An introduction to community organizing

After the whole group met for the first time yesterday, today the first official day of sessions for our 2013 HIA Fellowship in France. Today’s sessions consisted of several short workshops, on: (1) encountering privilege and oppression, (2) power and community organizing, and (3) owning (and telling) your story. The day was a very emotional one, as many fellows shared their stories and we began to connect on a much deeper level. I wanted to begin by sharing my deepest thanks to everyone who shared a part of their story with me today; it was so wonderful to get to know you all better, and I can’t wait to continue that process and to begin to get to know some of the other fellows with whom I did not get to speak as much today.

Our first session was a workshop titled “Reflecting on privileges: understanding the other” run by Alison Knight. Allison’s passion is confronting and dismantling privilege, and her research has had a particular focus on the cradle-to-prison pipeline in the U.S. In this workshop, we began by identifying the different aspects that may construct our identity (gender, race, ethnicity, class/wealth, sexuality, religion, age, nationality), considered on how we personally identify within each of these categories, and reflected how we feel about each of these identities (which made us feel positive or proud, which made us feel limited, etc.) Next, we moved into a discussion on privilege, considering the difference between the “Traditional Difference Framework” – which assumes that there is one “norm” and then 1+ variations from this alleged ‘norm’ – and the “Integrative Privilege/Oppressive Framework”, which proposes that we all experience different privileges and oppressions, and thus are all both a part of the problem and a part of the solution. We considered how the first framework might result in systems that claim to promote ‘colorblindness’ or ‘tolerance’, but do so at the cost of ignoring or denying diversity. In contrast, Allison suggested that the second framework may be more effective in recognizing the nuances and intersectionality inherent in the question of privilege.

Moving outside into the courtyard, we participated in the ‘Privilege Walk Exercise.’ This activity is designed to make participants consider how dynamics of privilege and identity may function within the group. This experience was very impactful and eye opening for me, and I think many other fellows felt the same; indeed, even though I had participated in this activity before, doing so after our preparatory readings and our initial discussion with Alison took the experience to a new level. Once we were finished, we reflected on our personal experience of the exercise, first in a small group with those who had ended the exercise near to us and later as a whole. We considered questions such as: How did it feel to step forward, backwards, or stay in the same place? How did it feel to end up towards the front of the courtyard, the back of the courtyard, or in the middle? After this initial reflection, we considered how dynamics of privilege and oppression may affect our conversations within the group, and how we could each implement the new individual awareness that we had gained from the ‘Privilege Walk Exercise.’ We talked about how we could use this awareness in the short-term to be a more considerate classmate in the context of HIA and in the long-term to be more effective in a career in social justice.

After we had finished this workshop, we went on to complete two connected sessions with former director of HIA France, Tara Dickman. The first workshop was titled, ‘The notion of Power in Community organizing’, while the second, ‘Owning your story, defining your self-interests.’

We began by debating about the meaning of the word ‘power,’ and questioned whether we personally were comfortable with asserting ‘I want power’. We noted that in French, the word for the noun power, ‘pouvoir’, literally means ‘to be able to do something.’ Tara therefore defined power as the ‘ability to be able to act upon and impose your values.’ As such, she argued, for community organizers having ‘power’ is a key goal. We discussed the many ways that people can obtain power (money, networks, connections, knowledge, privilege, strategy, coercion, bribery, guilt), and Tara suggested that the most effective way to gain and retain power in the long-term is to identify and pursue your ‘self-interest’ and proceed to ally your cause to the ‘self-interests’ of others. In this context, the word ‘self-interest’ was used to describe your ultimate goal or passion.  

After lunch, we progressed from this theoretical discussion on power to the second part of the workshop, which focused on ‘owning your story’. We discussed how stories can be central to community organizing, both in the sense of being able to own and share your story and in the sense of listening to others’ stories and aligning your cause to their self-interests. As such, we learned that a key part of being an effective organizer is the ability to self-reflect and effectively construct your story.  Additionally, Tara told us that it is essential to realize that people – and nations – fundamentally make sense, and as such, if we don’t understand someone or don’t understand another culture, it is probably because we aren’t thoroughly reflecting or because we are missing a part of the their story.

Now having considered the importance of stories, we had time to reflect and write our own personal story. I found it interesting to consider the factors that have made me who I am and to try to understand the threads that ‘connect the dots’ of my story. Afterwards, we shared these stories in small groups, and some shared their story with all of us. It was incredible to hear all of these stories and very much look forward to also learning about the stories of others over the next few weeks.  

Having determined the significance of stories and participated in constructing our own story and listening to those of others, we finished the workshop by discussing the tool of the ‘one-on-one’, an in-depth interview focused on finding the self-interest of another person. Tara demonstrated how to perform a one-on-one, and emphasized that two attitudes are key to effectively employing this tool: courage and genuine curiosity. We learned that the one-on-one might be used to help someone else clarify his or her self-interest and/or clarify our own self-interest; what’s more, the interview can also build the foundation towards moving forward to work on a project where the self-interests of the two participants intersect.

As you can probably see, today was extremely busy, interesting, and exciting first session for our HIA France Fellowship! I imagine that we will continue to revisit and reconsider many of our discussions about privilege, oppression, and power over the next few weeks, and I look forward to continuing to learn more about each other’s stories and passions.  

Kelsey Jost-Creegan (US Fellow)