"One way of approaching power concerns the dialectical relationship linking oppression and activism, where groups with greater power oppress those with lesser amounts. Rather than seeing social change or lack of it as preordained and outside the realm of human action, the notion of a dialectical relationship suggests that change results from human agency… Oppression and resistance remain intricately linked such that the shape of one influences that of the other. At the same time, this relationship is far more complex than a simple model of permanent oppressors and perpetual victims.
Another way of approaching power views it not as something that groups possess, but as an intangible entity that circulates within a particular matrix of domination and to which individuals stand in varying relationships. These approaches emphasize how individual subjectivity frames human actions within a matrix of domination." (274)
-Patricia Hill Collins in Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment
___________________________________________________________
First they came for the _____________________________
(fill in your race here)
Then they came for the _____________________________
(fill in your sexual preference here)
Then they came for the _____________________________
(fill in your religion here)
Then they came for the _____________________________
(insert your nationality here)
Then they came for anyone who wouldn't comply…
But instead, we came together
We recognized our differences
Learned from them
Honored them
Celebrated them
Utilized them
We fought
Side by side
Arm in arm
Black fists
White arms
Brown feet
Yellow legs
Gay hair
Lesbian lips
Trans bodies
United we stand
Divided we fall
Has never rang more true
In an age of division
Oppression
Subordination
Inequality
Inequity
Racism
Classism
Homophobia
Hate
We must fight it all
We must come together
We must be many
We must be one
