YSWNPY-Zine 20, final - Flipbook - Page 39
Electoral Politics may not save us,
but the community will
Cierra Black (she/her/hers) is a 23-year-old, recent college graduate with a
passion for writing and community advocacy. Cierra’s goal is to positively
contribute to the global and collective liberation of Black people and to be a
Black storyteller that intentionally captures the beauty and power of Black life.
Black studies, abolition, and Afrofuturism are among her current interests,
and in her free time, she loves spending time with her loved ones,
appreciating nature, reading, and creating art with friends.
Instagram: @cierrablack_
By: Cierra Black
With all aspects of my political
journey considered, I now more than
ever share the mindset that the
answer will always be to give directly
to the community and build
infrastructures of collective action.
Mutual aid work, community
sustainability projects such as
community gardens and fridges, and
safety and enrichment programs
are all great outlets to create and
promote community support and
survival. I am still learning what a
productive and sustainable role in
this work looks like for me and the
collective more widely, but I am clear
on where my energy will be directed.
While incremental change - often
carried out through electoral
politics - is indeed vital and
necessary for immediate relief of
our people, I fear that the constant
reinventing of the wheel (or overlap
between groups and political figures)
paired with the need to
monetize everything has created for
a watered-down version of activism
clothed in neoliberalism. A version of
activism that is ultimately too closely
tied to capital to enact lasting change.
As social media, technology, and
capitalism continue to advance I
worry that movements and figures
are too distracted with popularizing
their movements and utilizing the
work too heavily to further their own
personal gain. I witnessed what it
looks like for groups to have access
to millions of dollars and make
a relatively decent impact in the
community or political landscape,
yet hundreds of homeless people are
still living on the streets. I began to
question if all the effort towards this
incremental change was sufficient
enough.
I fully believe that we will not reach
total freedom without dismantling
American capitalism. A system that
benefits off of the exploitation of
human labor and resources will
never achieve or produce equity or
justice for all people. What I’ve come
to notice is that the systems in place,
be it due to bureaucracy or any other
factor, are designed to move entirely
too slow when human lives are at
stake. Families need food and health
care now. Communities need access
to mental health and conflict support
now. Black children need to feel safe
now. And there are many different
things we can do to support these
needs right now.
I currently consider myself a student
of abolition - taking up the responsibility to educate myself not only
on police and prison abolition but to
imagine the total abolition of these
current oppressive systems. I believe
we need to focus more energy on total community investment, sustainability, and independence by uplifting and directly supporting mutual
aid work and survival programs.
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YOUR SILENCE WILL NOT PROTECT YOU 38
I
n my preliminary yet impactful
journey of political education
and growth, one thing grows
increasingly clearer to me:
electoral politics may not save us, but
the community will. I started off as
an undergraduate political science
major, interested in the law and
advocacy, and brimming with
optimism and energy. Throughout
my undergraduate career, I worked
with election campaigns, campus
politics, Black student organizing,
Black student leadership, pre-law
associations, and many
community enrichment programs. I
held a community public health
internship and conducted research
on mass incarceration and the
history of racist policing which was
by far the most eye-opening and
enriching experience of my
academic career. As a fairly recent
college graduate, I continued my
investment in community work by
plugging in with community-run
campaigns, advocacy efforts, and in
public policy and research. I
participated in lobbying, public
comment, political strategizing with
local community organizations, and
efforts to secure funding from large
donors and foundations that pride
themselves in their social justice
work.
We were meant to support one
another; we were meant to lean on
the support of our communities. As
the familiar African proverb states,
“It takes a village,” so why not give
the resources directly to the village
to collectively survive? I don’t and
won’t claim to have the answers. I am
still learning and teaching myself to
utilize the important political tool of
imagination to envision and put action towards a community and world
I wish to see. But I believe that this is
the right path to achieve that goal.
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution reviewed by: David Jenkinsv
