Actively Sitting with this Query: how do we unsettle the dynamics of power...?

There is so much happening in the world right now. Trauma seems to be spawning trauma, but we know that the answer isn't to ignore what is uncomfortable, to not look at what would ask us to grow.

6-years ago, in an article about the killing of Michael Brown, a journalist for Slate, Jamelle Bouie reminded us, "Our courts and juries aren’t impartial arbiters—they exist inside society, not outside of it—and they can only provide as much justice as society is willing to give." In 1993, in an interview with Charlie Rose, Toni Morrison was asked what to do about "everyday racist encounters," and this quote was the culmination of her razor sharp answer that this was the wrong question. We have a serious problem and the solution will not be in how victimized individuals and communities respond but in how the oppressor reflects on their abuses of power.

Now 2020, in the midst of a global pandemic, what is it we are willing to give? How are we willing to unsettle the dynamics of power that are instigating and nurturing systemic violence?

We know these are scary times and we wish we had the answer. There is more to investigate as we look at our society's darkest struggles highlighted. What we can do is commit to actively sitting in this inquiry and ask that the communities we are a part of do the same.