Why I Didn’t Go Quietly
Since posting “Why I’m Leaving Lights For Liberty,” a tale of white feminism, many people have stated on social media that I should have kept quiet. They assert that my public airing is petty, and harmful to the real issue at hand: fighting the U.S.’s inhumane and unacceptable immigration policy and practice. By exposing what happened behind the scenes and pushing my four Lights For Liberty (L4L) co-founders to divest their power, I am, some say, “eating our own.”
I would first ask who is meant by “our own.” When I was condescended to, ignored, and shut out, no one said anything about the other co-founders eating their own. When other people of color and impacted people were kept out of decision-making spaces, no one spoke of eating our own.
If you do not consider pushing out people of color to be “eating our own,” but you do consider speaking up about those who do so to be, that is worth some self-reflection.
“Behind the belief that I should ‘keep quiet for the greater good’ is the implicit suggestion…that immigrants would be better off being saved by white people.”
Secondly, behind the belief that I should keep quiet for the greater good is the implicit suggestion — however unconscious it may be — that immigrants would be better off being saved by white people. That immigrants would be better off if I hid the fact that L4L is being led by white women who suppressed the voices and leadership of people of color, because then those white women can be free to do the work of…saving people of color.
I hope the hypocrisy and white saviorism at work there is apparent.
Unfortunately, what happened at L4L and the disappointing response to it is not unusual. Women of color are pushed out of majority white organizations all the time. If I remain silent, I am complicit in the continuance of this pattern. And if you fail to call it out, — or worse, if you say it should be swept under the rug — you’re complicit too.
The occurrence is so common, there’s a diagram for it:
For another recent example, please read this incredibly painful account of what happened to Pam Campos-Palma at Common Defense, a veterans political organization.
It’s so common in the social justice world, DiDi Delgado wrote this brilliant (and unexpectedly hilarious) critique of the phenomenon: “Whites Only: The Caucasian Invasion of Racial Justice Spaces.”
It’s ironic, of course, that in an arena focused on dismantling systemic racism and confronting white supremacy, both can be found in some of the organizations ostensibly doing the work. Folx in those spaces should know better, right?
They should know things like this, which was tweeted by Lights For Liberty co-founder Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin (referred to in my original piece as “LC”) about two months before Lights For Liberty announced they were becoming a nonprofit:
Talking about allyship and racism can feel very different than recognizing your own missteps — or authentically addressing them when they’re pointed out to you. (Update: On Aug. 8, one of my co-founders, Meryl Ranzer, also left Lights For Liberty. Read her statement, “Owning Up To White Privilege.”)
However, it’s important to point those missteps out anyway. Ideally white people would take charge of that. As Elizabeth tweeted on Aug. 6:
But when they fail to do so, it falls on the shoulders of the rest of us.
Before the July 12th Lights For Liberty event, I emailed the four other co-founders with my concerns about representation at our five main vigils as well as in our leadership. You can see that email and the results here. Clearly, having those concerns brought to their attention did not ultimately fix all the problems.
Even Elizabeth, who routinely espouses good ideas like “follow the lead of women of color” on her livestream (“Resistance Live,” which just switched to a paid subscription model), and who does corporate coaching on topics including “overcoming unconscious bias,” has, as it turns out, had concerning run-ins with women of color before, emerged with promises to learn and grow, and then made the choices described in my previous piece. (I would not have worked with her on creating an event had I been aware of this. Note to self: do your research.)
Three days after the L4L event, I asked in our group chat if we could help amplify a July 20th #CloseTheCamps protest at Fort Sill. I expected push-back, as that’s the response I’d become accustomed to getting to many of my suggestions. However, I said I’d be happy to do the outreach myself, if that was made possible via the restoration of my admin access on Facebook, which I was told had been revoked due to a “hack.” All four of my co-founders said no, for reasons including:
- it’s Megan’s (Elizabeth’s assistant) birthday, so she can’t click the button that would make you an admin again
- too busy snorkeling
- too busy retroactively posting L4L events that would up our numbers even though the event was already over
- too busy prepping to teach “diversity and inclusion” and other seminars to corporate clients worth “$40k,” and
- “Kristen [it’s actually ‘Kristin’], if you want to be in action right now, do rapid response.” (I had a 2-month-old baby.)
On the day of the Fort Sill protest (and days after I had formally parted ways with L4L), my co-founders took credit on social media for being a “partner” on and “working hard to prepare for” the action.
Successful events rightfully earn organizations follows, donations, volunteers, credibility. Even when we fight for the same causes, those gains should go to the people who actually did the organizing. Additionally, co-opting actions reinforces the narrative that people of color need white saviors and contributes to the othering and marginalization already faced by people of color.
L4L has responded to criticism about being white-led by citing an advisory board comprised of reputable people of color from reputable organizations. However, L4L has not mentioned any people of color or impacted people being sought for or put into the nonprofit’s actual decision-making positions. (It’s not too late, guys!) Touting the advisory board without actually divesting power amounts to using the reputation of people of color to prop up L4L’s reputation.
It is exploitation of people from the very community L4L purports to be helping.
These are women who ostensibly mean well, and some who certainly should know better, and yet they embody a common trend. So how does this keep happening?
“The idea that activists who focus on [race and gender] are ‘undermining the struggle’ has a long history within progressive organizing.”
As Jordan Flaherty and Sweta Vohra write in this analysis of the Occupy movement, “the idea that activists who focus on [race and gender] are ‘undermining the struggle’ has a long history within progressive organizing.”
And in this piece, Shannon Weber explains four ways in which those who speak out are bullied back into silence: crying (a.k.a. white fragility), focusing on intent versus impact, upholding colorblindness, and tone policing.
This pattern will not stop unless we talk about it. It will not stop unless we are able to recognize it and call it out, and support others who do so. We need to hold ourselves and each other accountable, and we need to stop making and allowing excuses. It is the only ethical thing to do, and just as important, we will not find success as a movement if we do not let those most impacted lead the way.
In this specific case, it’s not too late for the remaining leaders of Lights for Liberty to do the right thing.
What needs to happen to #CloseTheCamps right now is a whole lot of direct action. If we want the government to stop putting people in concentration camps, we’re going to have to stop them from putting people in concentration camps. With camps in every state in the U.S., the only way that’s going to work is if lots and lots of people sign up to follow the leadership of local organizations and groups running effective civil disobedience. (It may only take 3.5% of a population participating in nonviolent, civil resistance to topple a dictator.)
I had hoped that with Lights For Liberty, which ended up having over 800 registered vigils, we would use our email list and social media to direct thousands of people to immigrant rights organizations near them. The vigils themselves would leave people motivated and inspired, and then we could quickly link them up with groups that know how to harness that energy to make an impact. Lights For Liberty does not need to be a nonprofit. It needs to connect people to existing nonprofits and effective organizing groups, and strategize about the best ways to support and amplify their actions — under the leadership of impacted people.
“It’s not too late for the co-founders to turn their attention away from solidifying a lasting platform for themselves and toward getting our thousands of participants mobilized with local organizations.”
It’s not too late for the co-founders to turn their attention away from solidifying a lasting platform for themselves and toward getting our thousands of participants mobilized with local organizations. At the very least, I hope they recognize that it is neither ethically sound nor in the best interests of the cause to have four white women leading a nonprofit that ostensibly fights for the rights of migrants of color.
What You Can Do Right Now:
- Follow, donate to, and otherwise support these immigrant rights and social justice organizations and/or any others in your local area.
- Get involved with Movimiento Cosecha and Never Again Action.
- Find an immigrant rights organization near you. Ask them how you can help protect your undocumented community members, and how you can help close the camps. Use your privilege. Take some risks.
- Read these books:
- So you want to talk about race by Ijeoma Oluo
- Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
- How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
- Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love, and Liberation by angel Kyodo williams, Lama Rod Owens, Jasmine Syedullah, PhD
- Sister Outsider: Essays & Speeches By Audre Lorde
- White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo (Here’s a link to a free original version you can read in a day.)
