This may sound surprising but I’ve been taken aback by how and how much race, power and privilege have come up in every Practice Circle so far. Here’s our elephant finally being talked about publicly. To state the obvious, power and race are issues in our movement. And, as we know, social justice movements are essentially about wrestling power from those who have most of it to deliver some to those with little or none.
Lately, at work, it’s “all abortion, all the time.” In meetings, discussions, debates, documentaries, conferences, brown bags and presentations, the venue may change but the topic is stubbornly stable. In these settings, people narrate tales of other women’s abortions – as if abortion, and not a woman’s self-discovery and self-determination were the take home point.
We started our Practice Circle as has become CoreAlign custom: stretching and, I’ll admit, straining way past any low hanging fruit. Our topic for this first circle: What do we mean by gender in today’s world?
When Tracy and I began thinking about the “do” part of CoreAlign we knew that we wanted to re-examine leadership in the movement. There were so many leaders that we both loved and admired deeply, and yet, collectively we weren’t producing the kind of success that could be expected. What was going on?
A recent Time magazine cover story asked What Choice?, making the argument that ever since winning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, abortion-rights activists have been losing.
To my surprise, articulating my own dream for the reproductive movement has wracked my brain and heart way more than I expected.
Some people seek thrills by jumping out of airplanes. For Tracy and me, designing and launching CoreAlign has been the intellectual equivalent, fingers crossed that the parachute opens to guide us safely to our targeted landing. In any day’s work we bounce between aha moments of accord and concern that what sounds so right is the mere amplification of our own little echo chamber. What if, despite great intentions, our novel experiment only leads to more of the same? Who the hell do we, two West Coast academics, think we are to be doing this? And what is our plan B if we fall (and fail) hard and fast?
This blog is our unveiling of the process, an unvarnished offering to you. It is the place where we will share our musings, explorations and sometimes-painful growth spurts in our collective fight to win resources, rights and respect for all people’s sexual and reproductive decision making. We are hopeful these posts will spark as much introspection and action for you – our friends and allies – as your own candor and work does for us.
