After The Protests...Organize.
A Radical Guide For Creating Sustainable Change
I believe that it is time for more people to embrace radical change. The type of radical change that breaks the patterns of oppression that occur predictably like winter, spring, summer & fall to rip off the scab of progress and re-expose the psychological wounds and trauma that mark the American experience for far too many.
Pick your oppression:
Police killings, sexual abuse, divisiveness, prejudice, classism, misogyny, sexism, homophobia, homelessness, violence, adultism, poverty, moral-judgment, systemic racism, trans-gender bias, pollution, climate change, bigotry, intolerance, LGBTQIA + erasure, gentrification, fatphobia, income inequality, Indigenous people erasure, child abuse, mass incarceration, war, etc.
Why do these oppressions keep happening?
Because just like patterns in nature (ecosystems) our social systems are circular, not linear. They produce the same results over and over and over...by design.
Introduction
Hello, I’m Sundiata, and thank you for being here. I want to be transparent upfront and share that, yes, I have an agenda.
My Agenda: Liberation, Social & Environmental Sustainability, & Unconditional Love…for All.
I’ve intentionally spent the last decade unlearning oppressive beliefs and ideals that I internalized growing up in America. This is not easy work and it often causes cognitive dissonance within me. However, I persist due to a sense of purpose that I’ve felt for a very long time.
Every concept and idea that you are about to read is rooted in and inspired by my understanding of biomimicry and systems thinking. Both of these disciplines underscore the fact that our most pressing societal issues are due to the design of our social systems and that the solutions we desire can be found by realigning them with natural systems (nature).
In this guide, you will find my radical proposal for solutions based on my personal liberation journey and my work and research as an anti-oppression activist. Throughout my life, I’ve been both a serial entrepreneur and an academic so what you are about to read is based on theory and practice. I submit my best thinking as my contribution to an authentic dialogue about solutions with no desire to coerce or prove that I’m right. I trust that you will only consent to what feels good for you.
This guide is not an attempt to displace all of the social justice work being done presently or what has been done in the past. I’ve drawn inspiration from many of those efforts and they continue to inform my work. Conventional activism is important work because it provides hospice care within dying social systems.
I created this guide for people who are ready to “walk-out” of oppressive social systems to help pioneer sustainable ones and set an example for liberated living that others can follow.
I am open to any critiques that are offered in the spirit of liberation, social & environmental sustainability, and unconditional love…for all.
How To Use This Guide
This guide contains several hyperlinks that offer context and deeper learning. In an effort to keep this guide relatively brief I often rely on the content found at the hyperlinks to expand on my points.
Bookmark this page and take your time working through it. This is a living breathing guide that I will update periodically as I continue to learn and evolve based on my lived experiences, research, and contributions from readers like you.
Tools of Oppression
“You can’t keep using tools of oppression and expect to raise free people” - Akilah S. Richards
Before I outline a plan for organizing I will begin with a discussion about some of the popular solutions that I hear proposed during times of mainstream civil unrest. Solutions that implore more people to vote, start businesses, invest, and get more schooling.
I’m going to highlight some of the subtle ways that these popular solutions are tools of oppression that don’t address root causes and lead right back to the problem. My hope is that you will be inspired to help create sustainable solutions…because we can’t keep using tools of oppression and expect to liberate people.
Start A Business or Invest…
- 50% of small businesses fail within 5 years and 75 % fail within 10 years of opening.
- 90% of tech startups fail.
- Mass Incarceration and prison labor (modern-day slavery) is a billion-dollar industry that you may unknowingly be investing in.
- Wealth-building activities increase inequality.
- Wealth-building activities hurt the environment.
- Capitalism is the antithesis to “Community”.
- Rallying cries to “buy black” won’t end poverty and oppression for people of African descent in America. 15.7 million impoverished “white people” and their outcomes prove that.
Vote…
Democracy and voting perpetuate:
- An Us vs. Them social climate.
- Coercion, not consent.
- Resentment, not consensus.
- Debate, not authentic dialogue.
This article offers some powerful talking points that support my reasoning for personally divesting from voting. Instead, I’ve chosen to channel the time and energy needed to be an informed voter into learning about and modeling more sustainable and less divisive ways to make decisions in collaborative community with others.
Show Force…
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
I understand and respect everyone’s right to bear arms as a means of self-defense.
Taking up arms as an outward show of force is not a solution to systemic oppression. Meeting force with force creates a deadly feedback loop. Systems of power-over and control have been using violence and force to oppress people for centuries. The people interested in upholding oppressive systems have an abundance of tools and resources to respond to a show of force as a form of protest. I believe that there are safer and more efficient uses of our time and energy towards creating the liberated communities we desire… because we can’t drive out violence with violence, only peace can do that.
Invest in Schooling…
Schooling, Education, and Learning are not the same.
Schooling is oppressive.
Schooling promotes Eurocentric “cognitive imperialism”.
Is College Still Worth It?
Schools are designed in a way that maintains inequality.
Blame Others…
“Hunger, poverty, environmental degradation, economic instability, unemployment, chronic disease, drug addiction, and war, for example, persist in spite of the analytical ability and technical brilliance that have been directed toward eradicating them. No one deliberately creates those problems, no one wants them to persist, but they persist nonetheless. That is because they are intrinsically systems problems — undesirable behaviors characteristic of the system structures that produce them. They will yield only as we reclaim our intuition, stop casting blame, see the system as the source of its own problems, and find the courage and wisdom to restructure it.”
- Donella H. Meadows “Thinking in Systems”
My radical self-liberation journey began when I committed to learning Systems Thinking. The toughest lesson for me to internalize was the fact that there was no one to blame or point a finger at for the various forms of oppression that plague our society.
I learned that if I wanted to address the root causes of oppression I had to stop focusing on the behaviors of individuals and instead focus on the design of our social systems. I learned to ask the question “what systems influence that behavior” and/or “what systems support that behavior”. Once I had the answers to those questions I began to clearly see how we as individuals and collectively can create and/or embrace social systems that design out oppression.
Opress…
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Systems Thinking helped me to reconnect to what indigenous people globally past and present understand and honor innately…the fact that everything and everyone is interconnected and interdependent.
This knowing caused me to begin an ongoing process of auditing my own beliefs in an effort to unlearn all of the oppressive thoughts and beliefs that I internalized growing up in America. I continually ask myself…in what ways do *my* words, actions, and beliefs perpetuate divisiveness, prejudice, classism, misogyny, sexism, homophobia, homelessness, violence, adultism, poverty, moral-judgment, systemic racism, trans-gender bias, pollution, climate change, bigotry, intolerance, LGBTQIA + erasure, gentrification, fatphobia, income inequality, Indigenous people erasure, child abuse, mass incarceration, war, etc.
Because oppression anywhere, including within my beliefs, is a threat to liberation everywhere.
Fight The Power…
“You never change things by fighting against the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” -Buckminster Fuller.
Social Systems rooted in systems of power-over and control are at the heart of most modern-day societies like America. Systems like patriarchy, religion, ownership, capitalism, democracy, schooling, and systemic racism to name a few are all rooted in power-over and control.
I’ve learned that fighting against systems rooted in power-over and control only serves to reinforce them because that’s the way feedback loops in systems work. Instead, I believe that it is more effective to divest from those systems and transition to sustainable systems rooted in power-with and collaboration.
Here is an evolving list of social systems rooted in power-over and control that I’ve personally divested from and what power-with systems I’ve transitioned to or that I’m working towards transitioning to.
Conventional Parenting → Conscious Parenting
Religion → Spirituality & Unconditional Love
Democracy → Sociocracy
Voting → Agency & Community Self-Governance
Business Ownership → Gifts Economy Cooperatives (I’m working towards this)
Schooling → Unschooling
Arguments & Debates → Authentic Dialogue
Compulsory Monogamy → Ethical Non-Monogamy
Mass Media → Personal Experiences & Independent Learning
Race, Gender, etc. → Respect for Individual Agency & Self-Definition
Given Name: Scott (European & “safe”) Speed (slave owner’s name)→ Chosen Name: Sundiata Soon-Jahta
Each of these transitions required me to walk away from the power-over and privilege that I inherited as a cis-gender heterosexual academically credentialed entrepreneurial adult male in American society.
…Organize
“How we are at the small scale is how we are at the large scale. The patterns of the universe repeat at scale. There is a structural echo that suggests two things: one, that there are shapes and patterns fundamental to our universe, and two, that what we practice at a small scale can reverberate to the largest scale.”
-adrienne maree brown “Emergent Strategy”
Sustainable Change Is Emergent
Emergence emphasizes critical connections over critical mass. It is the depths of relationships that determine the strength of a system.
Emergence is the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions. It is these “simple interactions” — from how we relate to the thoughts in our own heads, to how we show up in our relationships, to how we exist as local communities — that create the patterns that give rise to our ecosystems and societies.
From this perspective, deep systems change starts with shaping the smallest patterns of our daily lives. We can, “…intentionally change how we live in ways that grow our capacity to embody the just and liberated worlds we long for.”
Adopted from a summary of the book Emergent Strategy written by adrienne maree brown
How To Create A Self-Sustainable Micro-Community
Step 1 — Cultivate Authentic Connections
Organize a small group of 5–10 like-minded like-hearted individuals and begin to gather regularly with the intention of cultivating authentic connections and trust.
Establishing radically authentic and transparent connections will take time. Be patient with this step and move at the speed of trust.
Aligning
Use these gatherings to determine a shared vision, threats, and concerns using authentic dialogue.
First Gathering
Ask each person the following question…
What does your ideal self-sustaining cooperative micro-community look and feel like?
Then tease out one word or a short phrase to capture the spirit of each person's answer and write them on chart paper or a whiteboard for all to see.
Second Gathering
After you’ve taken time to share and learn one another’s ideal visions it’s time to discuss threats and concerns. Ask each person the following questions…
What threats to your ideals do you foresee? What fears or concerns do you have?
Then tease out one word or a short phrase to capture the spirit of each person’s answer and write them on chart paper or a whiteboard for all to see.
Third Gathering and Beyond
Use the list of threats, concerns, and fears to facilitate an authentic dialogue about each item, one at a time, each time you meet. This should take several months and serve to deepen emotional intimacy within your group.
Mix in meals, social outings, play dates with children, yoga, meditation, fitness, etc. during and in addition to these gatherings to enhance connections.
Alignment
After several months of gathering and aligning there should be a strong sense of trust and emotional intimacy amongst members within your micro-community. By now you should have an idea of one another’s innate gifts and passions, how you complement one another, and what outside resources you’ll need to execute your vision.
This is a great time to create your cooperative’s Operating Agreement.
Step 2 — Walk Away…Together
This step is all about taking the necessary steps to liberate members of your micro-community so that everyone can prioritize mental and physical wellness.
The goal is to free each person from the rat race to only do outside work they truly love or reject outside work completely in order to contribute their innate skills and gifts towards helping sustain the micro-community. True liberation will require making sacrifices, changing habits, and examining beliefs.
Combine Resources
During this phase, it is important to figure out how to consolidate resources (money, housing, food, etc.) in an effort to live liberated.
Walk Away from Capitalism
As a micro-community, begin to learn how to homestead and live off the grid. This can be accomplished by transitioning your current homes off the grid and operating as a cooperative network or you can find and purchase property or land to live on together.
Here are a few steps you can take to begin walking away from capitalism:
- Adopt a minimalist mindset & lifestyle.
- Become debt-free, and never borrow money or use credit again.
- Grow your own food.
- Join local sharing/bartering networks or start one.
- Repair & reuse.
- Connect with other intentional communities to learn from and share resources.
- Discover which Indigenous Nation’s land you inhabit and choose a meaningful way to acknowledge them.
- Apply key stewardship principles to land and resource use decisions.
- Utilize community land trusts to remove your land/home from market speculation.
Walk Away From Conventional Schooling
Conventional schooling is a training ground for indoctrination into many of the oppressive social systems that cause division in our society. Social stratification, the school to prison pipeline, competition, bullying, debate, standardization, hierarchy (power-over), Eurocentrism, sexism, educationalism, elitism, language bias, and classism are a few examples.
Resources for organic life-long learning:
Self-Directed Education works for all and doesn’t socially stratify.
Raising Free People is liberation and healing work.
Unschool your children as a cooperative community with other parents.
Tools and resources for your journey.
Decision Making/Governance
“It was and is devastatingly clear to me that until we have some sense of how to live our solutions locally, we won’t be successful at implementing a just governance system regionally, nationally, or globally.”
-adrienne maree brown “Emergent Strategy”
Sustainable governance is collaborative, shares leadership, honors agency, honors consent, and does not oppress.
- Intro to Sociocracy aka Dynamic Governance
- How to facilitate periodic “Check-In Meetings” to make decisions and manage change collaboratively.
Conflict Resolution
Conflicts, disagreements, and signals getting crossed are all unavoidable. However, allowing these things to breed resentment, jealousy, power-struggles, blame, shame, etc. is, indeed, avoidable.
By learning a few new skills your micro-community can learn to leverage conflict to deepen trust and strengthen relationships.
Grow Interconnected
The long-term vision is for this guide to be a catalyst for thousands of micro-communities forming and growing interconnected with one another to share skills and resources in a moneyless Gifts Economy.
Conclusion
“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” — Albert Camus
…an act of rebellion that inspires others to believe that it’s possible to live free and “be the change” they want to see in the world too.
Thank you for reading!
I Love Yall, Peace.
Dr. Sundiata Soon-Jahta, Ed.D
If you gained value from reading this essay and you would like to show gratitude you can support my activism in the following ways:
- With a monetary gift here
- Cashapp or Venmo: $DrSundiata
- Become a monthly Patron
- Share this essay
- Read my other essays
- Listen to my podcast
