Finding Your People
“In our world, divide and conquer must become define and empower.” - Audre Lorde
As Women’s Herstory Month nears an end, and on this Cesar Chavez Day, I am drawing strength and inspiration from the long legacy of international women leading local and global movements for human rights, peace, and justice.
Finding your people is discovering those who truly understand you, experiencing life's ups and downs together, and making a space where you can feel at home. Let your light shine bright so your people will find you!
In these uncertain times of turmoil, political repression, and increasing attacks on Black, Indigenous, People of Color, LGBTQ communities, and education, there is no better time than now to find your people and work toward social change and justice.
In this quarterly issue of the Olive Branch Newsletter, I provide ways to take action and get involved in organizing against the relentless attacks on human rights and push back against the threats to public education, research and data, federal funding, and libraries. The landscape is rapidly changing and dramatically impacting our communities.
My generation (Gen-X) has benefited from the sacrifices and progress made by the social and political movements for change in the US and abroad for human rights, civil rights and women’s rights. Some of the ways I have benefitted include access to public education through financial aid and scholarships to attend college, reproductive health care, campus student activism, ability to be the first in my family to graduate, and pursuit of a career in student affairs in higher education.
However, I am also part of a generation that grew up with peers and family members impacted by militarization and war, families separated by migration and deportations, domestic violence, racial tensions, poverty, defunding of social services and educational programs, a growing digital divide, rising costs of housing and food, and college tuition not within reach.
While higher education and college campuses are microcosms of the social and racial inequities impacting our communities, campuses have also been places to inform and raise political consciousness and collective action to make a difference in the lives of those impacted by systems of oppression.
College campuses are places where student activism and community organizing have demanded changes to invest in hiring more faculty of color, and resources allocated to fund departments and centers such as Black Studies, Ethnic Studies, Gender Studies, and cultural centers. All these efforts added to leading the way for new possibilities and approaches in response to the demands of campus activism and community organizing.
Today, the advances made in areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion on college campuses have been dismantled, removed, and scrubbed from websites. This begs the question of how committed and principled are college campuses if so quick and willing to cower to hate and recklessness.
In these times of chaos and turmoil we have an opportunity to educate, organize, and mobilize our communities. We have an opportunity to build community across our campuses with a firm commitment and advocacy to amplify values and principles of diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, antiracism, belonging and justice in higher education. The future depends on what we do in this present moment in finding our people and voices.
We have a collective responsibility to create new approaches and opportunities to make a difference with and among the communities we serve toward a more just campus and experience in higher education.
Are you interested in doing this work together? Let’s connect through coaching and consulting services. Work with me and let’s create something new together!
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