AN OPENING THOUGHT PIECE BY SEFT HUNTER
Last Friday, the nation paused to mark Juneteenth. We celebrated freedom for those who remained enslaved two and a half long years after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. More than 150 years later we are still fighting to make real the promise of freedom and liberation.
Our country was built on bold proclamations, followed by broken promises. Since the Founding Fathers boldly proclaimed, ‘All men are created equal,’ the violence of the state has been a tool to enforce the contradiction that some are more equal than others.
The brutal murder of George Floyd brought about a moment of reckoning. Led by the Movement for Black Lives, protesters are demanding an answer: is this country prepared to see Black people as fully human? Will the American value of freedom finally be expansive enough to include Black people?
We must make this moment an inflection point in the fight for racial justice in our country. That requires organizing. Mobilization effectively captures public attention and points to the systemic issues that need to be addressed. It prompts bold statements, like DC Mayor Muriel Bowser’s declaration that Black Lives Matter, now painted on 16th Street in front of the White House. But mobilization alone cannot create the conditions to make our demands real. Mayor Bowser’s proposed budget increases funding for police.
We need action that brings a new reality into existence, led by Black people and our organizations. To do that, this moment requires deep organizing and power building.
When I joined Community Change almost a year ago, we had already begun to build the capacity of Black-led organizations across the country with the Black Freedom Collective (BFC). Through this network, we are laying the groundwork to create a world where Black people and families can thrive, where it isn’t a question of if our lives matter but an obvious, incontrovertible fact.
Our BFC partners are building the power of organizing, ideas, and politics. They’re offering solutions to the problem. Zach Norris, Executive Director at the Ella Baker Center and BFC partner, authored “We Keep Us Safe: Building Secure, Just, and Inclusive Communities,” which explores a reimagining of public safety for our communities. In DC, BFC partner SPACES in Action organized a march to demand the mayor’s budget line up with the city’s values. There’s so much that each one of us could do.
I draw courage and inspiration from the generation of new leaders who have emerged. The kind of patience that resulted in a tenuous peace at previous moments in the struggle has run out. We will no longer wait for the freedom and dignity we’ve been promised. We must build the power to create communities that care for Black, brown, and immigrant lives. This is the freedom that must be won. We celebrated, we mourned, and now we fight. Are you behind us?
In Deep Solidarity,
Seft Hunter, Ph.D.
Director of Black-Led Organizing and Power Building
IN HIS ROLE AT COMMUNITY CHANGE, SEFT LEADS THE BLACK FREEDOM COLLECTIVE, A COALITION OF 13 BLACK-LED ORGANIZATIONS IN EIGHT STATES AND ACROSS THE FIELD OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING, COMMITTED TO BLACK LIBERATION, THE INVESTMENT OF THE ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND POLITICAL POWER OF BLACK COMMUNITIES.
