Swinging and Singing

Speaking with a Detroit elder today: "Our biggest mistake in the 60s and 70s was that we got comfortable. They gave us a few crumbs and we let off the pressure before serious changes really happened."

Bear in mind, the protests in the 60s and 70s were planned sometimes up to 2 years in advance and sustained anywhere from a few months at a time to more than a year at a time (i.e. freedom riders).
If you caught it in the news or were there, yesterday's Detroit protest took a different note--folks described it as turning into a dance party.

South Koreans, who ousted their president circa 2016, held concerts and official public events and forums in the streets--if Foreign Policy magazine can be relied on for some of its reporting (a few friends and acquaintances who've been interviewed might share less-than-thrilled accounts experiences with diluted reporting), this may also hearken back to their history when an Emperor provided a special drum for the public to strike as a way to garner his attention and air their grievances.

Some seasoned advocates would describe this as "pleasure activism", and if we consider justice "by any means necessary" from a zen perspective, celebration is a valid means for convening, communicating, and mourning as much as the usual forms seen in uprisings.
The tactical and strategic value of a protest comes from how it disrupts the pattern of attention for politics, media, and commerce in a way that persuades stakeholders into convening to take serious action for change. And most Djele/griot artist-advocate "mujicians" recognize the significant peacebuilding and peacemaking capacity a creative event has for cohering more intentional communities if done well.

So while a crisis may be comprised of danger, the inherent caution it demands also presents an opportunity for care--just as the COVID-19 Pandemic has demonstrated.

By the way, we're still in the pandemic, and it remains a crisis of crises that could guide us through understanding what's needed if we look to root causes that prompted protests.

As a crisis of crises, the systemic change needed to address the gaps in treatment and supplies can and should be made through this moment in concert with those who put their lives at the forefront risk and those who are unwilling to--because for some, there's a point where staying in silent vs. speaking out in a monumental moment at the risk of catching the virus carries the same amount of threat to their life.

COVID-19's complexity is on par with grappling with the pervasive realities of racism in the U.S. -- the legal system, our access to health care, our collective right to express anger and capacity to empathize and process it into healthy pathways all benefit from a healthy degree of conflict--whether it's an uncomfortable series of conversations, or from delivering grievances and contentions to officials and the world about how "business as usual", "rule of law" and "good enough for government" do not amount to justice for all.

If anything, we likely need to find ways to safely maintain disruptive presence while we mature the overarching priorities beyond city-wide municipal demands into something that changes national and economic processes to ensure real change stays in the public interest. For some people, that means shaking up the workplace's way of doing business--do you have colleagues or executive leadership who "value diversity, equity, and inclusion" but also tokenize most of the "diversity" and haven't done more to account for perspectives that would create lasting change in their operations that creates real community and employee benefits?

Disrupt that. Institutional racism is something people in organizations can change within their own institution. Aretha Franklin did it every time she worked through her contract agreements: 1) no segregated audiences 2) cash, upfront.

The analog for inclusion/diversity and equity in most business may have a few more nuances but it's basically the same. Contrary to what communists and Marxists like to focus on, "wealth redistribution" should also entail opportunities for wealth co-creation. "Equity" -- as in sharing opportunities for better compensation within new ventures or revenue streams is part of co-operative economics too. If you need more guidance for navigating unstable times, look to the 7 days of Kwanzaa and what they can mean.

And so while we may need to grow and adjust to the real discomfort where "by any means necessary" entails being present with long-silenced anger that's galvanized into righteous Black Rage, the right to exist by any means necessary also includes letting people take to the streets in dance as they and their communities work toward manifesting tangible solutions that honor our healing and fortify our capacity to keep us nourished as individuals and as a society. Just make sure there's enough people swinging and singing with the same cause in mind.


Detroit Protest as a Dance Party? https://photos.metrotimes.com/detroits-ninth-day-of-black-lives-matter-protests-turned-into-a-dance-party/?slide=1&george-floyd-protest-day-9-bw_3383

How South Koreans kept up in the streets:
https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/12/02/koreans-have-mastered-the-art-of-the-protest/

Detroit's demands:
https://www.wxyz.com/news/detroit-protesters-have-23-demands-meet-with-mayor-duggan-on-tuesday

Washington DC's demands:
https://dcist.com/story/20/06/08/dc-black-lives-matter-blm-demands-change-how/
For root source, see MLK's address to the APA:
https://timeline.com/by-the-end-of-his-life-martin-luther-king-realized-the-validity-of-violence-4de177a8c87b

Kwanzaa
http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org/ 

Singing/Swinging Malcolm X's Ballot or the Bullet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLHq4Fvnuc0

Text:
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/speeches-african-american-history/1964-malcolm-x-s-speech-founding-rally-organization-afro-american-unity/