The Need for coalition & Solidarity

As I grapple with the current state of our country built on and ravaged by the effects of White supremacy and bigotry, I sit with and reach toward the need for coalition and solidarity between people. Again and again and again, those in power use race to drive wedges between the masses, fully understanding the immense power of mass mobilization, interdependence, and coalition-building.

In The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander names many instances starting from the birth of what is now considered the United States. “Just as race had been used at the turn of the century by Southern elites to rupture class solidarity at the bottom of the income ladder ...race as a national issue had broken up the Democratic New Deal “bottom-up” coalition … dependent on substantial support from all voters, white and black, at or below the median income.” (Alexander, 2010, p. 46-47).

And their tactics of division upholding White supremacy work, especially due to the ideologies built into the fabric of U.S. identity. Jimenez (2014) explains that the U.S. ideologies of individualism, independence, and self-reliance celebrate and uphold the division of people despite the reality that the ideologies only hold true for White men.

The U.S.’s racist history, consistently on repeat, is built by design, and social workers have a responsibility to advocate for connection, community, and support systems past our clients’ individual selves.

We can’t survive alone, let alone thrive.

We need community.

We thrive in community.

We are so, so powerful in community.

Show up however you can, with your strengths, your skills, your time, your art, your money, etc.

*Starting a practice of highlighting the following organizations and their resources in each blog!

• Mutual Aid LA is “a connector and information hub for mutual aid efforts, people and resources across Los Angeles. We’re building toward abolition and believe in an abundant world that can be freed of oppression through community solidarity.” Here is their fire resource list for those affected by the recent Palisades and Eaton fires: tiny.cc/malan-fire

• Gender Justice LA is “a grassroots organization that is building the power of the transgender and gender non-conforming community here in LA.” With the recent executive orders attacking our trans community, please continue to support those working towards our rights! Here is a link to their resources & opportunities to support: linktr.ee/genderjusticela

Sources:

• The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

• Social Policy & Social Change Toward the Creation of Social & Economic Justice by Jillian Jimenez et al.