My son, Gabriel and I just got back from national community organizing training in Queens, NY under the incredible training and prodding by the Industrial Areas Foundation organizers and incredible leaders from Baltimore, North Carolina and Illinois.  The last time I went to national training was 1995.  My children had not yet been born and I am a very different person now than I was then.  

Of the many things I learned at training, one stuck out: “You only get as much justice as you have the power to compel!”  Thucydides, an ancient Greek historian and general is alleged to be the author of this profound saying.  This reminder is now centering our work in 2024 and beyond.  How do we get the power to compel those structural and human forces that are in the way of regular people living a life of dignity?  How do we work to build the kinds of institutions that have the power to negotiate with the powerful in our City, County, state and country on behalf of the forgotten and locked out on an agenda that will benefit the whole and not just the few?

This past week there was a sea change politically.  President Joe Biden stepped down to make room for Vice President Kamala Harris to become the nominee for President of the Democratic party.  Over 40,000 black women, organized by #WinWithBlackWomen were on a call Sunday night and raised $1.3 MM in 3 hours and on Monday night, I joined a call with what became over 60,000 black men, organized by #WinWithBlackMen as well as simultaneously watching online on Twitter (X) and Youtube.  A similar amount of money was raised by black men.  Excitement is in the air and on the ground organizing is moving into high gear for the next 100 days.  VP Harris is a brilliant lawyer and legislator and I don’t think former President Trump will be debating her on any stage any time soon.  It would be suicide.  The Democratic party is lining up delegates behind her (California put her over the top earlier this week) and the coronation will undoubtedly happen in Chicago in mid August at the Democratic National Convention.Despite this, I have concerns.

I remember when Nelson Mandela got out of prison and became the first black President of South Africa in 1994 there was incredible excitement and optimism about how justice and economic freedoms were going to happen for folks who had been systematically brutalized by Apartheid.  They established the Truth & Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and with testimony from 21,000 victims, as well as 2,000 public hearings and 7,112 amnesty applications, the world got to see the horrors that black people lived under.  The hearings forced South Africans to confront the horrors of their past. But when it came time to do something tangible about repairing the harm, the power rested in the hands of the white minority.  They controlled all aspects of power in South Africa.  Almost a decade later, in 2003, President Thabo Mbeki announced a once-off payment of approximately $4,000 each to 18,000 victims who testified before the TRC, and announced that community reparations programs, which aim to uplift black communities as a whole, would be implemented as part of broader development programs for all South Africans.

The masses did not benefit from those historic elections in South Africa because they did not have the power to compel change around the issues that impacted their lives.  The masses of blacks in America will not benefit from this election unless we have the power to compel around issues that impact everyday peoples’ lives.  Making sure that families can afford to live in housing whether they rent, own or are unhoused.  Making sure jobs pay living wages and that healthcare is affordable.  Making sure that groceries, gas and utilities and taxes are not such a tremendous burden on families.  Making sure that high quality education is available to everyone.  Making sure families can live is safety is critical.  Unless we have the power to compel VP Harris to abandon the vague issues that the party is behind like“saving democracy” and “climate change” and focus on a very specific agenda akin to a Marshall Plan for communities that have been locked out and left behind, we are wasting our time. Now is the time to negotiate.  The donors are saying up front what they want.  Organized people need to speak.

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