Coalition politics
We owe a debt of gratitude to the Black radical feminist tradition for many reasons:
0 1. The idea of interlocking oppressions (Combahee River Collective)
0 2. The notion of love as a driver of political activity (Combahee River Collective)
0 3. Coalition Politics (Bernice Johnson Reagon)
0 4. The politics of love (bell hooks)
0 5. Intersectionality (Kimberlé Crenshaw)
0 6. Presence as method (Barbara Smith)
0 7. The erotic as power (Audre Lorde)
Much of their work has been underestimated at best and mostly ignored or subsumed in others’ efforts to outdo or “build on” their contributions. I often revisit them and ask myself if I truly think I understand all that is inscribed in those pages. One such day, I revisited Bernice Johnson Reagon’s “Coalition Politics: Turning the Century” published by Barbara Smith in Homegirls: A Black Feminist Anthology. Those were the days when experimentation that placed artistic expression and theory together was a regular practice and when the structure of the anthology was used to advance a revolution.
I took a close look at this article and applied the method of discourse analysis to it. As I analyzed each sentence and connected with what Dr. Reagon was explaining, it became evident that an analytical, leadership, behavioral and ethical gift was codified into this text. I have since brought these teachings in to circles, trainings and organizational development efforts seeking to engage in conversations, analysis, and systemic transformations around power. In sum, this is what she says:
The only reason you would consider trying to team up with somebody who could possibly kills you, is because that’s the only way you can figure you can stay alive.
–Bernice Johnson Reagon
Dr. Reagon understands coalition politics quite differently from the way most politicians understand them. She is not talking about the way in which we maneuver our will into the core political platforms developed by political coalitions, or coalitions that seek to galvanize the efforts of different constituencies to achieve a set of particular goals. For Reagon, coalition politics is the art of intentionally engaging that which could possibly kill you so that you may live. Knowing that there is a profound difference between discomfort and risk, she is referring to incurring risk as a strategy for survival.
Reagon explains that engaging in coalition politics implies the following:
Interacting with people who are different from us and who have power over us on a regular basis.
Danger
Discomfort
Giving all the time with little to no guarantee of returns
Thinking across generations to create a desired future
Coalition is not the same thing as home
Over the past seven years, I have engaged vastly different groups of people ranging from domestic violence survivors to philanthropists. Every woman of color I have engaged in the exercise I developed to support people’s learning of Dr. Reagon’s teaching understands perfectly well that each of these implications mean and also what coalition politics are. More importantly, each of them has known the difference between home and coalition.
I ask folks to make two lists that look like this:
Home and Coalition Lists
Folks often ask what if there are locations that show up on both lists. Often domestic violence survivors have known violence in their intimate environments since childhood. Others may be in domestic violence situations while doing this exercise. Others yet may be confused about the nature of organizational life and either want their workplaces to be home spaces and are frustrated because they are not or simply assume that their work environment is their home. Much comes up for people when asked to identify when and where they are at home and in coalition. Given the messy nature of the relationship between home and coalition, I then ask folks to make a Venn diagram showing the relationship between the two.
Sometimes the relationship between the two is minimal.
For others, one circle may devour the other and so on. Privilege is often tied to the size of each of these circles and also their relationship to each other. In many an occasion, I have seen home circles that far outsize the coalition circles. In my case, the above diagram is my coalition map.
This exercise is an important first step in getting groups and leaders to talk openly about how power works in their organizations and their lives. Oftentimes, we are very clear about who we are in coalition with as we are keenly aware of who oppresses us. However, the invitation in this exercise is also about who is in coalition with us, who are we, who am I actively or at risk of oppressing?
Managing these power dynamics can be exhausting and so it is also important for people to understand why they are so tired; to have a framework that shows them just how much they are negotiating every day to show up to work and be there while also then being able to show their community of colleagues, friends, allies and accomplices where they are spending their energy and how.
Oftentimes in these conversations, there is a lot of sadness as the hardship people are enduring to just be able to gain a living, function in this society, and still be able to have healthy family lives is a lot. It is important to do this exercise with ample time to talk things out and to make sure folks are feeling seen, heard, respected, and honored throughout the experience.
Luckily, as Dr. Reagon seems to always do throughout her body of work, she makes sure to let folks know that not all is lost. In the end, the enactment of our values guarantee for us a measure of freedom and well being despite the innumerable barriers faced that try hard to keep us away from our joy, well being, enduring political engagement, and the use of our transformative power to chisel a future where humanity can thrive along with the rest of our ecosystem.
Much like what I have learned over the years with indigenous and other elders, Reagon highlights that engaging in coalition politics in a way that sustains you over time requires:
An ethic of respect
An ethic of generosity
An ethic of forgiveness
The capacity to engage across difference even while in the experience of social oppression and harm
The capacity to create home and also spaces to practice being in coalition
The capacity to recoil
A vision for the future
There are many implications for organizational leaders, community leaders, movement leaders, and organizations that care to be ethical in Reagon’s work. There are multiple implications also for our personal lives, our friendships and partnerships and our internal conditions as well. Her work and the life she has led is an illustration of how a creative genius like her has managed to stay present to the hurtful enactments of oppression and Black hatred while still managing to create experiences that help us all continually connect to our humanity so that we can be humane. Luminaries like Dr. Reagon should be studied and engaged in whatever ways are possible so we can all learn about how to go on and continue to walk this path of liberation and transformation.
