It's time to cause some "good trouble"
With the passing of Civil Rights era icons John Lewis and C.T. Vivian happening, almost simultaneously, in a time of such reckoning and social unrest- I can’t help but feel as if a torch is being passed to the next generation of angelic troublemakers.
In life they reminded us of an era long gone, one depicted in black and white photos in our history books in an effort to trick our brains into thinking the Civil Rights Era was part of antiquity. In death they opened our eyes to the reality that their work is still unfinished, and although we have all benefited from the progress they helped create, we still have so far to go.
So how do we go about creating the “good trouble” John Lewis so passionately claimed is the necessary ingredient in delivering the cultural shifts which give birth to progress? The first step is to stop and listen to those who have been causing the trouble all along.
“There’s really no such thing as the “voiceless”. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.”
Those we think of as marginalized within our communities do have a voice- they always have, but the culture which has refused to hear them (or their advocates) has fooled us into believing the victims of indifference are actually our enemies. We dismiss them as radical. We dismiss them as never satisfied. We dismiss them as trying to take more than their fair share. We dismiss them as asking for something they have not earned. Yet all they are asking for is a fighting chance at equality.
At least that was my experience, as an advocate who dared attempt to give voice to the needs of my immigrant, refugee, and asylum-seeking students. While I might not have been silenced, I was most definitely “preferably unheard”. Their needs still linger, unmet by a system more interested in comfortable silence than meaningful change. Our Black allies were not surprised.
In the early summer of 2015 my husband and I visited a childhood friend who lives in Memphis, Tennessee. A highlight of the trip was the day we spent at the National Civil Rights Museum, housed in the former Lorraine Motel, the location of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. It physically and spiritually connected me to the history I taught and the values I cherish in a way words cannot do justice.
Yet it was the end of the tour that not only caught me off guard, but inspired me to make “good trouble” when necessary. There, in a building dedicated to the memory of our most iconic Civil Rights hero and all of those who walked beside him, was a connection to the modern day which reminded me of my purpose as an educator and my obligation as an ally.
The day of our visit the National Civil Rights Museum concluded with a tribute to the next chapter of the movement- a salute to Cesar Chavez, the United Farm Workers Union, and a nod to the struggle of Latinos in our nation. It was a stark reminder that the work is not over. More “good trouble” is necessary.
“You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.”
This picture was taken on Sunday, June 7th 2020, at Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington DC. It was the last public appearance made by Congressman John Lewis.
So at this moment in time, with Black Americans reminding the nation that their lives matter too, and with brown children separated from their parents and locked in cages, what “good trouble” can you cause to accept the torch which has been passed to the next generation?
Angelic troublemakers are needed, now more than ever. Now go make some trouble- some “good trouble”.