Reducing the struggle to a time-limited, painful means to an end
American ornithology, or, The natural history of the birds of the United States, 1808-1814.
There’s an attitude in the nonprofit world OK could be the white nonprofit world OK could just be white progressives in general of which I am one fyi, but I have come to think of it as a fetishization of hard work toward a goal as the path to social change. It makes a certain amount of sense in the nonprofit setting because, after all, it is a job in a workplace, where people work on things. And yeah, there is work to be done.
But I’ve been thinking about this fixation lately because, in this latest wave of popular demands for racial justice, I’ve noticed it echoed in the efforts of white people or people in general striving to be anti-racist. I write about this topic with a little trepidation because I don’t want to come off as pissy or self-righteous (not too self-righteous, at least winky emoji) about a historic reckoning with structural racism. We are all out here just doing our best I am not some arbiter of what is the right way to be an anti-racist.
But there is a kind of grim joylessness that shows up in a lot of white anti-racism discourse, and it’s a very similar framing that appears in climate activism, electoral politics, all kinds of arenas. It’s a view of social change as this relentless breaking of rocks, which I fear limits people’s ability to maintain a lasting commitment to it, and otherwise reduces it to a sort of time-limited, painful means to an end that I don’t think reflects how it usually plays out.
In a recent interview, Crisis Palace fave Jia Tolentino put it like this:
I’m also suspicious of the way that Not Being Racist is a project that people seem to be approaching like boot camp. To deepen your understanding of race, of this country, should make you feel like the world is opening up, like you’re dissolving into the immensity of history and the present rather than being more uncomfortably visible to yourself. Reading more Black writers isn’t like taking medicine. People ought to seek out the genuine pleasure of decentering themselves, and read fiction and history alongside these popular anti-racist manuals, and not feel like they need to calibrate their precise degree of guilt and goodness all the time.
(Editor’s note: I found this interview via Ann Friedman’s Instagram and just before sending this saw that she wrote about it in her newsletter this week too I promise I did not copy her even though she is the best.)
In small ways, you see it in the posting of an article with a comment like “we have so much work to do,” or “doing the work” or “know I have so much work to do on myself.” Or, depending on the personality type, some of us take it on like a self-improvement project, akin to joining crossfit or starting a yoga class. I fear that it boils down the participation in social change into a checking off of boxes, or to use nonprofit lingo, a list of metrics and deliverables.
In the literal nonprofit world, the consequences of this attitude are more material. I saw it a lot in my past work in the sector, wherein it is made clear that anything an individual accepts as personal comfort—be that time not spent working or money earned—is a necessary evil. There is endless work to be done toward a just world, and unless you are working toward it as hard as you possibly can, you are a drain on the cause. This is a broad generalization of the environment at a lot of, but not every nonprofit, and I do suspect it may be getting better in recent years. But there’s often this mix of self-flagellation and competition to out-sacrifice (which is at least partially due to the fact that most nonprofits pay low salaries so attract a lot of people from privileged backgrounds). It’s like there’s this big balance sheet in which you are constantly exchanging hard work for progress. And the sheet will never, ever be balanced.
I grew a distaste for this attitude as it exists in philanthropy, where it’s often called “strategic philanthropy,” a corporatized approach to funding social change that literally demands a positive, measurable return on investment from its practitioners. Strategy has its uses, but in funding especially, it can become a straitjacket, frequently imposed by people in positions of power.
So what do I recommend instead? What’s my bright idea? Well I don’t know! Because on one hand, I do think that we call it the struggle for a reason, and that freedom is a constant struggle. On climate change, for example, I’m deeply suspicious of narratives that climate catastrophe can be avoided in any just or equitable way without serious sacrifice. Meaningful change takes work and pain, and white people legitimately have a whole lot of sacrifice and decentering to do. I mean, honestly, when people say things like, so much work to do, they are often just talking about reading some books, some bare minimum stuff. So there is an evil twin to the case I am making that says, “oh let’s not make anti-racism or social change too hard, because if we do, people just won’t want to do it.” That is not the way, and it betrays the need to be in solidarity with those of us who don’t have the privilege of picking and choosing just how much to struggle.
On the other hand, I don’t think constant struggle means constant suffering, rather it’s that liberation is not something that ever ends in a neat conclusion or a job well done, as Angela Davis puts in the speech referenced above, “historical closures.” This very interminability of the struggle is likely why so many people never engage with it. It also means that our engagement with it needs to be made sustainable. You might think of this as another version of prefigurative politics I’ve been writing about lately, as it relates to lifestyle environmentalism or civil resistance, wherein we try to live the values of the world we are fighting for. Otherwise you run the risk of recreating different kinds of suffering and injustices, only for a good cause.
So yes, social change is and should be a struggle, but I’d like to think that pain and discomfort are just one part of it. It also involves the joy and discovery that Jia Tolentino describes, and camaraderie and connection to community, Solnit’s paradise of participating, where activism is the “vale where souls get made.” Whether it’s being anti-racist, transitioning to a carbon-free society, creating an economy where everyone has the same dignity and security and freedom to thrive, we’re talking about building a better world. Rather than merely breaking rocks, that could mean shifting to a profoundly different approach to life, one that changes every aspect of it, the painful and the joyful.
Links
- Public health experts are exhausted and devastated by the way the US (but let’s be real the White House and Republican governors) squandered our chance to get COVID-19 under control. “It didn’t have to be this way.”
- People opposed to government restrictions used to point to Sweden as an example of fighting coronavirus while not hindering the economy. Now the country’s deaths are much higher than its neighbors and its economy is just as bad. “They literally gained nothing.”
- “Phoenix is hot” articles by national outlets are hit or miss, but this one is good. Special attention paid to the difference in temps across neighborhoods by income levels. And the possibility of a “Hurricane Katrina-size heat disaster.”
- Millions more properties are vulnerable to flood damage than previously thought.
- “Capitalist individualism has turned into a death cult.” Jia Tolentino does not hold back in this interview.
- Nobody talks about race the way they do in Ziwe’s funny and unsettling interviews. You keep watching them and then you keep thinking about them.
- A heartwarming article from February about Mel Brooks and the late Carl Reiner’s 70-year friendship.
- We are living inside several Paul Verhoeven movies at once—especially his “bizarre masterwork” Starship Troopers.
- One sad part of the American tragedy is the way so many of us sincerely think that life is better here than in other places. Even now that we are the pariah state.
- Here’s a good aerial video of Boston’s completely bonkers illegal fireworks primal scream from last weekend.
Arizona’s coronavirus cases are literally off the charts.
Reading
I’m going to catch up with a few books I recently wrapped up the first one is The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George Higgins. I’ve always sort of known about this book as every crime writer’s favorite crime novel. I guess it’s nominally a caper book but it’s more like a slice of life book that is about professional criminals. I’ve never read anything quite like it, it’s like listening to people talk.
Next up is Circe by Madeleine Miller. I’m honestly not that interested in Greek mythology and had to read the Odyssey for like four classes in school and did not love it. But by now, it is no secret that Circe is such a great book. The big take home for me? Heroes are monsters.
One more – I finished No Longer Human by Junji Ito, an epic manga horror-style graphic novel interpretation of Osamu Dazai’s classic Japanese novel by the same name. Recommended by Jason at Floating World. This is an incredible piece of work, but I honestly have a hard time recommending it to anyone it as it is extremely disturbing, depths of the human experience stuff. It took me forever to read because it is long and I could only handle a scene or two at a time. I’m glad I did though, powerful, haunting work, and weirdly beautiful. If you want, you can email me and I’ll tell you if I think you should read it.
This is from the cover.
Watching
Two movie picks this week can you tell I’m feeling guilty about missing a week. First is Invisible Man, a very very loose adaptation of the classic horror movie. Also probably not for everyone be sure to read the synopsis first could be triggering. But a great movie Elizabeth Moss is an amazing actress she is also a scientologist. Second is Ingrid Goes West, a dark comedy from the halcyon days of 2017 starring Aubrey Plaza. Both of these are anti-tech in their own way so if that’s your thing.
Listening
Svalbard this metal band I like has a new song out that is good and has a cool video. An emerging theme this week is this is not for everyone.
We are deep into the summer now folks.
I am sorry I took a holiday last Friday and did not warn you in advance I hope you were able to find a bunch of bad news and swears without me.
One development since my last email is that one of our little dogs Mumu had what we thought was a torn ligament but turns out is just an injury to her Achilles tendon. So no surgery at this point, but she does have this tiny little splint she has to wear that is very sad but honestly kind of adorable too. It even has a little thigh-high boot that slips over it for when she goes outside.
Resting, healing, figuring out new ways to get by in difficult times, but still trying to have a little pop of fashion while doing so. In a sense, we are all Mumu.
Tate