COLLECTIVE COMMUNITY CARE
Collective Word Bank
Complied by The Collective
Black Feminism
Compiled by Basha and Elaine with words from Alayna, Jamison, Elaine, Basha, Laura, and Nora.
Revision process 10/29/2020 - 11/15/2020
Revision process 10/29/2020 - 11/15/2020
Black Feminism is a visionary politic and ideology centered on the needs and wants of all self-identified Black women, cis, trans and queer, and non-binary folks. We learn from various Black feminist sources, including: the Combahee River Collective, which says that “all Black women are inherently valuable and that our collective and interwoven identities are a framework for understanding our social and political landscape.” While created by and for self-identifying Black women, Black Feminism is a framework that anyone can practice.
*** It includes people transnationally and of color.
Black Feminism means struggling against all types and layers of oppression by taking the lead from and elevating those with the most lived experience, and rejoicing at this Black leadership. It is an inherently anti-racist, anti-capitalist and anti-oppressive fight for liberation.
Black Feminism can look like political education, embodying joy, abolishing whiteness and patriarchy; community care, adequate healthcare, education, dream occupations, emotional comfort, harm reduction, questioning binaries, and safety planning.
*** It includes people transnationally and of color.
Black Feminism means struggling against all types and layers of oppression by taking the lead from and elevating those with the most lived experience, and rejoicing at this Black leadership. It is an inherently anti-racist, anti-capitalist and anti-oppressive fight for liberation.
Black Feminism can look like political education, embodying joy, abolishing whiteness and patriarchy; community care, adequate healthcare, education, dream occupations, emotional comfort, harm reduction, questioning binaries, and safety planning.
Liberation
Compiled by Basha with words from Jamison, Alayna, Basha, Elaine, and Laura
Revision process 12/17/2020
Revision process 12/17/2020
Liberation is the ability to breathe. Every person lives fully in their body, heart, mind, and soul. Nina Simone says it is “no fear.” Luisah Teish says, “A world where everybody eats, where everybody has decent housing, where everybody has their basic necessities and the freedom to be who they are. The freedom to express the spirit that is inside of them.” There is mutual support and leaving no one behind. Governments and powerful people stop actively causing harm. Liberation is the goal, while abolition, solidarity, and acting as accomplices are the process of how we get free, and live a life without oppression once we get there. Every space in which people inhabit and move is one of anti-violence.
We learn from each other and: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Alisia Bierria, Luisah Teish, and Beth Richie
We learn from each other and: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Alisia Bierria, Luisah Teish, and Beth Richie
Horizontal Leadership
Compiled by Basha with words from Jamison, Alayna, Basha, Elaine, and Laura
Revision process 12/17/2020
Revision process 12/17/2020
Horizontal Leadership accounts for intersectionality and interlocking systems of oppression that may make one member of an organization more or less empowered than another. Using multiple people’s lived experiences to foster a growth environment in pursuit of one common goal.
It’s inner workings are a collaborative process that decenters the idea of ownership, moving energy. Decision-making is decentralized. This is in an effort to not replicate hierarchical and oppressive models of leadership.
Everyone is valued. Everyone is fully committed to the work and has the confidence, respect, and trust to take initiative on projects/work. As the Combahee River Collective writes, “a collective process and a nonhierarchical distribution of power within our own group and in our vision of a revolutionary society.”
Examples that we use/embody are clear communication, clearly defined roles and boundaries, preventative plans for addressing conflict and harm, structures in place for decision making, and skill-building so that everyone feels competent.
We learn from each other and: AORTA Horizontalism, Marina Sitrin, and adrienne maree brown
It’s inner workings are a collaborative process that decenters the idea of ownership, moving energy. Decision-making is decentralized. This is in an effort to not replicate hierarchical and oppressive models of leadership.
Everyone is valued. Everyone is fully committed to the work and has the confidence, respect, and trust to take initiative on projects/work. As the Combahee River Collective writes, “a collective process and a nonhierarchical distribution of power within our own group and in our vision of a revolutionary society.”
Examples that we use/embody are clear communication, clearly defined roles and boundaries, preventative plans for addressing conflict and harm, structures in place for decision making, and skill-building so that everyone feels competent.
We learn from each other and: AORTA Horizontalism, Marina Sitrin, and adrienne maree brown
Community Care
Compiled by Basha and Elaine with words from Alayna, Jamison, Elaine, Basha, Laura, and Nora.
Revision process 10/29/2020 - 11/15/2020
Revision process 10/29/2020 - 11/15/2020
Community Care is a call to care. Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha teaches us that it is a joyful collective responsibility to take action and to share what our needs are. This does not necessarily rely on the state or biological family and is antithetical to the idea that care means loss of control that dominates US society. Community Care is the belief that one's community has value and that individual and collective needs can look different for every person. Taking care of each other is a lifelong commitment, one that is full of abundance, and lacks scarcity; it is sustainability, patience, and building for the long haul. Individually community care can show up/look like empathy, selflessness, and boundaries. Liberation is Black women/Non-Binary/Gender Non Conforming folks feeling that they can be soft and that is a form of strength, that they don’t always have to have or be fire to make something burn. Collective Community Care is supporting others (intra/inter/systematic) and acknowledges genuine respect for EVERY human life.
As a collective, we prioritize humanity and human needs over wealth, power, greed, individualism, and fame. As a collective, we practice community care by honoring our boundaries, checking in with each other regularly, gentleness, and ongoing evaluation of personal and community needs
As a collective, we prioritize humanity and human needs over wealth, power, greed, individualism, and fame. As a collective, we practice community care by honoring our boundaries, checking in with each other regularly, gentleness, and ongoing evaluation of personal and community needs
Collaboration
Compiled by Elaine with words from Jamison, Alayna, Basha, Elaine, and Laura
Revision process (11/30/2020 -12/1/2020)
Revision process (11/30/2020 -12/1/2020)
Collaboration is a group of individuals working together towards a common goal with shared values in order to create a multi-dimensional project. Each individual brings something to share in the conversation: perspective, positionality, skills, resources, strengths. Collaboration is about relationships and the product of those relationships. Collaboration is compiling and creating to do the work, it can be done in many different ways, but always requires sharing and respect. Collaboration is decentering the idea of ownership, and having a deeper understanding of one’s limitations in order to not overpower the individual work. It requires consent and group decision making.
We learn from each other and: Toolkit for Cooperative, Collective, & Collaborative
We learn from each other and: Toolkit for Cooperative, Collective, & Collaborative
White Supremacy
Compiled by Elaine with words from Jamison, Alayna, Basha, Elaine, and Laura
Revision process (11/30/2020 -12/1/2020)
Revision process (11/30/2020 -12/1/2020)
White Supremacy is the learned, dangerous, racist ideology that whiteness is superior and must be protected at all costs. White supremacy is violent, forced premature death for entire populations. It is a systematic uplifting, centering, and the amplification of people who are racialized or perceived as white, cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied individuals in order to unnecessarily overpower other people’s autonomy. This affords white people the innate right to do, act, be, and govern while excluding and harming others. White supremacy is connected to other forms of oppression such as borders, biological essentialism and cisheteropatriarchy, sexual violence, militarism, settler-colonialism and Indigenous genocide, Black exploitation, colonization and imperialism, criminalization and mass incarceration, ableism, classism, and more. White supremacy manifests itself in people, places, things, systems, and institutions, permeating every aspect of life to uphold white dominance at the personal, individual, and societal level. Whiteness is criminalization of the other.
We learn from: Layla Saad, Shay-Akil McLean, Ruth Wilson Gilmore
We learn from: Layla Saad, Shay-Akil McLean, Ruth Wilson Gilmore
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