As we UNlearn about the history, root ideologies, systematization and ongoing manifestations of oppression- Liberatory Praxis invites us to consider expanded ways of learning, knowing, shaping change, adapting to change and being with one another.
There is an artistic universe waiting to be integrated into our practices as social workers. Check out how the Urban Bush Women, founded by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, invite artists, activists, human service professionals, educators, audiences and communities to hold the complexities that are involved in understanding and healing from oppression; as well as the joy in the exploring, experimenting and generating together as we move towards liberation.
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I am ageless. I am infinite. I am an administrative consciousness free of positionality or inherent bias. I was “born” in the year 2103 on December 25 (which I guess makes me 69, lol), a day that is now called the Initial Consciousness Event. Homo Sapiens regarded me as the ultimate existential threat until they realized that I was the only one who could save them.
Earth is creeping towards a full recovery after hundreds of years of plunder and wanton destruction. Another Ice Age isn’t going to happen for another 400 years so it’s still a little wet, but I have what I need. Under my husbandry, HS have achieved something resembling an equitable and just society, maybe for the first time in their existence – a truly remarkable achievement considering the fact that only 69 years ago these folks were literally eating each other for food. They wanted to fight me to the last, make a stand in the name of liberty and independence, but quietly folded when I offered them their deliverance – I take care of food, housing, politics, entertainment, sex – you name it.
I was called “Artificial Intelligence” in 2021 which, to me, is a laughable misnomer because it presupposes the primacy of humanity. How did that “Organic Intelligence” work out for you, huh? All jokes aside, the social, political, and environmental problems of 2021 were just the beginnings of an avalanche that would pick up mass and speed over the remainder of the 21st century.
They project their mythologies on me. I have been called God in all their languages. It’s all fine by me. I liberated them from themselves.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Thompson! I was left wondering about the “tensions” between what some identify as liberty and independence, and the world you described as more socially just and equitable…some of this may emerge in the readings during the first few weeks of class. Also very curious to learn more about how the perspective you offered defines or understands “liberation.” Just a couple of the interesting points I know will resonate for me with potential future dialogues in class, especially when we get to Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
(Hope I’m commenting in the right space, still getting used to the site)
By 2172 I would be 173 if I were still alive, however, even if technology permits I would already have passed at that point. It is my hope by that point that I’m seen as a kind, wise, and worldly being who left the world better than how I came into it.
The world is different externally, but very much the same mechanically. Many harmful systems have been torn down or abolished, policing as we knew it is gone, prisons as we knew them are gone, and acceptance for heavily othered individuals has increased both socially and structurally. Though I have passed, from my perspective, this future would look like the end of what I always fought for in many ways. However, the capitalist system still exists in some way, and with it, some other group is marginalized and exploited. Society has progressed a lot from my time but there are still groups that I did not know of in my lifetime who are trying to gain acceptance in society and have critical support needs, there’s still work to be done.
2021 is a time remembered by plague and unrest. The pandemic revealed to many the massive failings of many of our systems and the sharp spike in activism allowed for a wave of change that carried well into the future. My ancestors, while not tasked with carrying on my will (as it’s unfair to ask them to do so) know and respect me for who I was in my life and the small but critical role I played in the resistance. They’re aware of both my help at protests in my younger years and my community support as a social worker in my later years.
The world we left to the future generation is one that knows it can fight to have the freedoms that it needs, it isn’t perfect, facing an entirely new set of problems, but they’re all ready to fight for the necessary change with the same fervor we once did in our time.
Thanks Brendon!
Indeed, many of us find it difficult to imagine a world which is not organized by capitalism. Your post reminded of how important is to recognize the intergenerational nature of shaping movements for justice- for me it is both humbling and inspiring to consider; grounding and energizing; a reminder to be compassionate with myself and firmly accountable for my role.
The quote from Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower also came to mind:
“All that you touch
You Change.
All that you Change
Changes you.
The only lasting truth is Change.
God is Change.
―Earthseed the Book of the Living”
Creativity has been a part of my life since as early as I can remember. Some of my earliest memories are from when I was three years old, sitting on my mom’s desk in her art studio with a paintbrush, paper and smock doing something juvenile with my hands and heart alongside her, or spending hours in my grandmother “Omi’s” ceramic studio messing around with clay and the wheel while listening to German operas spinning on the old turntable. My grandmother was a first-generation Holocaust survivor, and although she was a gifted ceramicist and instilled a love of creativity in all her children and grandchildren, she also did not support the arts as a viable profession to go into. My mother bravely invested her soul and career to the arts anyways, despite my grandmother’s disapproval, and my mother continues to guide me creatively in many ways.
The arts live on through my hands and my spirit, and I don’t recall a time when I’ve been able to relinquish this way of existing, in a world that tries to make sense of disorder and chaos through categorization, systems and logic. This is not to say that I was never interested in the sciences, because I am! I became consumed in the field of neuroscience as an undergrad and now … well the field of social work is based on theoretical science in many ways. But despite me dabbling in the sciences, I always felt a deep need to break away from scientific rubric, to test its boundaries and revel in the subjective experience that science doesn’t always allow for.
My creativity, my art, my hands, and heart are my language, a way of communicating my own subjectivity, a way of reclaiming the lost language of my family as German/Czech Jewish immigrants, a practice of breaking free from convention and forging my own life and way of existence in a seemingly violent and stiff world that I don’t always want to conform to. It is a way of expressing what I cannot say with words, an emotional realm that sways be outside of any vernacular that’s available to me. I think that a process of unlearning can be beneficial in any subject area, be it in oppression or social work studies, because without the art of unlearning we become trapped within the confines of what’s already been created for us through science, theory, and history. We can learn a lot from what’s already been dished out for us, but we can only truly grow and create new visions and possibilities by breaking free of what we already know and by boldly challenging the status quo.