Dark Clouds to Blue Skies: Resist

Photo by Binny Thomas: Prexels

I feel the pressure to mentally, physically, and emotionally resist the dark clouds, damning messages, and irrational actions of a government, country, as well as elected and appointed leaders who’ve allowed money, fear, perceived loss of relevance, and racism to drag this country through this latest humanitarian crisis. This resistance must be targeted at economic, social, and community-wide systems not set up to fully serve us (the poor, marginalized, and undereducated). We must revisit the lessons learned from old campaigns fifty and sixty years ago, where people sacrificed personal whims for major group progress. We must also dig deeper into historical campaigns and champions who resisted tyranny and evil on multiple levels.

It’s not enough to engage in rhetoric about which political party has committed the worst atrocities against the people. It’s not enough to believe this is temporary, and when the demagogues leave office, we can find a path forward as a nation again. We must resist the temptation to minimize the state of our crumbling society. Sure, electing people with vision might help. This situation is beyond rhetoric and calls for sustained resistance. We can’t grow weary when we’re inconvenienced or have to explain to our work friends why we’re not patronizing certain establishments or participating in activities that harm black and brown communities.

Why not? Because for me, we are still fighting America’s original sin—the casual enslavement of people deemed inferior due to race. The nation has resisted transformative justice options since the end of the American Civil War. Declaring freedom. Saying some platitudes about Civil Rights when prisons are overcrowded with black bodies, schools remain segregated by race and standardized test scores, and neighborhoods remain blighted or red-lined based on who lives there.

We, the resistors, must understand the options, failure, and personal loss of assets and that progress must be maintained. Despite setbacks and sellouts, our will to succeed determines our progress. In this imperfect “democracy,” people and systems are fully entrenched in our failure and regression. We must accept that our allies are fragile and will seek to align with us only when it benefits them. We have only to look at the women’s movement and who ultimately benefitted from the marches and expanded opportunities. We cannot accept that just a few women of color can move up the ladder while white women now sit next to white men and side with them to our detriment. That’s not solidarity. That’s manipulation and exploitation.

We can exert pressure at different points as we combat resistance to our dreams, economic well-being, and even our lives. We must remain focused and stop being swayed by empty promises and slogans. Because we are not a monolith or play follow-the-leader, we must also hold each other accountable when our leaders are short-sighted, wrong, or self-serving. We must resist the temptation to take the easy way out. Real, meaningful, and enduring change is worth the risk.

Think of Anne Frank, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman— I am amazed by their resistance strategies. They didn’t know how their fights would end. Still, they knew resistance was necessary to combat the outright evil facing them. Let’s learn from Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Anne Frank, and the legion of women who practiced the art of resistance. Let’s combine our collective abilities and resources to resist evil and pushbacks and chart a better path forward for ourselves and those who will come after us.

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Dr. Joyce A. Brown

Dr. Joyce A. Brown is a motivational speaker and author who uses her creative energy to give voice and meaning to women's challenges in all walks of life. She grew up in Rockford, Illinois, in a household of strong women, but her professional career expanded her reach into Peoria and Battle Creek, Michigan. She is a proud Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. member and has served as a direct services worker, executive director, program director for a major foundation, and entrepreneur. Joyce has experienced many uplifting moments as a professional and dedicated parent and strives to bring those events and lessons to life through her characters in the contemporary fiction novels she pens. Visit her Author’s Page.

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