Organizing for justice in a wayword world
Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2
Before I came to Austin, I did not know very much about community organizing. I knew that activist organizations empower people to change legislation, advocate for their rights, and make massive mobilizations in the streets to shift cultural and political currents.
So what happens behind the scenes? And what movements create sustainable, world-shifting change?
In August, I started working with Grassroots Leadership, an Austin-based national organization working at the intersections of criminal justice and immigration rights. Our mission statement says we work for a “more just society where prison profiteering, mass incarceration, deportation and criminalization are things of the past.” It’s not an easy task, and its fruition may come in my lifetime.
Every day, I learn about a new horrific thing that our government and corporations are doing to destroy indigenous, Brown, and Black communities — like separating parents from their children in detention or police killing citizens at an alarming rate. I also laugh with my coworkers, eat good food (usually breakfast tacos), and feel inspired by the people who spend their lives doing this work even when it feels unrealistic, inefficient, and heartbreaking.
The prophets commanded: “Learn to do right; seek justice” (Isaiah 1:17). Jesus fulfilled this commandment by building a social movement — he built relationships with those on the margins (women, people who had leprosy, Gentiles, people with disabilities, poor people) and formed a movement with them. He gave them a vision of a new way of being human — “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34). He campaigned for a liberated community (see the Beatitudes) and challenged political powers. He loved people radically, defied oppressive social norms, awakened collective power, and for being a divine organizer, suffered execution by the powers that be. God raised Jesus from the dead to unleash the power of his radical love in all times and all places, to show his way of liberation cannot be uprooted.
The movement for liberation lives today in many spaces — secular and faith-based, service-oriented and community organizing. This work is impossible for any one of us to do alone, and that is exactly why God has commanded us to do it together. Jesus’ followers continued his way as a collective, and while they were imprisoned and persecuted for it, they shared all their resources, prayers, and struggles for liberation (Acts 4:32).
I do this work to better learn how we can carry one another’s burdens, however big or small, to fulfill the laws of Christ. I do this work to take responsibility for and counteract the ways that my ancestors and I have enslaved, exploited, and locked people away for our own benefit. I do this work to reclaim my humanity, vulnerability and resilience from the isolation that privilege affords. I do this work to uplift the ways that people are claiming their rights and dignity as human (beautiful) beings made in the image of God.
Many of my friends have asked, “So what do you actually do?” While each day is different, here’s what my responsibilities of any typical day could look like:
- Send volunteers the information to visit a woman in detention they have never previously met. My colleague Sofia and I coordinate a visitation program for the local detention center that jails 512 women, the vast majority of whom are seeking asylum. Our program seeks to monitor human rights inside the detention center while helping our amigas with their legal cases and providing human connection.
- Have lunch with Alirio, a man from El Savlador who is in his fourth month of living in Sanctuary at a church in Austin. I have been grateful to learn more about his life, and to work with the Austin Sanctuary Network as we fight to stop his deportation and keep him alive.
- Manage our social media accounts and lift up the latest stories of human beings impacted by criminal justice and immigration. The stream is constant, and sometimes I spend hours reading just to understand the complexity of issues. See our Twitter and Facebook to get a taste.
- Write a press release about the latest news on Laura Monterrosa, a courageous survivor of sexual abuse who has publicly spoken out about assault in detention.
- Take photos of our community events and write blogs about ICE raids of immigrants and the Fair Chance hiring campaign led by people formerly incarcerated.
This work is heavy, and requires vision to see where we can make change. Where is God asking us to make a way of sustenance in the wilderness when all we can see are the shadows of death? When are the small, quiet moments of love that can counteract the loud, public expressions of hate?
“Some of us are surviving, following, flocking — but some of us are trying to imagine where we are going as we fly. That is radical imagination.” (adrienne marie brown, Emergent Strategy, emphasis my own)
My work involves imagining a world where people of color feel safe and empowered to be themselves, to move across borders to live with their family members and experience freedom from violence, to go to work and school and church and have the same opportunities and resources as white people. We imagine a world where people can experience reconciliation instead of punishment for their mistakes, and where people can experience their beauty and humanity in every moment.
It is a future we build together. We become strong by carrying one another’s burdens. I thank God for giving us the imagination of Jesus, the invitation to God’s Kingdom, and showing us we have everything to gain.
