The first revolution is when you change your mind.
By: Out For Undergrad
Tags: Revolution, Judith Butler, BlackLivesMatter, LGBTQ, George Floyd

Illustration by Nina Montenegro

“The first revolution is when you change your mind.” These words by Gil Scott Heron and the illustration by Nina Montenegro hit home today. At O4U, we know that when you change your mind, you change your life. It feels like we need mind-bending change at an unprecedented level in the world today.

I am reflecting on the insurrection this week, at the cusp of inauguration of President Elect Joe Biden. Biden will take office in the detritus created by white supremacists, fueled by our seated President. How will our new administration address this deep-seated, centuries old, racist-fueled violence that resides at our core as a nation? How can we support people in changing minds and hearts that seem set on destruction?

For strength for the coming months, I have turned today to a go-to resource, Yes! Magazine and, most specifically to the Black Lives Issue for Fall 2020. It includes 20+ Black writers, artists and activists imagining what’s possible now. In this edition, Alex Gallo-Brown reviews a new text entitled The Force of Non-Violence: The Ethical in the Political (Verso, 2020) by Judith Butler, gender theorist at UC Berkeley.

Gallo-Brown reflects on Butler’s premise of grievability, saying, “One way to comprehend our current period of social convulsion is to drill down into the concept of grief until one arrives at a characteristic that (Butler) call(s) grievability…” Butler says, “Our society confirms value on some lives more than others, a hierarchy inaugurated, and then fortified, by our economic systems, political systems, policing systems, and healthcare systems, among many others. And loss can be acknowledged only when the conditions of acknowledgment are established within a language, a media, a culture and intersubjective field of some kind.“

As example, Butler gave the May 24, 2020 edition of the New York Times and its list of 1000’s of Americans who died from Covid 19. These people, according to Butler, “possess the attribute of grievability. The conditions for acknowledgment of their loss has been established. The nation solemnly grieved.” And, one day later George Floyd was killed by police. His murder and that of 1000’s of other Black people has historically been “deemed unremarkable in our culture. Their deaths would not have been grieved except by close family and friends, if not for the spontaneous outpouring of bodily assembly in hundreds of American cities and towns that were not sanctioned by the cultural apparatus, but directly opposed to the cultural apparatus, a massive performance of collectively experienced grief. These demonstrations and street actions are essential to the establishment of ‘new terms of acknowledgment and resistance’…to expand the social possibilities of who can be grieved. When we regard another human being is grievable, we will do everything in our power to make sure that life is not harmed or lost.”

Butler continues, “What would it look like to create a society where all lives were treated that way, where we grieved everyone the same? What would that mean for healthcare systems, housing systems, law-enforcement systems, systems of social welfare? We are living during a moment in which traditional power structures are being destabilized, historically influential institutions are being delegitimized, and social relations are being reformed. People who…are facing a deficit of grievability are organizing among themselves, agitating for change and occupying public space…They have demands. Defund the police. Invest in community health. End mass incarceration. Redistribute wealth. Will the historically grievable put their ethics in practice, investing in collective grievability? Or will they turn away?”

This is one of the core questions we will consider this year at O4U, central to our commitments to anti-racism, acknowledging and supporting Intersectionality and inclusion in the workplace and within our own community. The reality is that while Black people have been seeking equality, whites have been building equity. Many of our long-tenured O4U corporate sponsors will necessarily have to lead in efforts to redistribute power and wealth. Part of our work is to equip LGBTQ+ undergraduates who choose to work in these spaces to advocate for change within these firms in behalf of themselves and others. And, part of our work is to do our own work to change ourselves. This is going to be a great year to learn and activate our personal and professional commitments. If you are looking to learn, I recommend Yes! as a low cost/high impact resource. You can also share your ideas on change at letters@yesmagazine.org.