been navigating a space where I want to mobilize and be on the front lines, but I have also notice that I am clouded with an uncertainty of how I truly fit into the fight for justice — many of you may even feel the same way.
The reality of protesting is that it’s not for everyone, and it also looks different for how people decide to protest. Even though people may have decided to take to the streets, many of us have drifted to a place of feeling lost, uncertain, and also confused about how we can best serve the movement for justice and liberation of people who continue to be oppressed.
Deepa Iyer with SolidarityIs and Building Movement Project created an ecosystem framework that guides us to think about our role with social justice, and in this case, our role in the fight for social justice and liberation of the oppressed.
She imagines us to think about what our values are, whether or not we are aligned with them given our current time, what the needs of the communities around us are, and what we offer to the movement and fight for justice with our full energy.
Our full energy is essential here because it allows us to reflect and assess ways that we can better utilize our strengths to genuinely and authentically serve the communities around us.
Iyer’s framework includes ten pillars — ways people can utilize our strengths for social justice — that are centered around equity, inclusion, liberation, justice, solidarity, resiliency, and interdependency. It shows that we can be inspired by those who have taken to the streets, yelled the chants for justice, and demanded action, but we can also be inspired by the actions of others whose work may go unnoticed but still equally contribute to what is needed for justice.
For those who are out wondering what your role might be in all of this, I hope that these ten pillars help you as you reflect:
- Weavers see the through-lines of connectivity between people, places, organizations, ideas, and movements.
- Experimenters innovate, pioneer, and invent. They tale risk and course-correct as needed.
- Frontline Responders address community crises by marshaling and organizing resources, networks, and messages.
- Visionaries imagine and generate our boldest possibilities, hopes, and dreams, and remind us of our direction.
- Builders develop, organize, and implement ideas, practices, people, and resources in service of a collective vision.
- Caregivers nurture and nourish the people around you by creating and sustaining a community of care, joy, and connection.
- Disrupters take uncomfortable and risky actions to shake up the status quo, raise awareness, and build power.
- Healers recognize and tend to the generational and current traumas caused by oppressive systems, institutions, policies, and practices.
- Storytellers craft and share our community stories, cultures, experiences, histories, and possibilities through art, media, and movement.
- Guides teach, counsel, and advise, using gifts of well-earned discernment and wisdom.
I look at this and reflect on how I’m thankful for the disrupters and frontline responders that have been on the streets organizing and demanding justice. I am thankful for the weavers that remind us about the intersectionality of social justice issues emphasizing that when we say Black Lives Matter, we mean ALL Black lives. I am thankful for the guides that are using their platforms to gather resources, make them available for the public, and educate. I am thankful for the healers and caregivers that are helping us to navigate trauma. I am thankful for the visionaries, experimenters, and builders that are imagining what a better future looks like for us, despite what the world looks like right now. And I am thankful for the storytellers that uplift the voices of those behind this very movement.
For more information on the social justice ecosystem, you can find Iyer’s the ecosystem map here and the meanings of the roles here. A reflection guide with questions can be found here.
This article was originally published on 6/13/2020 on www.mustafaalismith.com.
