Ruha Benjamin

Welcome back, sowers!

As we witness one dumpster fire after another surrounded by government officials warming themselves on the charred remains of our basic rights, it has been hard to see beyond the thick smoke and flames. The list of regressive U.S. Supreme Court decisions gets longer with each passing day – from the attacks on bodily autonomy in the overturning of Roe to the erosion of Indigenous sovereignty in Castro-Huerta v Oklahoma. Our newsfeeds and group chats are smoldering with anger and trepidation. 

Yet, I am reminded that ash can fertilize soil. Wood ash contains nutrients like calcium, magnesium, and potassium that can create a chemical change in the earth when applied at the right time and in the right proportions, raising the pH level to make gardens less acidic and more fruitful. How might we repurpose the ash produced by the daily flare of injustice and impunity to grow the world we want? This is the question that animates Viral Justice.

And in the spirit of bloomscrolling, I draw your attention to a different kind of blaze, one lighting the way rather than decimating everything in its path: In Colombia, where progressive candidates Gustavo Petro and Francia Márquez Mina were elected president and vice president, respectively, we see people seeding a different future for themselves and all those who bear witness. Mina is a 40-year-old human rights lawyer and environmental activist who began standing up to the powers that be at the age of 13 when companies threatened her community’s major water source, Ovejas River, with the construction of a dam. Now she is the first Afro-Colombian VP in the nation’s history. In Mina’s first speech as Vice President-elect, she proclaimed, 

“After 200 years, we conquered a government of the people. The government of the ‘nobodies’ of Colombia. Let’s live with dignity in a tasty way.” 

Mina knows enough to know that an election, however historic, cannot by itself slow the everyday injustices raining down on oppressed communities. In her words, “the most impoverished people, those who don’t have drinking water, basic sanitation, education, internet connectivity, are the people who once again are suffering the brunt of the violence and the armed conflict.”

Rather, her mission is to put forth the grievances of those abandoned by the government and ruling class and defend the rights and dignity of all. “We’re tired of having to bury our family members and seeing women, mothers, burying their children. That is not just. We deserve a more dignified nation, a nation in peace, a nation with social justice, and an antiracist nation,” she insists. 

So even if it is just for a moment, let’s stand in the glow of this victory of so-called ‘nobodies,’ whose communities are worth fighting for and whose lives are precious. Let’s follow the example of Mina and her comrades by advocating for peace, environmental justice, food sovereignty, and “economic production that puts life at the center.” With one hand we can put out the destructive fires wreaking havoc in our lives and with the other we can create sparks of solidarity lighting the way for others.<>

OUTTAKES & ARCHIVES

A few weeks back, I spent six days recording the Viral Justice audiobook. Coffee mug, kombucha bottle, banana, and protein bar in hand, it took about 25 hours total. Most of us don’t love the sound of our own voice, myself included. But hearing it in real time through the filter of a studio mic and headphones was different… crisper, more intimate, and vulnerable than even the chatter in my head.

In fact, the mic was so sensitive that the sound engineer in the booth next door and the producer guiding us along from Bath, England, had to stop me over a dozen times because my growling belly was audible on their end. “Let’s take a beat so you can grab a snack, Ruha,” one of them would gently suggest.

 The same thing for helicopters and planes that rumbled overhead, whether in Princeton or Bath – “Whoop! Let’s start that sentence again after the noise passes,” one of them would say. And so it went for hours each day. Reading… rumbling… pausing… re-reading. 

The extra sensitive mic coupled with the intense listening of my companions – who would also ask me to start again if they perceived even a little scratch in my throat or shift in my energy level – stands in stark contrast to the listening fails in our social and political lives.

Specifically, I am thinking about a letter I recently read, penned by civil rights champion Rosa Parks, in 1991, in which she vehemently opposed the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. This was before the Anita Hill hearings, mind you, when Parks wrote,

“His confirmation to the highest court in the land would not represent a step forward in the road to racial progress but a U-turn on that road…His statements on the Brown v. Board of Education case, on affirmative action, and even on the Roe v. Wade to me indicate that he wants to push the clock back… The Supreme Court now appears to be turning its back on the undeniable fact of discrimination and exclusion… I believe that Judge Thomas will accelerate that trend and that will be destructive for our nation.”

Fast forward 30+ years, Parks’ unheeded voice resounds painfully in our ears. It makes me wonder, what warnings and wisdom should we be devoting our careful attention to today? 

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT

Women, Race and Technology

July 12, 2022 at 3pm EDT (Noon PDT)

On Tuesday, July 12th at 3:00 pm EST (Noon PDT), I will be in conversation with renowned Afro-Brazilian writer Conceição Evaristo, moderated by Virgilio Almeida, professor emeritus of computer science at Federal University of Minas Gerais, and hosted by the Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of São Paulo.

This free event is in-person and virtual; register below for the livestream.

ORGANIZATION HIGHLIGHT

Each month I spotlight an organization or initiative seeding justice in a locale where I’m speaking, virtually or in-person. Looking ahead to the event above, I want to shout out Movimento Sem-Teto Do Centro!

Movimento Sem-Teto do Centro translates to “Downtown Homeless Movement” in English and is “a movement fighting for housing that operates in the central region of São Paulo and is made up of more than two thousand people, including adults, children and young people. We defend the fundamental right to housing, guaranteed in the Constitution and in the universal rights of humanity. Housing is not just physical property. “Home” means much more and includes family life, safety, health, education, access to transportation and community living. Housing is a basic right, the mainstay of a series of others for which we also fight.”

To follow the work of Movimento Sem-Teto Do Centro, scroll down and click!

ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER

Welcome to Seeding the Future, a monthly musing where I share stories and experiences that didn’t make it into my forthcoming book, Viral Justice. I also shine a light on organizers, artists, educators, and groups who motivate me in the everyday work of world-building.

Together, we grapple with Baldwin’s words, “I can't be a pessimist because I'm alive. To be a pessimist means you have agreed that human life is an academic matter. So, I’m forced to be an optimist. I am forced to believe that we can survive, whatever we must survive.” For me, this isn’t toxic positivity, but a stubborn, insurgent hopefulness.

Subscribers and sowers are the first to know about upcoming events, book giveaways, and free resources like discussion guides, syllabi, and other material that you can adopt and adapt however you see fit! If you aren’t subscribed yet, you can do so here. If you are, I would love for you to share with friends, colleagues, and comrades as we strive, day by day, to make justice contagious. 

a luta continua,