“Humans, especially humans who persist in trying to transform the conditions of human life, are incredibly resilient. We experience so much loss, pain, hardship, attack–and we persist! Resilience is in our nature and we recover from things that we would be justified in giving up over, again and again.
Resilience is unveiled when we are triggered, injured, heartbroken, attacked, challenged. I am curious about our general resilience as social justice actors in a traumatizing worlds, and as collectives of people shaping the next phase of human evolution. One core practice is transformative justice, transforming the conditions that make injustice possible. Resilience is perhaps our most beautiful, miraculous trait.”
-adrienne maree brown. Emergent Strategy p. 126
The last few months have tested our collective resilience.
First the corona virus forced the world into lock-down, and brought the global economy to a screeching halt.
Then we learned of the murders of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor.
And then we saw the murder of George Floyd.
And then we heard about the murders of Nina Pop, and Tony McDade.
And then Dominique Fells. And then Riah Milton. And then Rayshard Brooks. And then Toyin Salau. And there have been many others.
Meanwhile, white, male, cis-het, billionaires like Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg continue to increase their massive wealth and power.
We’ve been witness to all of it.
The people are finally seeing the corrupt nature of our system… and feeling the weight of white supremacy, patriarchy and advanced capitalism.
Many of us are experiencing overwhelm. We have shocked nervous systems. And we’re having a hard time discerning what to do next.
But I have hope.
In these moments, I am so grateful to be plugged in with communities that are organizing for justice and acknowledging how essential it is to practice emergence, interdependence, and resilience during these times.
One leader that has deeply inspired me is adrienne maree brown.
Her book, “Emergent Strategy”, has been major medicine for me through out my social justice journey.
Over the last few weeks I’ve been re-turning the pages… soaking up her words… and remembering that we are building culture, and shaping the evolution of society.
Learning about how the system of oppression has infiltrated nearly every industry, nearly every public service, and almost every community is gut-wrenching, heart breaking, and triggering as fuck.
Dismantling the current system and building something new may be the most challenging thing we ever do.
And it is in these moments that we get to put our practice of resilience to work.
Because we must persist.
And this reminder of resilience is important not just in our direct action efforts, but in all of the area’s of our life where we wish to make an impact.
As a business owners who are committed to using our businesses as a tools for activating change, we have to keep showing up, even when its messy and imperfect.
As community members dedicated to building a people-first culture, we have to be vulnerable + humble, especially when we’ve made mistakes and caused harm.
As visionaries who are dreaming of and moving towards new ways of being in the world, we have to adapt + adjust along the way.
We have to keep going. Keep working. Keep nurturing ourselves and our communities.
We must be resilient if we aim to activate real change.
Love + Liberation
Lauren Elizabeth