Times are scary, I won’t sugar coat it. The US government is unhinged, fascism is rising across the globe, racist colonizers feel empowered to spread hate, and climate change is all too real. It feels like we’re screaming into the void for someone to save us, but the truth is even harder to accept—we have to save ourselves. Not individually, but collectively.
Our Salvation Lies With Community Care
When fires broke out in LA, it was the community that stepped in to feed, house, and care for fire victims left houseless and hopeless. It was LA neighbors who brought hope back into the city devastated by wildfires.
Through mutual aid funds, community fridges, food donations, supply donations, and people physically cleaning up the rubble and helping folks get their lives back together, LA was able to shift into recovery mode almost immediately after the fires broke out. It’s been almost ten whole months since and LA has still not fully recovered.
When masked men impersonating ICE agents began kidnapping Brown men who looked like immigrants off the streets, it was the community who raised money to help the families affected by the raids, who put together “Know Your Rights” fliers, and educated neighbors on how to help someone being illegally detained, and what to do if these dangerous men arrive in your neighborhood.
bell hooks writes in “all about love” that a love ethic starts with community care. It starts with knowing your neighbors, looking them in the eye, developing empathy for those who don’t look like you, and helping people who can’t help you back. It’s as easy as that.
We Have To Stop Pretending That The Government Will Save Us
Because time and time again, it’s been proven that they won’t. This system was built for a very specific person (white, male, hetero, cis) and everyone else who doesn’t fit that description suffers as a 2nd class citizen.
This isn’t the world I want to live and this isn’t the world I want for the future.
I envision a future where we can all live in caring communities where we take care of each other, instead of waiting for an outside entity to take care of us.
You Have All The Tools You Need Inside Of You
You really do underestimate yourself, don’t you? Well, stop! Stop it right now! You have the power to make a difference, no matter how small your acts of resistance are. You have the power and the know-how to choose better for yourself, your family, and your friends. You know that deep down we all deserve better than whatever this shitshow is.
We weren’t born to depend on a large system of governance such as the U.S. has taught us. They charge us for the resources we should have for free, like clean air, clean water, sewage, and access to gardens.
They poison our food and charge us ridiculous amounts of money to manage the symptoms of illnesses and diseases caused by this poisoned food.
They force parenthood on people with a uterus and then abandon those people when they need help raising those children.
They re-write history, gaslight the entire population that lives here, and then ban books!
This world strips your agency so you can depend on a system meant to uphold the settler colonial standard. They make you helpless, sick, tired, anxious, stressed, and depressed, so you don’t thrive. All so the people in power stay in power.
But this stops now.
You can have better. You can help shape a better world. You can be the change you wish to see in the world. You have all the tools inside of you, you just need a little help in how to use them.
Books To Read To Inspire A Revolution Within You
I’ve put together a short list of 8 books to help inspire a revolution inside of you. If you’re yearning for a better world, this is the list for you.
You will find real tools for implementing community care. You will also learn how to push back against this hetero-patriarchal, capitalistic, white supremacist world.
LOVE IS A RADICAL ACT. UNLEARNING. HEART-CENTERED.
All About Love
by bell hooks
A New York Times bestseller and enduring classic, All About Love is the acclaimed first volume in feminist icon bell hooks’ “Love Song to the Nation” trilogy. All About Love reveals what causes a polarized society, and how to heal the divisions that cause suffering. Here is the truth about love, and inspiration to help us instill caring, compassion, and strength in our homes, schools, and workplaces.
Learn: compassion, leading with your heart, and what real love looks like in your life.
ESSAYS. ACTIVISM. ORGANIZING.
Let This Radicalize You
by Kelly Hayes & Mariame Kaba
What fuels and sustains activism and organizing when it feels like our worlds are collapsing? Let This Radicalize You is a practical and imaginative resource for activists and organizers building power in an era of destabilization and catastrophe.
Learn: mutual aid, community care, and lessons on activism.
LATINIDAD. DECOLONIZATION. MIGRATION.
Our Migrant Souls
by Héctor Tobar
In Our Migrant Souls, the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Héctor Tobar delivers a definitive and personal exploration of what it means to be Latino in the United States right now.
Learn: decolonizing and unpacking the Latino identity in the modern U.S.
PRODUCTIVITY. SPIRITUALITY. ACTIVISM.
Rest is Resistance
by Tricia Hersey
Disrupt and push back against capitalism and white supremacy. In this book, Tricia Hersey, aka The Nap Bishop, encourages us to connect to the liberating power of rest, daydreaming, and naps as a foundation for healing and justice.
Learn: how to liberate yourself from Grind Culture.
MEMOIR. IDENTITY. PERSONAL TRUTH.
A Renaissance of Our Own
by Rachel E. Cargle
From a highly lauded modern voice in feminism and racial justice comes a deeply personal and insightful testament to the power of reimagining to dismantle the frameworks and systems that no longer serve us while building new ones that do.
Learn: how to re-imagine a life that feel authentic to you.
INDIGENOUS RESISTANCE. DECOLONIZATION.
As We Have Always Done
by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
“As We Have Always Done is an in-depth look into Indigenous resistance and what is possible when that resistance embraces Indigenous culture. It gives us a glimmer of hope. Hope that there is another way to live.”–The Collective
Learn: How to build Indigenous resistance movements that refuse the destructive thinking of settler colonialism.
SELF-HELP. COLLECTIVE ACTION. HOPE.
Emergent Strategy
by adrienne maree brown
In the tradition of Octavia Butler, radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help to shape the futures we want.
Learn: to feel, map, assess, and learn from the swirling patterns around us in order to better understand and influence them as they happen.
ACTIVISM ARCHETYPES. PERSONAL STRATEGIES.
Micro Activism
by Omkari L. Williams
Everyone can be an activist with the guidance of Omkari Williams, a life coach who guides readers in identifying their “activist archetype” and mapping a personal action plan for engaging in small, change-making activities with potentially big impacts.
Learn: small ways you can make a big impact.
You CAN Make a Difference
Your small acts of activism DO make a difference. Your conversations about justice and equality DO make a difference. Speaking up and raising your voice DOES make a difference.
Those clothes you donated to a clothing swap? It matters. Those handmade soaps you bought from a small business? It matters. The ‘FUCK ICE’ signs you put up in your window? It matters.
Your actions speak louder than words.
Do not let nihilism run rampant in your heart. It’s easy to feel the weight of the world and feel that nothing you’re doing matters, but that would be a lie.
What you do does matter, don’t let other people tell you otherwise. Never give up hope for a better world. It’s people like you that will make all the difference.
the bookish b* 