Tools for Creating Change
by Kyla Massey, Digital Justice Fellow
The screen on my phone has been lighting up consistently since last Thursday. It seems our environment, our communities, and our country as a whole are reeling from impacts against our bodies—our world—that have historically been discarded and ignored.
There are flash flood warnings in New York as I write this. Some of the most influential, powerful and beautifully courageous people in my life are sharing their experiences of abuse and assault to the world in waves that are crashing against social structures that have dismissed and silenced them. The U.S. government continues to deny and overlook the systemic atrocities it perpetrates against Black, brown, queer, trans, disabled, femme bodies. And it is in full recoil against the truth of itself.
We are living in a moment of deep trauma right now, rooted in historical violence, and I—like many others I know—am reaching for the possibility that there can be other ways that we exist, live, and thrive in this world. The gift of creativity and innovation, our courage to imagine a world outside of this reality, and our ability to use technology to aid us, will be what creates that change we seek.
What is the world you want to live in? What are the technologies both existing and emergent that will help us create that world? I’m a Black queer sci-fi nerd who is constantly striving to build something else. I daydream about it.
I imagine a world where safe affordable housing isn’t scarce. I imagine a world where Black Lives Matter. I imagine a world where our privacy and information isn’t bought and sold to the highest bidder. And I truly believe we can get there by breaking down and understanding the technology that is around us.
Resources like Defend Our Movements are not only about keeping us safe today, but giving us the freedom to create better tomorrows. We are the technologists we have been waiting for. Even in the face of storms, I believe we can build digital sanctuary for our people.
Some of the tools that I use to frame this conversation for myself come from Adrienne Maree Brown’s Emergent Strategies, where the author describes how “we intentionally change in ways that grow our capacity to embody the just and liberated worlds we long for.” Brown lists tools focusing on three main areas: collaboration, acceptance and innovation in the face of change, and letting go of what is not serving us.
My question and my hope for all of us during this time is that we are able to identify and explore technologies that not only make our lives more convenient, but that fundamentally change the quality of the lives we lead.
Share what tools, technologies, and ideas give you strength in this moment with @mediajustice on Twitter, using #DefendOurMovements.
And help us continue to improve our work by completing the Movement Surveillance Survey, to share your experiences with online surveillance and harassment.
