Come Help Us Fight For Change
We are more than our suffering. We are human beings who deserve to be seen and heard. Go into Black History Month with a commitment to see our humanit...Show more
In 1852, a little book called Uncle Tom’s Cabin hit shelves all across the north of the United States. It centered the story of Uncle Tom, a southern slave who is subjected to more and more cruelty as the story goes, all while demonstrating the warmth and light of what the author imagines Christianity to be. It is often cited as a contributing factor in the growing sympathies for early abolitionists that lead to the civil war. Which is precisely why I would like to take a moment to criticize its role in history. Because while Uncle Tom’s Cabin did play a role in bringing change, it did so by reframing the white Christian’s understanding of their faith, rather than by reframing the white American’s understanding of Black human beings.
I know, I know… but it did good!
I agree. But I want you to consider the current-day reality of the Black American. It has been over 150 years since the North officially won their war and ended slavery. And yet we currently live under a President who believes that the mere presence of Black people is enough to ruin the moral center of our country. Day after day, night after night, he stands in front of the press and blames “woke” America for all of the world’s problems. Almost daily, organizations are abandoning any commitment they had to hiring diversely, at the enthusiastic encouragement of our federal government. And as far as we can tell, this is only the beginning. Black people—alongside Indigenous people, other people of color, immigrants, disabled people, queer people, trans people in particular, and all other marginalized communities—will continue to suffer. All in the name of “progress.”
This is important for us to reflect on because the sad truth is that a lot of the movement our country has made at the encouragement of white “allies” has been almost entirely centered around privileged Americans waking up to their inherent goodness, rather than recognizing the humanity of everyone who exists with different identities than they do.
And frankly…that is not good enough.
Consider what James Baldwin had to say on the matter:
The failure of the protest novel lies in its rejection of life, the human being, the denial of his beauty, dread, power, in its insistence that it is his categorization alone which is real and which cannot be transcended. (Everybody’s Protest Novel).
What did he mean by this? Well, simply put: As long as the Black American is reduced to our marginalized identity, we cannot also be a person. And without being a person, the white American’s commitment to our advancement will always be about how our advancement impacts them. And let’s be honest… that is exactly what we are witnessing today. A group of powerful white men are looking at the advancement of Black people (and other marginalized people) and asking themselves why they are allowing us to cost them so much of their power.
Our humanity is a threat to the white American’s ability to see themself as a success.
This is something that I want you to keep in mind as you engage with literature. Especially literature that attempts to teach you about the struggle of Black people, or about systemic oppression of any kind, really. If a story does not assume (and highlight) the humanity of its victims, it inherently exists to empower their oppressors, even if it does so through the guise of fighting for their liberation.
The fight for Black liberation must center Black people whose humanity is front and center. If we allow them to reduce us to a cause, it’s over.
This is why we say their names. This is why we print their faces on our T-shirts and capture their mother’s tears on television. This is why we immortalize our grieving and refuse to stop lifting the voices of our dead. And this is why their first instinct when they kill us is to turn us into criminals who earned our oppression. Because the key to our liberation is not white people who want to be good christians. It is our humanity.
Tomorrow is the start of Black history month, and our current president is determined that it be spent making us smaller. I want to ask you to commit yourself to the exact opposite. Fight for our voices. Uplift our work. Platform our activists. And commit yourself to seeing our humanity wherever and however you can.
There are many Black organizations you can pour into, and I want to encourage you to find ones you can commit to long-term. Don’t just fight for Black people in February. Use it to find the organizations and people you are ready to fight for all year long.
And one small way you can throw your support behind Black authors, specifically, is by subscribing to this community for $5 or $12 a month. We are fighting to create real change in the publishing industry. And that fight matters as much as it ever has. Literature has the power to change the world. It has been instrumental in nearly every movement in history, whether movements of liberation or oppression. Literature matters. And making sure Black voices shine matters. So help us in our fight by committing to a monthly subscription and let’s change the world together!
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Jan 31
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