#13 / Mattering
Howdy,
Well, that was a hell of a week. Now I know what I’ll say to people in fifty years when they ask me: “What was it like to watch history happen in real time?”
“I’m still not sure. Ask me again in fifty years.”
One thing that’s happening with me is, the world is putting my belief in the power of individual action to a serious test.
I work with this social justice organization, the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (JCUA). Most of what JCUA does is advance action on the systemic level. That’s where lasting change is made; you have to tear oppression out of our institutions and our society by the roots. This means electing new representatives and officials, passing legislation and ordinances, and creating better policy.
But there’s another angle from which to approach this work.
We’ve all grown up in a white supremacist system, which prioritizes money and safety and power for white people over the bodies and lives of black people. Because this system is so deadly evil on its face, we’ve all been socialized, both white people and black people, since birth, to believe the lies that keep white supremacy in place—and also, for those of us who are white, to feel extreme discomfort any time the subject of race comes up.
Undoing this on a personal level is lifelong work, and it can be hard to see the effects. It’s hard to feel like you’re really doing anything when you’re also in the middle of world-historical events, and when you can see the true scale of what needs to change to achieve justice.
I had a conversation with a friend this weekend who works in marketing for a major brand with a wide reach among kids. All these companies are feeling the need to weigh in, which I guess is a positive step, but I find most of these brand statements to be bland, non-specific, and unsatisfactory. Tell me how much money you’re donating and to whom. Tell me how you are changing your policies. Tell me whose contracts you’re not renewing. Tell me which elected officials you are lobbying.
My friend is pushing back against his brand’s temptation to issue yet another trite statement. His message: “words aren’t enough.” But there are a lot of people involved, which explains why so many of these press releases sound so corporate and watered-down. It actually speaks volumes how afraid people are to earnestly address the real issues. Non-statements are akin to silence, and silence feeds the status quo.
So the two of us had a conversation about why his brand needs to do more. He believes that he has a unique opportunity to speak honestly to the kids in his audience, because they are the ones who will lead us. They’re better able to see their own learned prejudices, and they see how illogical and unjust the world is because they’re not as tied down, they don’t have as much at stake yet, and they’re not as enveloped as those of us who have been around longer and become more inured and complacent.
He doesn’t get to make the final call. But there’s a non-zero possibility that our conversations this weekend will help him to push harder at work for a stronger statement and real action. If enough people on his team have enough conversations like this, maybe they can convince the powers that be to do the right thing. And imagine if these conversations were happening all across the country, with people who have power and reach. You never know where the tipping point will be. You never know how your words or actions might carry forward.
You gotta trust the universe. Go hard and don’t think twice.
Writing
I was so wrapped up in last week’s piece that I totally forgot to mention: JCUA published the article I’ve been working on about the Intersections of Antisemitism and White Supremacy training I attended. It’s the longest thing I’ve written in a while and I like how it turned out.
We also published the joint statement I referred to last week, as well as a standalone statement from Kol Or, the JCUA Jews of Color caucus.
Watching
I finished the ten-part documentary series about Michael Jordan and the 1990s Chicago Bulls, The Last Dance. Despite some criticism about the involvement of Jordan’s production company threatening the film’s objectivity, I think it’s well-made, engrossing, and worth watching if you remember those teams.
One of my favorite segments was the cold open to the final episode, where one of Jordan’s biographers, Mark Vancil (the best interview subject in the film) talks about what made Michael Jordan the greatest. In Vancil’s view, it had nothing to do with actual basketball skill.
It was Jordan’s complete presence—his ability to stay absolutely in the moment at all times. “People spend 20 years in ashrams and go on all sorts of spiritual journeys trying to find what Michael had,” Vancil said.
He explains that because of this, Jordan had no fear of failure. Yes, he had physical gifts, but this is what allowed Jordan to maximize those gifts through single-minded focus on the task at hand. Vancil then quotes Jordan giving what I now consider to be the ultimate distillation of anti-perfectionism:
Why would I think about missing a shot I haven’t even taken yet?
Reading
There’s a lot of amazing writers out there putting out incredible stuff. No way to keep up with it all. But I would still like to rapid-fire share a few things I loved.
Wesley Morris — “The Videos That Rocked America. The Song That Knows Our Rage.”
An amazing piece that Morris makes both highly personal and highly universal.
Priska Neely — “Please Stop ‘Checking In to See If I’m Okay”
Whatever you think I might be feeling because of the news right now, it’s not new for me this week.
Barack Obama — “How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change”
Need I say more?
Neil deGrasse Tyson — “Reflections on the Color of My Skin”
In a way, I am who I am precisely because countless people, by their actions or inactions, said I would never be what I became. But what becomes of you if you don’t posses this deep supply of fuel? Who from historically disenfranchised communities, including women, LGBTQ+, and anybody of color, is missing—falling shy of their full potential, because they ran out of energy and gave up trying.
Mood
Run the Jewels — "Walking in the Snow"
Run the Jewels delivered their new album early. It’s a protest album, perfectly suited for the moment, and a quick Google search has turned up plenty of in-depth examinations of it. For me, one verse easily stood out, because it describes George Floyd’s murder exactly, despite being written before the killing was done. How is that possible? Because Killer Mike was talking about Eric Garner. And Philando Castile, and Michael Brown, and countless others whose deaths there was no justice for.
And every day on evening news they feed you fear for free
And you so numb you watch the cops choke out a man like me
And 'til my voice goes from a shriek to whisper, "I can't breathe"
And you sit there in the house on couch and watch it on TV
The most you give's a Twitter rant and call it a tragedy
https://open.spotify.com/track/2pVvB487ZwqdzTxEvEEors?si=nRpviVhPQfm3F18a6lZYsA
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Thanks for reading. Please take care, and write back if you can!
Love,
Aaron