Liberating our Future: 10 social justice leaders chart the path forward
city of angels, 2011 — Jose Ramirez honoring workers who built and sustain Los Angeles
“Science fiction is simply a way to practice the future together. i suspect that is what many of you are up to, practicing futures together, practicing justice together, living into new stories. It is our right and responsibility to create a new world.” adrienne maree brown
I’ve lost count of how many days we’ve been in this new era. Long enough that we have new routines and habits in our house. Long enough that my dreams feature physical distancing and my brain has rewired which workers are actually essential. Long enough that our 4 and 6 year olds have embraced home (un)schooling that includes playing and dancing and baking and gardening.
Long enough that I can see with some clarity the old ways, the new ways, and maybe even begin to imagine the future ways.
I’m careful not to say “when things go back to normal” because there was so much harm and inequity baked into our systems and ways of being in the pre-COVID world, and that never should have felt normal.
Yet from the founding of our country in genocide and slavery, our cultural norms have pushed us to keep moving, be productive, and ignore the suffering and injustice all around us.
In this time of such fear and grieving, I notice my temptation to turn away, to resist letting myself feel it. But it’s only in feeling that we can transform — first ourselves, our perspective and ways of being, then the conditions that create the suffering in the first place.
john a. powell reflects, “[The current situation] reveals, as we have been trying to show for many years, that when one person suffers, we all experience the effects of that suffering. We do belong to each other and to the earth. Now more than ever we see how it is in everyone’s best interest, including those who are more privileged, to ensure the well-being of all. Our collective health is only as strong as the weakest and most vulnerable members of society.”
So first, I’m grounding myself in the realities of our collective health and well-being, as this pandemic courses through the veins of our country’s deeply racist and inequitable systems:
Black people are 22% of the U.S. population, but counties with disproportionate Black residents account for 50% of COVID-19 cases and 60% of deaths. They are three times more likely to die from COVID than white people.
Latinx people are also disproportionately impacted by the virus, and a recent study found half of Latinx people had recently lost a job or taken a pay cut as a result of the pandemic.
The Navajo Nation now has the highest per capita deaths in the country, reported by the Navajo Nation Department of Health.
There are over 25,000 cases and nearly 400 deaths in jails and prisons in just two months, and the three largest virus clusters in the U.S. are in prisons. Those inside are reporting horrific conditions.
There has been a rise of racist and xenophobic incidents targeting Asian American and Pacific Islander people, and a recent poll found that 60% of AAPI respondents have heard someone blame people of Asian descent for the virus.
Farmworkers and meat packing workers — disproportionately immigrants and refugees essential to the nation’s food supply — have also been significantly impacted. The employees of one meat processing plant in South Dakota accounted for 73% of cases in the state.
The national unemployment rate in April was 14.7%, the highest single-month increase since the measure began in 1948, with rates of 16.7% for Black workers and 18.9% for Latinx workers.
Currently there is no national requirement to provide sick leave, and 23 million people are unemployed — in the midst of a pandemic — in a country that ties health care to employment.
Given these inequities, we must reimagine systems that support our collective well-being. This change won’t happen through our existing power structures designed to uphold the status quo. Change will come through each of us listening to those most harmed by injustice and speaking up about the future we want.
Makini Chisolm-Straker refers to this moment as an opportunity for “national rebirth.”
And though this rebirth is national, the labor is local.
At SVPLA, we are a collective of people committed to radically reimagining Los Angeles. We follow the lead of grassroots systems change leaders creating a new, interconnected path forward, informed by their own lived experience and proximity to the systems they’re working to transform. While their efforts began long before this pandemic, this moment only heightens the urgency of their work.
Here are 10 visionary organizations charting a more equitable future for Los Angeles:
Reimagining Criminal Justice: Our partners at Initiate Justice, Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB), and The Anti Recidivism Coalition have a shared vision of ending mass incarceration. They have focused on rapid decarceration, spurring a reduction in the LA County jails from 17,000 to 12,000 since the pandemic began.
Reimagining Immigration: Freedom for Immigrants is focused on abolishing immigrant detention, where over 50,000 adults and children are held in inhumane living conditions. Their National Immigration Detention Hotline is providing a critical resource in reporting abuses and connecting immigrants to resources and their families.
Reimagining Housing: Los Angeles Room & Board aims to eradicate homelessness among college students, given that one in five Los Angeles community college students experiences homelessness. This summer, LA Room & Board will open housing for 53 homeless and housing-insecure college students.
Reimagining Community Care: Our partners at LA Forward and Alliance for Community Transit-Los Angeles (ACT-LA) are helping lead Healthy LA, a coalition of 320+ organizations fighting for health and economic protections for our residents. To date, they have won an eviction moratorium, a ban on rent increases, and 14 days paid sick leave for LA workers.
Reimagining Mobility: CicLAvia and Los Angeles Walks have long worked toward a Los Angeles where all residents can safely walk and ride their bikes. They are now increasing their digital resources to support residents’ mental and physical health and tools for advocating for equitable access to safe and open streets.
Reimagining Food Sourcing: LA Compost, whose mission is centered in spreading composting practices and reconnecting Angelenos to our soil, is now assisting Angelenos in cultivating their own urban gardens, sustaining composting throughout the region, and increasing access to sustainable, local food sourcing.
Arundhati Roy reflects: “Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.”
Let’s join forces with these leaders and step through the portal together, to make this new future a reality.
