Whenever we talk about power and influence, things start to get elusive:
-they decided
-the team took stock
-the activists were unreasonable
-the congress people stalled
- the bill didnt pass
-the community said no
and on and on it goes. But within every justice issue there are groups, made of people, and those people are both making decisions and enforcing decisions. Part of our job as antiracists who want to have measurable impact right where we live, is to ask the same question over and over again… who is in charge here?
While it is certainly the case that systems are set up so that responsibility is spread so no one person has to say, “I made a racist decision,” it is nonetheless our responsibility to note the collection of people that enable racist decision-making. And it really sucks.
Like truly. When you begin to get involved in local politics, that involvement can lead to having your heart broken. Just a few months ago I was chatting with my friend Mike McHargue about housing. M…