It is fitting and somewhat ironic that this year’s theme for Black History Month is “African Americans and Labor.” The theme explores how, “work and working of all kinds – free and unfree, skilled, and unskilled, vocational and voluntary – intersect with the collective experiences of Black people.” From rising up to going underground, technical innovation to artful genius, desegregation to civil rights, moral clarity in organizing to unapologetic leadership, the work of Black people continues to advance this nation towards its stated ideals of freedom, equality, justice, and democracy.
Though these ideals were not created for us, we have held them close and continue working to defend them in truly extraordinary ways. Extraordinary because data shows that this labor has benefited those outside our communities more than those within it. The work of keeping us fairly employed, fed, and housed has been pushed forward primarily by Black and brown people which has laid the foundation of freedom for all. Our labor for freedom will continue because freedom is not an ultimate achievement, but the continuous pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness through intentionality, courage, and love. A love for humanity both in ourselves and in others. As bell hooks states:
The moment we choose to love we begin to move against domination, against oppression. The moment we choose to love we begin to move towards freedom, to act in ways that liberate ourselves and others. That action is the testimony of love as the practice of freedom.
I want to speak to all of us laboring for freedom. We are facing stormy seas. I know the chaos of our current times evokes uncertainty and fear at best. At worst, this chaos divides our attention from our focus and threatens our physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional well-being as individuals and communities. Last week, a community partner called me up wanting to know how I was doing—not just as the director of a center whose very work is under attack, but as a person. In her act of love, she shared with me a popular proverb that has filled me with comfort, courage, and inspiration—“when fisherman cannot go to sea, they mend their nets.”
May we take this time to mend our proverbial nets. To prioritize relationships with those who see your existence as essential to theirs. To cherish our connections, show up for one another, think and act creatively in collaboration, and love one another through adversity. To strengthen our capacities for organizing with principle—to foster multiracial solidarity through love, learning, and collective acts of justice. To build power and serve the power-building of communities dominated by current structures, practices, and norms. To strategize and plan how to best navigate the storm.
And let us do more than that. BE more than that. Alexis Pauline Gumbs, scholar, poet and activist, invites us to evolve who we are by learning from our marine mammalian kin how to be underwater—how to be ‘undrowned’. To enter a new realm of existence and abundance. To move and organize in ways that the storm cannot reach.
May we boldly face the storm with fortitude knowing we have the support and love of kin. May we recognize that each of our capacities is not the same and that our roles may look different and vary over time and space in our labor for freedom. May we courageously sail or swim into vanguard positions or provide aid when others can’t. May we wield new and improved tools as well as enhanced abilities to successfully fish and feed our communities. Collectively.
We are the ARCH Center and we are not going anywhere. Our labor for freedom will continue and we will be with you under the waves and on the shore.
In solidarity,
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