Building movements and navigating funding in systems of complicity, ft. Rasul A. Mowatt & Too Black (P2)
What does it mean to build movements?
Dear green dreamer,
Today, I’m honored to bring you part 2 of our conversation with Rasul A. Mowatt and Too Black. This is a continuation of a conversation that felt really transformational and clarifying for me. Particularly, I greatly appreciated our guests calling on us to revisit the basics of what building a “movement” means from the ground up. Enjoy, and gratitudes for all that you are ~
with care, kamea
“Since laundering doesn’t happen above our heads and is something we’re involved in, we can come up with creative ways to extract the things that have to pass through our hands on the assembly line and put them into the hands of the people who need those resources — reverse laundering.” – Too Black
What does it actually mean to build “movements” — understanding this word not as a loose terminology overarching certain causes but as a substantive call for intentionally spun webs of relations? How can clarifying the words we use around organizing help to prevent co-optation and dilution? And how do we navigate the paradox of needing funding from often “dirty” sources in order to get by — while simultaneously attempting to subvert their underlying structures of power?
In this part 2 of our conversation with Rasul A. Mowatt and Too Black of Laundering Black Rage (tune in to part 1 here), we continue to sink in more deeply to unravel our entanglement in systems of exploitation.
Join us as we learn about what it means to tether ourselves to “organizations” beyond feeding into the optics of collective action; how we can practice “reverse laundering” to help funnel more resources towards “illegitimate” places of need; how to disentangle movement building from cycles of electoral politics; and more.
View the episode transcript and references here, and dive into the extended version of this conversation via our Patreon here.
“Black rage won’t pick up the assault rifle for a parade and rally to march. Black rage won’t develop clever chants and vibrant posters to march. Black rage won't sit on a panel or hold a microphone to march.
There is no stage for Black rage.
Black rage, if it goes somewhere meaningful, will have to stock pantry shelves and read to children so that they can finally learn to read, pitching tents to provide inadequate shelter when other types of shelter are desired but resources are limited, delivering food five days a week to elders who may not be alive the next time you're making those rounds.
I think you may get our point. Black rage must become the work…
The enough is enough for watching the whipping of the other. The enough is enough of hearing the cries of the other. The enough is enough of not wanting oppression to exist anymore, anywhere, anyhow, and in any way.” – Rasul A. Mowatt via Laundering Black Rage.
Rasul A. Mowatt and Too Back are co-authors of Laundering Black Rage: The Washing of Black Death, People, Property, and Profits (use the code “LBR25” for 25% off the publisher’s website). Learn more about Rasul & Too Black here.
What inspirations or curiosities are still lingering with you from this episode?
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