Movement for the Long Haul

By Dr. Rita Fierro and Dr. Eddie Moore Jr.

When Dr Moore and I (Dr Rita) came together to talk about our reflections on 20-30 years of justice work, we agreed on one fundamental point. At the start, we underestimated the cost of what justice work would do to our bodies, our families, our pockets, and our careers. 

“It was like, I’d fight one conference, and I'd be ready to fight the next conference,

and I'd be fighting morning, noon, and night. I was always ready for the fight.

But I don't know if I had a good self-care plan at night.

I didn't know really how to rest, refuel & recover from that.”  –– Dr Eddie Moore Jr. 

“I thought slamming myself against the wall of authority in organizations was activism, and I did it in many places until I burned out.” –– Dr Rita Fierro

The thing is this, if the fight takes a toll, so does bailing. Being sensitive to issues of social justice means that there is no neutral action. There is no closing one eye. There is no giving up the fight. Once you know what you know you cannot "unknow" it and that means you can’t walk away without it taking a toll on you, too. Even if one could cop out, we have to be willing to look ourselves in the mirror after that without the inner conflict. It’s a little bit of a damned if you do, damned if you don’t. 

Where we both landed is, we would’ve taken self-care more seriously from the start if we thought we would be in the work for 30 years. The approach to the work is different if you think about a few years time, or a lifetime.

So what if unconsciously, we’ve been thinking of burning ourselves out for

justice as the highest form of commitment?

If so, we have a desire, actually, a need, to reframe, reconsider and redesign, the initial launch, “the hustle” of building the idea, the program, the business, the campaign, the systems change. From the ground up, self-care has to be an important part of it.

Our wake-up call of the past year is this, the work isn’t going away, and it’s not getting easier, either. Actually, the years ahead may be just as tough as the ones we thought were long gone. If that’s the case how do we prepare in a way that equips us seriously for what’s next? 

It feels natural to talk about self-care in the summer. We are all trying to get some sun, some water, some rest. But self-care is so much bigger than taking a vacation, or more than one. 

In the context of experiencing the biggest backlash in 150 years, since Reconstruction in 1877, it’s inevitable to get serious about building the next wave of the movement for equality and justice. In the face of so many rights being peeled away, rights we fought and died for, we have to humbly acknowledge that the next 25 years could be harder than we expect. So how can we think of a better framework taking on the work?

There are a few things we see, but first of all is giving up soldier status. As one of our elders,  Quanita Roberson, says in her blog I Am a Warrior:

"Being a warrior is different than being a soldier.

Soldiers fight for whomever is paying them, but warriors fight for a cause.

Warriors have a sense of honor.

Warriors have a deep respect for the person on the other side because they understand that that person loves and cares about their cause just as much as they do. Warriors know that there is a cost in the battle.

Because of this warriors go into battle mournfully.

Warriors are also willing to go into the mud and dirt,

they are willing to be in the mess of things.

One of the hardest parts of being a warrior for me is knowing when not to fight."

Quanita has also been heard having said: “Warriors know how to come home, soldiers stay at war.”

The warrior chooses when to fight and when to come home. The warrior knows how to fight and how to let go of the fight, too. Warriors are very clear that when we go into battle, we must be ready to put everything on the line. Not all fights are worth losing everything over. Not all fights find us in a condition to win. 

Even as allies, we think mistakenly, that allyship means taking on every fight, all the time. We used to think that. Not anymore. And if we're always thinking about the fight, we don't always have the kindness to generate reflection, to hold space for each other, to restore, rejuvenate, and revive together.

What would a movement designed for human sustainability actually look like?

It’s extremely important to think about self-care far beyond the restraints of vacation and summer. As we launch the project and as we launch the program and as we go global with our organization we don’t set aside our humanity for the work, but we weave our humanity into it in a way that doesn’t only strengthen ourselves, but also strengthens the work. That was part of the choice of having WPC in Dominican Republic next year, can we actually rest together? Can we continue to learn, build relationships, and build family, while we rest?

The thing about always being on alert is that we get tired of it and then we don’t respond as quickly when the alert is actually real. Being on constant alert does not serve our bodies, and it does not serve the movements we build. 

Warrior Pose

Exhausted people are easier to control. Exhausted movements are easier to control.

Here are some steps for a movement for the long-haul:

Recognizing joy

It’s tough to expand our capacity for joy when we live in a hostile environment. That's not easy to do. But, it’s possible. How can we stretch our joy capacity? I’m so grateful for adrienne marie brown’s book, Pleasure Activism, because we need to spot and live our joy and our pleasure with the same intensity we spot injustice. Our nervous systems can recover from the pain, and release the high alert.

Shifting from individualism to stewardship

There’s been a lot of talk of this in activist circles, especially in the shift from activism to movement-building. We’d love to see this shift in how we teach history as well, we focus too much on heroes and not enough on movements. Heroes die, movements cross-pollinate.

Handing over the work

How do we hand over the work? How do we build it in a way that makes it so the next generations can learn from our knowledge and develop their own? How do we teach strategies, listening, caring, stewarding?

Redefining courage

We must redefine courage from spotting the fight and taking it on, to discerning when to take it on, and how much to invest. 

Honoring the long haul

Honoring the long haul means honoring what it takes to stay in the work. It means letting go of accusing people, groups, or organizations for taking restorative, regenerative measures. To prioritize reversing the harm, even if we may not be able to reverse all of it our lifetime. It is thinking about self-care beyond the restraints of vacation and summer.

It’s the humility of accepting the limitations of our bodies and acknowledging that this work does take a toll because it takes a toll as does walking away. It’s finding peace with the choices we make, both in the times we choose the step up, and the times we choose to step back.