“Rebel leadership just means you take responsibility and perhaps it means interrupting the thing that’s just not working, and that’s really, really hard. It’s a muscle, and if you can get brave in the group chat or if you can get brave at the dinner table, then maybe you can get brave later when [the situation is more complex or difficult].”
My conversation with one of my dearest friends of 20+ years, Sara Gray, Senior Director of Communications and Marketing at the National Equity Project (NEP), has been on my mind since we first talked in early January. This is my last of three posts summarizing our conversation around equity that I want to share with all of you.
Before you read this last post, I have four asks of you:
This post is Part 3 of my series of blog posts summarizing my conversation with Sara. To immerse yourself in the work of equity that Sara presents to us, I highly recommend reading my previous posts before diving into this one:
Please consider listening to my full conversation with Sara on my personal Instagram account. Sara provides so much additional texture that I didn’t capture in my blogs, and together they provide a solid immersion into what it’s like to challenge ourselves and to open our thoughts to new ways of thinking in our equity journey.
This conversation is part of my birthday equity walk, which is why, although the equity walk is to support FRN, I chose to have the conversations on my personal Instagram. Learn more about my birthday equity walk by reading this blog post, and please do consider participating.
Become familiar with the National Equity Project. I am hopeful to host Sara for a part II of our conversation on Food Recovery Network’s platform later this year.
Below is the last set of resources and thoughts that Sara shared with all of us as part of my birthday equity walk. If it’s in your budget to do so, please consider becoming a recurring monthly donor, or making a one-time donation.
“We all have the power to influence and we need to step up.”
If there is ever doubt that the system isn’t working for us, I offer two data points. First, from a Food Recovery Network perspective, 42 million people are food insecure right now. And second, we know that 42 million people are not consistently making the wrong life choices, or don’t want to work as many of the myths around why people are poor will try to tell us. Forty-two million people not having consistent access to the food they deserve is designed into the system; it ensures some people will go hungry.
When I asked Sara how we can redesign a system that is not working for far too many of us, she didn’t bat an eye at such a large question. Sara started by interrogating the scarcity mindset that we have all been inundated with, which tries to convince us that it’s okay that so many people are hungry, or that this level of hunger is normal. I believe that when we even begin to normalize millions of people being hungry, then the system is not working for all of us. Sara noted that even if the system is benefiting us right now, we still have to interrogate that system because it comes with a harmful cost for others.
The activation part within all of this is that we can change the system. This is where we can activate our sphere of influence. I want to quote Sara in her entirety when she reminds us, “There is the collective effort and the individual effort. You have to be grounded as an individual, even if your life is chaos. Even if the systems have made your life chaos. You can remind yourself that ease is a birthright, abundance is our birthright, this earth is our birthright. If you remind yourself of that, then when you get into the systems and when you get into the spaces where you have influence, and we all have our own spheres of influence, [with] your family, in your organization, in your city…then you step up to actually see the thing that you can change; you actually have to try to change it.”
“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” — Harriet Tubman
“What I love about bell hooks’ whole work, is that these systems have harmed us all. Even if on the surface it looks like you’re benefiting from them. You may be winning at the system, and you’re harmed by it. You’ve lost something in that. And that’s a baseline understanding. And I don’t think people have necessarily unpacked that if you think you’re at the top of the pyramid and you’re trying to kick people off.”
Everyone deserves an easeful life: Resources Part II
Throughout our flowing conversation, Sara and I mentioned many places we look to in our equity journey. Equity is a practice. By reading the thoughts of others who write about equity, love, systems change, hope, and design, we practice equity.
Sara mentioned Harriet Tubman and the concept of “freedom dreaming.” To learn more about freedom dreaming, Sara recommended getting to know her amazing coworker, Brittnee Meitzenheimer, Program and Operations Manager for the Center for Equity Leadership at NEP, and reading Brittnee’s blog post about Freedom Dreaming. The concept of Freedom Dreaming that Brittnee summons is the feeling of ease that I write about in the second blog post in this series, “Get what you need when you need it.”
My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Mending of Our Bodies and Hearts by Resmaa Menakem
“Breaking Boundaries”, as described by Netflix, follows David Attenborough and scientist Johan Rockström as they examine Earth's biodiversity collapse and how this crisis can still be averted.
Tricia Hershey is the creator of The Nap Ministry and discusses rest as a critical act of resistance. We’ve talked a lot about this at Food Recovery Network. My birthday equity walk aims to attract more recurring monthly donors to cover part of the expense for employer paid health insurance to our staff. Accessing medical care when employees need it that is low or zero cost is part of FRN’s equity walk, and so is being able to take time off when under the weather or when we need a break.
Poor People’s Campaign is one of FRN’s partners. Check out my conversation with Shailly Barnes, Policy Director for Poor People’s Campaign, to learn more about how we can all invest in communities to support them. This conversation was part of my webinar series, Intersectionalities in Practice, another place you can learn more about FRN’s equity walk and our work.
Sara and I brought up author Octavia Butler when discussing how we can redesign a world that works for everyone, a world of abundance for everyone and where we don’t fear that we won’t have what we need. Octavia Butler said, “there is nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns.”
Action steps suggested by Sara
Notice when you experience a dissonance with a “regular system” change. Sara provided this example: Youth participants in NEP programs listed some changes they wanted to see in their lives. Sara was astonished to hear their rationale for their list because it truly bucked a lot of what we think young people will do when they are “left to their own devices.” The NEP youth said they want to be the ones to ask for homework when they feel they need the additional support in learning that homework can provide, and to move away from an automatic assignment of homework. When asked what they wanted to do instead, they said they want to continue to learn to code, or work in their garden, or talk together with their peers about the world. They were advocating for a release of their time, to reclaim that time, and for adults to trust them.
Here is a link to listen to two NEP Youth Advocates on the 180 Podcast - Student Voices: Fighting for an Inclusive System.
Start a gratitude practice. It can be super small, something like naming one thing that you’re grateful for and taking a moment to talk about it at dinner.
Follow and be led by Black women, support them, be friends with them, “it will change your life.”
Again, thank you for taking time to read and learn about my birthday equity walk. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Love health and gratitude,
Regina