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| ISSUE NO. 654 |
| IN THIS STRETCH OF TIME . . . spring feels distant - its tender, early blooms concealed by abundant layers of lush green foliage. As summer is beginning to come into itself, it can feel like things are moving very quickly - like if you sit still long enough you can actually watch the plants grow - and also like time is stretching out into that endless feeling that heat and sunlight tend to impose. This same stretch of time bridges Juneteenth with July 4, a time for reflecting on history, recommitting to values, and putting energy into the freedom and liberation of all. On this Juneteenth, we found ourselves thinking about the tendency to idolize important figures in history. I'm sure one or two or three pop into your mind right away - those people who have been upheld as heroes, whose work has not only changed our lives but left an unforgettable legacy. It's not that we would argue against such memorializing. It's more that we are thinking about what Monique Melton calls 'the dehumanization of excessive praise': the tendency to slip into a place where we fail to recognize the fully humanity in others, and in doing so fail the recognize the full humanity in ourselves - our errors and mistakes, as well as our possibility. We spend a lot of time thinking about both - the errors and the possibility - and the more we do, the more we realize that trying to separate the two leads down a pathway of compounding harm. If we focus only on possibility, we lean toward the dangers of perfectionism. If we focus solely on errors, we hold ourselves back and down. As we grapple with ongoing questions of how to contribute to positive change in the workplace and the world, the balance of seeing our full humanity is reflected in this quote from renowned management consultant Peter Drucker, restated by Sapna Sopori in an article from Community-Centric fundraising: "culture eats policy for breakfast." This reminds us how necessary policy is - how it's always going to be a part of the work that we must do, individually and collectively - but you can't drop policy into a cultural system and expect it to work on its own. If our culture around liberation requires that we hold onto outdated history lessons that never told the full story, then we are neglecting policy. And if our culture around change-makers is that they never made any mistakes, never caused any harm, had endless amounts of energy and empathy for others, and even in their most private moments of solitude they were spinning out genius thoughts and ideas...then we are feeding our potential to create meaningful policy into the machine that has already asked us for too many helpings. However quickly or slowly you are moving through this time, we invite you to check in with your expectations of yourself and others. Consider what freedom means for you and for others, right now. Watch Monique Melton's 10 minute video on 4 Ways to Know if Your Anti-Racism is Performative. Download Nikki Blak's 35 Radical Ways to Affirm Black Life. Keep resting. Keep going. Yours in food justice, Tay + Dor photo by Christine Han |
tidbits...resources on anti-racism, environmentalism and food culture AKA stuff we're reading / listening to / watching / noticing / thinking about / captivated by this Tuesday . . . Bravo to businesses that make bold decisions to simplify. |
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