Three brief notes

and a little solidarity for the weary and sad among us

I’ve been having a hard time the past few weeks; I’ve been making it to class and not a ton more than that. I’ve been embarrassed to admit that, but when I finally let some folks know, I found out a number of longtime organizers and activists and empaths are navigating the same thing. So I wanted to let you know that if you’re in that space, you’re not alone. And if you’re not, I am so grateful. I have a lot I want to share but since I’m not batting a thousand, I’m going to keep it timely and short this time. Thanks for bearing with me!

Three quick things:

1. Buying Blackout THIS FRIDAY

2. Our fingerprints are on what they can’t get away with

3. Triage and then Engage

4. BONUS: a couple of slides on DEI and legal questions

BUYING BLACKOUT

I received an email from some friends and have also seen folks I respect on social media mention this upcoming Buying Blackout this Friday. It’s an ask that we buy nothing on Friday, or if necessary, we at least avoid Target, WalMart, and Amazon, as a way of signaling our frustration with their active dismantling of Diversity/Equity/Inclusion initiatives in the current administration. There are future Buy Nothing days and weeks planned for later in the year that focus on specific corporations to remind them what their customers actually value. This definitely falls into that much maligned “symbolic act,” but symbols are also the signposts of our existence, so I will at the very least only support local businesses that day, because it’s nice to be a part of something collective at a time people are feeling so isolated.

This is a chance also, as my friends noted in their email about this event, to reflect on what are some ways our purchasing choices can reflect our values a little better—are there worker-owned businesses, union businesses, Black- and immigrant- and women- and queer-owned businesses we can shift some of our money to, even if it’s a little less convenient? And it’s ok to do things by degrees, and factoring in your capacity — we all live in a world that extracts a lot of our energy along with our labor, and that factors into our decisions for sure. But little shifts—buying Bob’s Red Mill flour which is worker-owned rather than a large corporate brand, going to the union-owned grocery store—contribute to something bigger and reinforce who we want to be in the world.

You can tell we have made a difference even as they dismantle so much of our work.

I was incredibly sad to learn that the Stonewall National Monument had to eliminate references to trans people from their online content, which now talks about the contributions of the “LGB” community in that action. It took decades to acknowledge the role of trans people at Stonewall and it’s only in the past ten years or so most of us learned about its precursor at the Compton Cafeteria riot in San Francisco, which is the first site of trans resistance to get national historic landmark status. The first formal trans activist organizations emerged from Stonewall, and it’s a remarkable example of the whole alphabet of the LGBTQ+ community being affected and also fighting back side-by-side.

I think it was a day after learning about this erasure that I heard Fort Liberty, formerly Fort Bragg, was going back to the old name of Fort Bragg. The reason for the original name change was because Fort Bragg was named for a confederate general. In going back to the old name, Pete Hegseth’s memorandum said it was now named for a private from World War II who fought with distinction at the Battle of the Bulge.

These are both petty and malicious changes. However, I find myself struck by what the people making the changes thought they couldn’t get away with. Much of the last month has been seeing how far they can go, and these were both good reminders. They decided in advance that they couldn’t erase gay people, lesbians, or bisexual people. They decided in advance they couldn’t get away with reverting explicitly to embracing the confederacy. At least not yet.

And that’s a reminder of the impact of our work, our values, our commitments. Some of the campaigns we’ve supported are strong enough that they had to tweak instead of steam roll. And that’s good information for where we need to continue to bolster and also where we need to work harder. They wouldn’t be doing this if we weren’t so powerful. Keep it up.

Make sure to triage

I was on a podcast a month or so ago about taking on the right. I shared that I had heard some excellent advice from an attorney on LGBTQ+ rights: before panicking, do some honest assessment about the real risk you’re facing. Use that knowledge to help assess who might be at greater risk and need your support, and also use it to help assess the types of actions you can or can’t engage in.

Some activists are saying to stay away from public protests, and others are saying it is critical to make sure the country knows the current administration does not get to govern by fiat. I think triaging helps us assess where we should be, based on our values and also our actual situations.

There are also new forms of protest emerging, and the old school but traditionally conservative 5 Calls strategy is apparently pushing the Congressional phone system to its limits (which impresses me since I was on the phones in a Congressional office during the Clinton impeachment trials and I can’t fathom MORE calls than that moment).

So after triaging, find your place. I promise there is one, whether it be supporting at risk people in red states escape or whether it be marching or calling or showing up to school board meetings or making sure your workplace continues to engage in providing equal access to all viable candidates.

Photo by Brittani Burns on Unsplash

BONUS: DEI and the Law

I am NOT a lawyer. And I know folks who care about DEI are paying attention to the malicious and immoral legal attacks on efforts for full inclusion in the workplace.

I recently gave a talk to a team that exists to address DEI-related conflicts at their workplace, and I emphasized that while I am (again) NOT a lawyer, sometimes it is helpful to hear from lawyers who are less driven by “let’s be as cautious as humanly possible” culture than the ones who work for our institutions. I shared an article from the Harvard Business Review written by my favorite DEI legal scholar right now, Kenji Yoshino. (He was also an incredible guest on Stacey Abrams’s podcast a few weeks ago, if you want to listen to his wisdom there.)

In short, the article points to these issues to be aware of:

1. Two challenges: Talking too much, AND talking too little.

   1. Leaves marginalized students and staff feeling at risk

   2. Allows opponents of inclusion to define DEI

   3. Gives the impression the work is over (or accomplished)

2. Know the law: avoid PREFERENCE on a PROTECTED GROUP, with a PALPABLE BENEFIT

3. You can talk about removing barriers, ensuring opportunities for all people with gifts and talent, making sure all people feel welcome and able to contribute.

4. Anti-bias work can continue if no one is singled out or could claim a hostile work environment.

5. Involve your communications team in using the right language but continuing to provide the message.

6. Make sure leadership knows the costs of ending the work of DEI.

Also, lots of people are figuring out how to re-frame their work. I’m not convinced in the long run this provides much of a cushion, but there are absolutely business cases to be made for building out work related to addressing multicultural conflict in diverse workplaces, and this article from the Ottowa Business Journal offers a few clever ways to engage that strategy.

And with that, be well, stay safe, and stay committed to your part of healing this hurting world—or better yet, your particular corner of it. Thank you for what you are up to, even if, like me, it involves a lot of not much right now.

peace,
Sandhya