Chief Network Weaver, Julia Roig and Jarvis Williams, Director for Race & Democracy reflect on some of the natural tensions facing the work of organizers at the national and state levels within a “block, bridge, build” framework – the importance of applied history, attention to what voices and partnerships are privileged, and how specific asks for policies and institutional reforms are raised and prioritized. All this while also bringing in our “intermestic” lens of shared struggles with colleagues in other countries.
Tag: Democracy
Faith and the Authoritarian Playbook
*This article was written by Chief Organizer Maria J. Stephan and was first published on Sojourners, you can access the full article without a paywall here.
How Christians can defend and nurture democracy
IN 2012, I was a U.S. State Department officer deployed to Turkey to work with the Syrian opposition. It was an opportunity to support Syrian activists waging a remarkable popular struggle against an authoritarian government that had responded to peaceful protest with bullets and torture. For nearly a year, Syrian Sunnis, Christians, Kurds, Druze, Alawites, and others used demonstrations, sit-ins, resistance music, colorful graffiti, consumer boycotts, and dozens of other nonviolent tactics to challenge the Bashar al-Assad administration. But the nonviolent movement was unable to remain resilient in the face of brutality, external support for civil resistance was weak, and finally Syrians took up arms. This played into Assad’s hand. Death, displacement, and destruction skyrocketed. Extremists exploited the chaos. The Syrian nonviolent pro-democracy forces were inspired and courageous but lacked organization and adequate support to prepare them for the long haul. This haunts me to this day.
I’ve worked around the world with scholars, activists, policy makers, and faith communities to design effective support for nonviolent struggles to defend and advance freedom and dignity. I’ve been mentored by leaders of the U.S. civil rights movement, the greatest pro-democracy movement in our history, whose strategic campaigns to dismantle racial authoritarianism hold great relevance today.
As we head into the 2024 election, the risks to freedom and democracy are higher than they’ve been for decades. Religious communities who understand that democracy is the best modern governing system for protecting religious freedom and advancing shared values have a critical role to play as partisans for democracy.
A People’s Government
DEMOCRACY IS THE delicate balance of collective self-rule (majority rule) and civil liberties (minority rights). For a vibrant, multifaith democracy to thrive, we must reject attempts to concentrate government power in the hands of a few or with those who are not constitutionally accountable to the governed.
You can access the rest of the article without a paywall here.
Resources on Art, Cultural Work & Inclusive Democracy
Artistic and cultural processes are uniquely well-suited to address our current challenges of democratic decline and rising authoritarianism because they engage us cognitively, emotionally, sensorily, and, in some cases, spiritually. They can be crafted to cultivate the relationships and understandings needed for effective movement-building to resist current systems of oppression, to mobilize masses to stand up for our values, and to inspire people to come together to build our shared future. When we align the arts, cultural work and pro-democracy organizing, we enliven our sensibilities – sense of justice; sense of humor; sense of beauty; sense of integrity – and energize us to work with conviction, creativity and compassion.
Successful pro-democracy movements involve a wide range of sectors and actors who play different roles, with diverse insights and practices that arise from a variety of disciplines, organizing traditions, lived experiences and modes of knowing. Horizons is committed to supporting these many actors to come together to build the relational infrastructure to bolster democracy and confront the global rise of authoritarianism. We believe this will take a whole-of-system approach, taking into account the multiple forces contributing to democratic decline and amplifying the many bright spots that are fostering societal repair and democratic renewal. Arts and cultural work are an integral part of this pro-democracy ecosystem, with unique approaches to energize movements and actors to be nourished, supported, lifted up, and linked together in mutually reinforcing ways.
The following resources were curated by the Horizons Project in collaboration with Cindy Cohen, Senior Fellow with IMPACT, Inc. Launched in 2022, IMPACT, Inc. advocates for arts and culture to transform conflict and build more creative, inclusive societies. With a global network of doers, thinkers and influencers, IMPACT brings people together through events and platforms, and raises awareness of diverse voices and contexts. IMPACT, Inc. supports those delivering impactful work through capacity building, making connections and creating opportunities for sharing practice and learning.
The resources listed and described here are by no means comprehensive; instead, they are meant to suggest the breadth and depth of work being done at the intersection of arts, culture and inclusive democracy. If you would like to suggest additional themes or resources, please contact us at [email protected].
- Mobilizing voters
Elections matter, and yet we know that modern autocratic regimes are often democratically elected. Countering authoritarianism in the US therefore involves much more than electoral politics. Nevertheless, the need to mobilize people to vote, and to vote for candidates that uphold democratic principles, is an urgent and indispensable part of a multipronged strategy. Here we highlight successful practices of engaging artists and cultural workers in mobilizing voters; as well as two examples of locally rooted initiatives involving artists and cultural workers collaborating with organizers to get out the vote in the 2022 and 2020 elections in the US.
Artists For Democracy – People For the American Way
Art has the power to change perceptions and inspire action, cutting through the noise and speaking to our hopes, fears, and dreams. Artists are working to create art across four (and possibly more!) swing states: Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. They are conveying the stakes we’re up against in this election on billboards, in radio announcements, and at public gatherings. Related article in The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/apr/10/artists-for-democracy-2024.
“A nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to building the political power of young people. For 30 years, Rock the Vote has revolutionized the way we use pop culture, music, art, and technology to engage young people in politics and build our collective power. For over thirty years, it has continuously adapted to the changing landscapes of media, technology and culture to break through and empower each new generation.”
Art for the Polls – The Center for Artistic Activism
A program of the Center for Artistic Activism that supports U.S. artists creatively engaging in the 2024 election. Art moves people, making it vital in an election year where potential voters are fatigued, frustrated, fearful, and maybe even furious. Fortunately, we know creative minds like yours can communicate hope, perseverance, and the power of collective action through evocative visual and experiential art. Online and in-person workshops provide resources and insights to help artists channel unique skills and imagination into effective civic engagement in 2024.
Voter Mobilization and the Arts, Art2Action & Animating Democracy; Andrea Assaf, Michael Rohd, and Frances Valdez
“Ongoing voter suppression, disinformation, the overturning of laws protecting women’s rights: U.S. democracy is in distress…. this session [prior to 2022 elections] explores the roles that artists can play in working together with organizers to motivate voting and civic participation, and to promote dialogue about the state of our democracy. How can artists and activists navigate their different ways of working, and how can cross-training prepare them for strong collaborations and impactful results? What creative strategies have worked best? How do organizing bodies integrate the artistic imagination, and how can artists integrate organizing principles into their work? What’s needed to animate democracy right now?”
Artists and Cultural Workers Mobilize the Vote, Art2Action
“Houston in Action awarded 12 projects to selected artists & cultural workers to create culturally relevant artistic expressions that inspire & mobilize voter engagement. THE GOAL: To activate Youth, Black, Latinx, & Asian American communities to register & turn-out to vote in Houston, TX (and beyond!).”
- Bridging Differences
Pro-democracy movements require people to work together across many lines of difference to effectively organize and mobilize for change and constructively engage with conflict. To achieve the multi-racial, pluralistic and inclusive democracy we seek in the future, arts and culture can help to strengthen our collective capacity to work with those who may have opposing views; flex the muscles of dialogue and deliberation; and to find common ground to work together on shared issues of concern. Creative approaches to bridging differences can draw on qualities of deep listening, respect and presence cultivated by engaging with artistic practices and historic and cultural wisdom.
Bridge Entertainment Labs was created “to help reverse the trend towards deepening division in America by promoting the creation of content that humanizes political tribes to one another, develop shared cultural spaces for Americans of different backgrounds and beliefs, and fosters the societal preconditions for healthy civic debate and collaborative problem-solving.” Its founders “believe the entertainment industry has a powerful role to play in helping us overcome the ‘us versus them’ dynamics that are fracturing our country.”
Guidelines for Story Circles, John O’Neal, in Acting Together: Resources for Getting Started, pp. 3 – 5
These Guidelines offer a straightforward easy-to-implement framework for facilitating democratic story-sharing and community-building conversations, as described by a leader of the US Civil Rights movement. Listen to John O’Neal describe a specific story circle here!
In Your Shoes™, The Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics
In Your Shoes™ is a program of the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University which “harnesses the power of theatrical performance, dialogue, and deep listening to surface and celebrate the rich life experiences that shape who we are and how we interact. Participants dwell ‘in each other’s shoes’ by performing each other’s words back to one another with exquisite care and creativity.” In Your Shoes™ was created and developed by acclaimed international theater-maker and educator Derek Goldman through over a decade of intensive workshops in a range of global contexts, including China, Russia, Bangladesh, and Sudan, and with diverse and often polarized university and community participants throughout the United States.
Currently investigates civic discourse focusing “on how the action of theatre making can be best applied to the process of civic decision making; how creative practice can release creative collaborations and imaginative problem-solving in multi-party, cross ideological contexts.”
Healing, Bridging, Thriving: A Summit on Arts and Culture in Our Communities, January 30, 2024
An archive of the summit can be found here, including a session on Arts, Culture and Civic Infrastructure, described as: “Arts, culture, and the humanities knit the social fabric of our communities and are essential to advancing equitable outcomes. We must develop pathways for artists who are eager to work with other sectors and support them holistically in their endeavors.”
Art in a Democracy: Selected Plays of Roadside Theater, Vol 1 & Vol 2, Ben Fink
“This two-volume anthology tells the story of Roadside Theater’s first 45 years; Roadside has spent 45 years searching for what art in a democracy might look like. The anthology raises questions such as, “What are common principles and common barriers to achieving democracy across disciplines, and how can the disciplines unite in common democratic cause?” See also “Art in a democracy,” Episode 68 in ‘Cultural Democracy’ on Change the Story, Change the World “Our conversation with editor Ben Fink and contributor Arnaldo J. Lopez explores Roadside’s 50-year history of creative collaboration percolating at the crossroads of art, community, and America’s struggle to craft an authentic living democracy.”
“The Imagining America consortium (IA) brings together scholars, artists, designers, humanists, and organizers to imagine, study, and enact a more just and liberatory ‘America’ and world. Working across institutional, disciplinary, and community divides, IA strengthens and promotes public scholarship, cultural organizing, and campus change that inspires collective imagination, knowledge-making, and civic action on pressing public issues. By dreaming and building together in public, IA creates the conditions to shift culture and transform inequitable institutional and societal structures.”
“Let’s Make a Better World Podcast: Songs and Stories,” Jane Wilburn Sapp
Podcast episodes explore Imagination and Agency, Resilience and Transformation, Freedom and Justice, Music and Human Rights, Building Community. They feature Jane Sapp in conversation with civil rights leader Rose Saunders and LGBTQ/Women’s/Anti-racist activist Suzanne Pharr, among others, and illustrate the power of cultural work and music to bring people together across differences.
- Art, Culture, and Justice
This section highlights a sampling of projects and organizations working towards greater racial, social, gender-based and environmental justice. Given the extent to which anti-Black racism and the genocide of Native American people are woven into the fabric of American society, pro-democracy efforts are indelibly linked with movements for racial and cultural justice and repair. We are inspired by the many diverse approaches taking place at community, state-wide, regional and national levels, and involving artists, arts organizations, cultural institutions, and philanthropies.
Center for Performance and Civic Practice (CPCP)
CPCP “believes that with the right approach, the same tools and capacities that artists use to make meaningful art can be utilized to transform systems and improve the impacts of government and community-driven efforts and programs. Civic Practice refers to projects that bring artists into collaboration and co-design with community partners and local residents around a community-defined aspiration, challenge or vision.”
“Alternate ROOTS is an organization that supports the creation and presentation of original art that is rooted in community, place, tradition or spirit. We are a group of artists and cultural organizers based in the South creating a better world together. As Alternate ROOTS, we call for social and economic justice and are working to dismantle all forms of oppression – everywhere. As a progressive arts organization, ROOTS is at the forefront of establishing model programs for regional cultural organizing in the US.”
A treasure trove of resources including books, case studies, essays, a glossary, frameworks for evaluation of arts and civic engagement initiatives, profiles of municipal – artist/partnerships, and other resources exploring arts-based civic engagement for social change.
Arts & Democracy cross pollinates culture, participatory democracy, and social justice. It supports cultural organizing and cross-sector collaborations; raises the visibility of transformative work; connects cultural practitioners with activists, organizers and policymakers; and creates spaces for reflection.
United States Department of Arts and Culture (USDAC)
“The U.S. Department of Arts and Culture contributes to the strength and vibrancy of the movement for collective liberation by resourcing and mobilizing cultural organizers and artists. As a people-led and people-centered arts and culture department, we merge organizing, political education, and performance to create a vibrant ecosystem that activates and harnesses spaces ripe for social, cultural and political change. The USDAC contributes to the strength and vibrancy of the movement for collective liberation by resourcing and mobilizing cultural organizers and artists.”
Americans for the Arts: Cultural Equity
To support a full creative life for all, Americans for the Arts commits to championing policies and practices of cultural equity that empower a just, inclusive, equitable nation. Cultural equity embodies the values, policies, and practices that ensure that all people—including but not limited to those who have been historically underrepresented based on race/ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, socioeconomic status, geography, citizenship status, or religion—are represented in the development of arts policy; the support of artists; the nurturing of accessible, thriving venues for expression; and the fair distribution of programmatic, financial, and informational resources.
Borders to Bridges: Arts-based Curriculum for Social Justice, Lynn Glixon Ditchfield
Borders to Bridges is designed to promote dialogue in schools and communities by engendering deeper understanding and discussion to counter the myths and fears that negatively affect our learning institutions. This guidebook contains practical lesson plans, narratives, poetry, mixed media artwork, and resources for K-12 educators to enrich learning and engage students about critical issues that touch their lives and communities. Contributors include world-renowned educators, poets, artists, and writers from 38 countries and 20 states of the U.S.
Theatre for Community Conflict and Dialogue: The Hope Is Vital Training Manual, Michael Rohd
“The first step forward in working with today’s youth is to create a dialogue, and that is exactly what this exciting new book does. It helps you provide opportunities for young people to open up and explore their feelings through theatre, offering a safe place for them to air their views with dignity, respect, and freedom through the Hope Is Vital interactive theatre techniques.”
“How can we make democracy an everyday practice for everyone? Given the warnings about the end of democracy, our discussion about the role of culture in the labor and civil rights movements, and the inseparable nature of imagination and democracy is timely, to say the least.”
“Sipp Culture uses food and story to support rural community development in Utica, Mississippi. We believe that history, culture, and food affirm our individual and collective humanity. So, we are strengthening our local food system, advancing health equity, and supporting rural artistic voices – while activating the power of story – all to promote the legacy and vision of our hometown.”
Theatre in the Age of Climate Change: Creating Work in Series in the Anthropocene, Changal Bilodeau
“I want to invite audiences into a sacred space where grief, anger, and despair can be laid bare and transformed into joy, courage, and hope. As I stand here, surrounded by the vastness of Iceland, I start to formulate a question: what happens once we have so thoroughly imposed our will on the earth systems that we no longer feel small?”
Sustaining Places: An Encyclopedia of Resources for Small Historical Organizations.
“The museum field is currently experiencing a paradigm shift which places people, not objects, at the core of a museum’s purposes. This new paradigm responds to changing ideas about cultural authority, in which the community’s voice is as important as the expert’s voice…. Museums operating within the new paradigm empower their communities by fostering dialogue, with the goal of re-evaluating the past and the present in order to envision a more just future.”
- Art and Creative Nonviolent Action
Artistic and cultural processes can be crafted to embody a compelling but non-coercive power that can be mobilized in support of creative nonviolent action. They can reach beneath the defensive structures of guilt, shame and rage to restore capacities for agency and collective action; they can challenge existing assumptions; they can support expression that is otherwise forbidden; they can bring reluctant adversaries into conversation; they can lower barriers of fear and motivate people to challenge injustices and repression; they can offer new ways of framing issues. Even when confronted with the power of violence, racism, and domination – whether economic, political, social, gender-based, or cultural – artistic and cultural processes can challenge and subvert widely accepted patterns of supremacy, fear, exclusion and repression. [Adapted from ‘Lessons from the Acting Together Project, Acting Together: Performance and the Creative Transformation of Conflict, Volume II. Cynthia Cohen, Roberto Gutierrez Varea and Polly O. Walker. P. 191]
Creative Boom: Celebrating Art as Nonviolent Resistance, Taylor Alarcon
As many artists know, there is an everlasting connection between social justice, activism and creativity. Art can, and continues to be, a medium for commentary and resistance – and another way that we engage in challenging our society. This piece by Creative Boom introduces a few names whose work continues the legacy of King, reveals a “deep faith” in a possibly different future, and uses art and creativity to share that unique message.
Tracing the Long Story of “We Shall Overcome,” Kate Stewart
In 1956, a 12-year-old girl named Jamila Jones participated in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. About two years later, she came to the Highlander Folk School for nonviolent activist training. As Jones recalls in an interview conducted for the Civil Rights History Project, Highlander was raided by the police, who shut off all the lights in the building. She found the strength to sing out into the darkness, adding a new verse to “We Shall Overcome.” When a police officer, trembling, asked her to sing more quietly, she realized the power of music in the struggle for civil rights, and sang louder and louder along with others in the room. To listen to excerpts from an oral history interview scroll down the page.
Why Nazis are so Afraid of These Clowns, Sarah Freeman-Woolpert
Clowns have an impressive track record of subverting Nazi ideology, de-escalating rallies and bringing communities together in creative resistance. This 2017 article in Waging Nonviolence documents several effective examples, including a performance in Knoxville, Tennessee in which clowns feigned confusion at neo-Nazi demonstrators’ cries of “White power!” calling back “White flour?”, “White flowers?”, “Tight shower?”, and “Wife Power!” The neo-Nazis called off their demonstration several hours early. “Since humor and clowning can incorporate so many community members — children and the elderly, musicians and athletes, politicians and school teachers — they draw everyone into a joyful, silly expression of solidarity. That’s something a band of tiki torch-wielding neo-Nazis don’t stand a chance against.”
Don’t Look Away: Art, Nonviolence, and Preventive Publics in Contemporary Europe, Brianne Cohen
This book delves deeply into the role that art can play in creating public commitment to curbing structural violence in Europe. Art often looks at past violence, and has, at times, enabled it. In Don’t Look Away, Brianne Cohen explores how it can be used to prevent violence, particularly by helping to create a “shared social sense of vulnerability” and “mass stranger relationality.” “Art can have a critical role to play not only in challenging injurious public discourse but also in actively reconceiving the groundwork of more ethically self-reflexive, pluralistic public spheres,” she writes. “I wish to transform a question of informed public action in the aftermath of violence to one of informed public prevention of both direct and more indirect aggression.”
Conclusion Paper: How can arts, civic pride and culture contribute to boosting local resilience and democracy against extremism, hate crimes and other threats to democracy? Radicalization Awareness Network
This paper from the Radicalization Awareness Network highlighted examples of initiatives in 17 participating countries and concluded that “promoting arts, cultural activities and civic pride can significantly enhance local resilience and democracy and in turn prevent violence, extremism, hate crimes and other threats by: promoting diversity and inclusion, reducing polarization; empowering individuals and communities, thereby reducing the appeal of radicalization; building social cohesion, creating a sense of belonging; fostering critical thinking; countering misinformation; providing powerful counter-narratives to extremism; fostering a sense of responsibility of one’s community; offering positive role models who embody democratic values; enhancing resilience against extremist recruitment tactics; and providing neutral ground for discussion of sensitive topics, fostering understanding and empathy.”
Culture and Conflict Summit Resource Guide, USIP and the British Council
This resource guide is the beginning of a comprehensive resource for educators and peacebuilders interested in using arts both inside and outside academia. It is meant to be a useful guide to those who are teaching about using arts in conflict scenarios for the purposes of peace, and those who will engage in it in practice. The resources cover a variety of mediums – including music, theater, books, and more.
- Art and Transitional Justice
A sustainable, robust and truly just democracy requires its citizens to acknowledge past harms, address unjust conditions in the present, and together imagine a fairer future. Artistic and cultural processes can be crafted to support communities to do the difficult work of mourning losses, composing more complex narratives, seeking justice and imagining a better future, even when relationships have been adversarial, where harms have been inflicted, and where trust must gradually be restored.
Artistic Imagination as a Force for Change, Art2Action & Animating Democracy; adrienne maree brown, Sage Crump, and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar
“This session, honoring the vibrant legacy of the late Grace Lee Boggs, explores artists’ imaginative power to grow the personal and collective soul, featuring cultural activists adrienne maree brown and Sage Crump, both with deep roots in Detroit, and Urban Bush Women’s founder Jawole Zollar. These three powerful thought leaders delve into the relationship between the artistic imagination and civic/social/political action, and how artistic strategies and emergent strategies can bolster movements and make progress toward change.”
BLIS Collective: Black Liberation – Indigenous Sovereignty
The BLIS Collective is “borne out of the idea that we must repair the damages done to Black and Indigenous people in what we now call the United States and create a future where every individual, no matter their identity, has equal opportunity to live life freely and fully… We produce and support original works of literature and art and cultivate a community of artists, storytellers, filmmakers, historians, cultural bearers, comedians, poets, and athletes committed to forwarding narratives of liberation and decolonization.” It also produces a newsletter: “Reparations Daily (ish).”
Echoes of a Coup – Scene on Radio
“In November 1898, an armed White supremacist mob—supported by most White elites in North Carolina—murdered untold Black Wilmington residents and drove the city’s elected Fusionist government from power, installing Democrats in their place. (Fusionists were a biracial coalition of mostly-Black Republicans and mostly-White members of the Populist Party.) The coup in North Carolina’s then-largest city violently snuffed out some of the last flickers of multiracial democracy in post-Civil War America. Scene on Radio Season 6, Echoes of a Coup, a five-episode podcast tells the story of 1898 and puts these events in historical context, at a time when the United States is once again facing threats of political violence, amid orchestrated attacks on democracy—from within.”
Art, Dialogue, and Race, Art2Action & Animating Democracy; Kim Pevia, Katrina Browne and James Scruggs
“In the context of countless murders of Black people, racially-motivated assaults on Asian and Arab Americans, and continuing systemic and structural racism against Black, Indigenous/First Nations, and people of color communities, art and artists can advance meaningful, transformative dialogue and racial reckoning. The artists and leaders in this session explore this path, from deepening understanding, to shifting minds and hearts, to healing historical wounds, to advancing actions, policies, and systemic and structural change. Through the lens of their radically different artistic approaches, they will examine the role of art to disrupt narratives, reveal complicity, deepen dialogue, and make progress toward truth and reconciliation.”
Creative Approaches to Reconciliation, Cynthia Cohen
This chapter explains why the arts and cultural work are critical to promoting coexistence and reconciliation in the aftermath of violent conflict. It lays out theoretical frameworks for reconciliation and for the nature of aesthetic engagement that explain why the arts and cultural work should be effective resources for peace-builders. Then it offers examples of how the arts and cultural work are already being used to facilitate seven different educational tasks crucial to reconciliation, including assisting former adversaries to appreciate each other’s humanity, to empathize with each other’s suffering, to address injustice, and to imagine a new future.
Acting Together on the World Stage Resources
The Acting Together initiative is a global multi-media educational initiative intended to document and strengthen the contributions of performance and ritual to social justice and conflict transformation. It consists of a feature documentary, a two-volume anthology, mini-docs on targeted issues, and PDF resources for learning and teaching. The documentary includes sections on resistance, re-humanization and reconciliation. Watch the trailer here.
Case studies include “Do You Smell Something Stinky? Notes from conversations about Making Art while Working for Peace in Racist, Imperial America in the 21st Century,” by John O’Neal available here.
Here I Am, The Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics
“Here I Am weaves narrative, music, and multimedia imagery, inviting the audience on an experiential journey celebrating Mélisande Short-Colomb’s 11 generations of maternal grandmothers and exploring her complicated relationship with the institution that enslaved her ancestors. Mélisande Short-Colomb is a direct descendant of families sold into slavery by the Society of Jesus in 1838 to keep Georgetown University solvent, (The GU 272), and has been an anchoring member of President’s Task Force Examining Loyola’s Connections to Slavery.”
International Journal of Transitional Justice Special Issue on Creative Approaches to Transitional Justice: The Contributions of Arts and Culture, Volume 14, Number 1, March 2020.
Articles highlight creative transitional justice processes in Myanmar, Colombia, Tunisia, South Africa, Bosnia Herzegovina, Argentina, Cambodia, Peru among others.
A long-term investment in growing and maintaining the capacity of communities and institutions to collectively imagine, so that they are able to see, feel and think differently in order to act differently. Imagination Infrastructures recognize that collective imagination is a practice that you develop overtime, and therefore our capacity to do so can be strengthened.
- Global Perspectives
Art can be a medium for expressing dissent and subverting status quo norms; it provides a voice, and thus power, to voices deemed unimportant or dangerous. As such, art can threaten authoritarian control and help dream up alternative, more free, futures. It is no surprise then that artists, their resources, and their creations are highly targeted by authoritarian regimes. Artists and cultural workers from around the world are sharing knowledge about the vulnerabilities of being an artist under authoritarian regimes, as well as creative contributions to successful efforts to overthrow dictatorships and oppose authoritarian tendencies.
Why Authoritarians Attack the Arts, Eve L Ewing
After referencing the silencing of artists under several authoritarian regimes, past and present, Ewing concludes that “[w]e need the arts because they make us full human beings. But we also need the arts as a protective factor against authoritarianism. In saving the arts, we save ourselves from a society where creative production is permissible only insofar as it serves the instruments of power. When the canary in the coal mine goes silent, we should be very afraid — not only because its song was so beautiful, but also because it was the only sign that we still had a chance to see daylight again.”
Artist at Risk Connection, PEN America
PEN America’s Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) safeguards the fundamental right to artistic freedom of expression worldwide. Its mission is to ensure that artists and cultural workers can live and create without fear, regardless of their country or discipline. ARC plays the critical role of connecting at-risk artists from any country and discipline to available resources across a global network of more than 800 organizations, providing urgent support, fellowships, and legal support. In addition, ARC provides emergency grants, resilience grants, and technical assistance, bolstering protection and resilience for artists at risk. ARC’s impact is amplified by its regional protective networks in Africa and Latin America. By advocating for policy reforms that uphold the safety and well-being of artists under international human rights law, ARC works tirelessly with its coalitions to create a more secure environment for artistic expression worldwide.
To learn more about the artists around the world who have used their creative talents to uplift, sustain, and mobilize social and political movements, check out ARC’s 2023 publication Art is Power: 20 Artists on How They Fight for Justice and Inspire Change. The report was written by PEN America’s Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) and features profiles of 20 artists from across the globe, exploring why they became artists, how they became involved in social and political movements, and the persecution they have faced as a result of their creative expression.
Authoritarian Apprehensions: Ideology, Judgment and Mourning in Syria, Lisa Wedeen
If the Arab uprisings initially heralded the end of tyrannies and a move toward liberal democratic governments, their defeat not only marked a reversal but was of a piece with emerging forms of authoritarianism worldwide. In Authoritarian Apprehensions, Lisa Wedeen draws on her decades-long engagement with Syria to offer an erudite and compassionate analysis of this extraordinary rush of events—the revolutionary exhilaration of the initial days of unrest and then the devastating violence that shattered hopes of any quick undoing of dictatorship. Developing a fresh, insightful, and theoretically imaginative approach to both authoritarianism and conflict, Wedeen asks, What led a sizable part of the citizenry to stick by the regime through one atrocity after another? What happens to political judgment in a context of pervasive misinformation? And what might the Syrian example suggest about how authoritarian leaders exploit digital media to create uncertainty, political impasses, and fractures among their citizens? Drawing on extensive fieldwork and a variety of Syrian artistic practices, Wedeen lays bare the ideological investments that sustain ambivalent attachments to established organizations of power and contribute to the ongoing challenge of pursuing political change.
A European body condemns Turkey’s sentencing of an activist for links to 2013 protests
Osman Kavala, the founder of Anadolu Kultur, a nonprofit organization that focuses on arts and cultural projects promoting peace and dialogue, was imprisoned in Turkey on charges of attempting to overthrow the government through involvement in the Gezi Park protests. To learn more about Kavala and his impact on Turkey’s civil society check out this documentary.
The Contributions of Arts and Culture to Pro-Democracy Anti-Authoritarian Movements: A report on sessions of the 22nd Century Conference/Forging a People-Powered Democracy, Cynthia Cohen, IMPACT Senior Fellow.
How are artists and cultural workers contributing to strengthening just and vibrant democracies and opposing rising authoritarianism – in the US and around the world? What approaches have been effective and in what contexts? How have artists and cultural workers minimized risks of harm to themselves and others? How could experiences of friends and colleagues from around the world be of help to artists and cultural workers aligning with the emerging multi-sectoral anti-authoritarian movement in the United States? This report shares stories from Kenya, the Philippines, Iran, Australia and the United States.
Romanian Artist Tackles Art and Freedom in Authoritarian Times
Geta Brătescu’s work positions the artist as a creator of freedom even in oppressive times.
This set of videos includes examples of creative approaches to resistance to authoritarian regimes (Argentina, Serbia, Uganda); re-humanization in the aftermath of violence and oppression (Peru, United States, Australia); building capacity for democracy (Palestine).
Acting Together Summaries of chapters
This set of chapter summaries highlights performances in contexts of, and in the aftermath of, authoritarian regimes, including in Serbia, Sri Lanka, Palestine, Peru, Cambodia, the United States, and Australia.
“Your hub for global theatre conversations…a free and open platform for theatre makers worldwide….We function as a commons – a social structure that invites open participation around shared values: Generosity and abundance; Community and collaboration; Diverse aesthetics; Equity, inclusivity and accessibility; Global citizenship (local communities intersecting with global practice.
- Theory and Practice
The transformative power of art and cultural work derive in part from their aesthetic integrity. Linking art and activism requires integrating strategic thinking with these embodied and emotional modes of apprehending and interpreting the world and its challenges. The resources in this section offer frameworks for understanding how art, culture and pro-democracy efforts are working together, drawing insights from the fields of conflict transformation, neuroscience, journalism and more. They offer examples from the United States and around the world.
Art Works: How Organizers and Artists Are Creating a Better World Together, Ken Grossinger
“When artists and organizers combine forces, new forms of political mobilization follow—which shape lasting social change. And yet few people appreciate how much deliberate strategy often propels this vital social change work. Behind the scenes, artists, organizers, political activists, and philanthropists have worked together to hone powerful strategies for achieving the world we want and the world we need. In Art Works, noted movement leader Ken Grossinger chronicles these efforts for the first time, distilling lessons and insights from grassroots leaders and luminaries such as Ai Weiwei, Courtland Cox, Jackson Browne, Shepard Fairey, Jane Fonda, Elizabeth Alexander, Bill McKibben, JR, Jose Antonio Vargas, and more.”
The Center for the Study of Art and Community: Change the Story, Change the World
CSA&C has over thirty years experience building arts partnerships in educational, community and social institutions. We have provided expert guidance for developing artistic, educational, funding, community development collaborations with over 250 partners from the arts and other community sectors. CSA&C’s clients include artists and arts organizations, educational, health, human service, and criminal justice agencies, state and local government, and the business and philanthropic communities.
The Craftivist Collective Handbook, Sarah Corbett
If we want our world to be more beautiful, kind and fair, can we make our activism more beautiful, kind and fair? ‘Gentle Protest’ is a unique methodology of strategic, compassionate and visually intriguing activism using handicrafts as a tool. Since its creation in 2009, the award-winning global Craftivist Collective has helped change laws, policies, hearts and minds around the world as well as expand the view of what activism can be. Dreams inspire positive action, so stitch a Dream Cloud to hang up at home or work and prompt you to think past a problem to the solution. Sew a Gentle Nudge Label to help keep your conscience sharp and your spirit strong. Craft your own Mini Protest Banner to turn heads and influence change, or fly solidarity’s flag for those suffering as a result of the world’s injustices. Stitch a Handmade Hedgerow to champion one of the solutions to the climate crisis or if you are nervous about protesting in public or if there’s a ban on public rallies where you live, let a doll speak your truth by creating a Toy Protest. Listen to the author discuss craftivism, a form of activism and collective empowerment that is centered on practices of craft, here.
The Center for Artistic Activism
“In 2009, the Center for Artistic Activism saw artists struggling to affect change, but without the practical skills to implement their visions. Elsewhere we saw frustrated activists, repeating their traditional marches, petition drives, and vigils until they became frustrated and moved on. We saw movements for social change stagnating with wins coming more by luck than planning. The Center for Artistic Activism started bringing these practices together to transform art and activism, using the best of each to leverage creativity and culture and successfully bring about social change…From our very beginning we identified the fields of culture, art and creativity as key to social justice work because these elements create opportunities for people marginalized from other spheres of influence such as law, politics and business to use their own unique perspectives to gain power, representation and real political change. But we knew creativity wasn’t enough. Training and organization is key. Our decade of experience and research has evolved into theory, curricula, and programs for activists and artists to fully understand how to effectively deploy artistic activism methodologies and win campaigns.”
The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace, John Paul Lederach
Lederach suggests that in addition to understanding the “landscape of protracted violence,” peacebuilding practitioners must “…explore the creative process itself, not as a tangential inquiry, but as the wellspring that feeds the building of peace. In other words, we must venture into the mostly uncharted territory of the artist’s way as applied to social change, the canvases and poetics of human relationships, imagination, and discovery, and ultimately the mystery of vocation for those who take up such a journey.”
Invite | Affirm | Evoke | Unleash: How artistic and cultural processes transform complex challenges , Cynthia Cohen and IMPACT, Inc.
How and why do arts and other aspects of culture contribute in constructive ways to addressing the complex challenges that confront humanity and the ecosystems of the planet? …Ethical arts and cultural processes can be crafted to evoke honesty, and nourish capacities to negotiate ambiguity and paradox, key features of complex systems. They unleash creativity and agency. They affirm the dignity of human beings and our interdependence with each other and the natural world. And they can be crafted to do all this not by manipulation or coercion, but by issuing invitations to engage, to enjoy, to co-construct meaning, and to be present – to oneself, to others, to the natural world and to the opportunities and challenges that inscribe the present moment. It is through their beauty, and through the ways they simultaneously animate our sensory, cognitive and emotional faculties, that ethical arts and cultural work invite transformation while respecting the integrity of all who are involved. The report includes examples from Spain, Cambodia, Inuit People, Northern Ireland, the Netherlands, Israeli and Palestinian diaspora communities, Colombia, Kenya and Australia.
Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us, Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross
From artists David Byrnem and Renée Fleming to evolutionary biologist E.O.Wilson, this book is a journey of discovery and an authoritative guide to the new science of neuroaesthetics that weaves a vibrant tapestry of breakthrough research, insights from multidisciplinary pioneers, and compelling stories from people who are using the arts to make a positive impact on our day-to-day life. Your Brain on Art isn’t a plea to “bring back the arts.” It’s a call-to-arms for the radical integration of the arts with science and technology to design a more humane future. It’s about creating a new ethos that brings together different realms of human knowledge and experience to shape the future. It’s a fresh way of thinking and addressing the increasingly complex problems that face us. This book is perfectly poised to elevate this moment and bring it to the center of our cultural conversation.
Aeffect: The Affect and Effect of Artistic Activism, Stephen Duncombe
Does artistic activism work aesthetically? Does it work politically? And what does “working” even mean when one combines art and activism? In Æffect, author Stephen Duncombe sets out to address these questions at the heart of the field of artistic activism.
US Bishops and the January 6th Capitol Attack on Democracy: A Pillars of Support Caselet
*By Adam Fefer.
Time Period: 2021
Location: United States
Main Actors: US Conference of Catholic Bishops
Tactics
– Declarations by organizations and institutions
– Letters of opposition or support
– Signed public statements
– Newspapers and Journals
– Digital video and audio art
This caselet is about US Catholic bishops’ responses to the January 6th Capitol attack. Why did some bishops denounce the attack as anti-democratic while others merely called for peace or stayed quiet? On the one hand, Catholic teaching on the sanctity and protection of life places bishops on the traditionalist side of issues like abortion and physician-assisted suicide. On the other hand, Catholic social and economic teaching places bishops on the progressive side of issues like universal healthcare, the living wage, debt reduction for developing nations, and immigration (Fichter et al. 2019). Bishops focused on so-called “life issues” (especially abortion) seem to have been less likely to view the attack as anti-democratic. By contrast, bishops who take a broader “seamless garment” approach to Catholic social and economic teaching seem to have been more likely to take a strong stand against the attack.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) occupies a unique role in American religion: no other denomination has an authoritative, ecclesiastical body like it. The temporal focus of this caselet is mostly January 2021, the month where many bishops issued condemnations of the attacks and of Donald Trump’s incendiary behavior. The geographical focus is largely on archdioceses of the most populous US cities. The conclusion offers other examples of Catholic political activity that are relevant to pro-democracy organizing.
I. Catholics’ Right Turn and Persistent Divisions
The January 6th attack exemplified the US’ increasing democratic backsliding, especially since 2016 (Williamson 2023). US backsliding is largely a Republican Party-led phenomenon. This is true nationally, where leaders like Donald Trump have undermined the integrity of elections and checks on executive power. It is also true sub-nationally, where Republican-led state legislatures have furthered voter suppression and racial gerrymandering (Grumbach 2022).
The US Catholic clergy and laity are divided on partisan lines (Audi & Rocca 2015). Roughly 48% of Catholic voters self-describe as Republican while 47% self-describe as Democrats (Smith 2020). These divisions are relatively new, tracing to the late 20th century. In the early 20th century, by contrast, Catholics supported the Democratic Party. For example, between 70-80% of Catholics voted for FDR in 1936 (Rozell 2022, Catholic University of America 2023). As a predominantly immigrant, working class bloc, Catholics were key beneficiaries of FDR’s New Deal (McAndrews 2021). Official Catholic doctrine is also progressive on many issues: support for a strong welfare state and immigration as well as opposition to the death penalty and nuclear deterrence (Feldman 2006). These concerns have been conceptualized as a “consistent ethic of life.” During the early 20th century, the Catholic clergy was relatively apolitical; parish-specific issues like education and spiritual guidance dominated the Catholic agenda (Sammon 2008).
By the mid-twentieth century, Catholics had more fully integrated into American society and the middle class (Massa 2021). This was aided by Catholics’ strong support for the Cold War crusade against so-called “godless” communists. However, JFK met fierce opposition from (particularly Evangelical) protestants who feared that he would act as a puppet for the Vatican. These trends of integration were exemplified by JFK’s 1960 presidential campaign and the decline of overt anti-Catholicism. During this time, Catholic clergy and their upwardly mobile laity became more politically engaged (McAndrews 2021). For example, liberal Catholics spoke out against the Vietnam War and in favor of civil rights. Meanwhile, an increasingly vocal conservative clergy focused on issues of perceived moral decline, like abortion and contraception.
The 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision was a landmark in US Catholic history (Sammon 2008). Catholic clergy and laity mobilized vigorously against the decision. In doing so, Catholics found common ground with Evangelical Christians in their mutual hostility toward abortion, school desegregation, LGBTQ+ rights, and feminism. Since then, conservative Catholic activists have worked to make abortion a “non-negotiable” part of Catholic political identification. This is especially the case among white, church-going Catholics (Feldman 2006). These changes upended previous patterns of Catholic support. For example, Reagan obtained between 54-61% of the Catholic vote in his 1984 reelection campaign (Prendergast 1999). Abortion has become a central part of Catholic politics.
Despite being split on partisan lines, Catholic majorities have consistently supported winning presidential candidates. This includes both Reagan campaigns, both Bill Clinton campaigns, and both Obama campaigns. However, these patterns break down when examining ethnicity, religiosity, and income (Gray & Bendyna 2008). For example, despite Donald Trump winning the Catholic vote, Hispanic Catholics supported Hilary Clinton by a margin of 67-26 (Martinez & Smith 2016). The Trump presidency energized many liberal Catholics, who detested his “Muslim travel ban” and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric (Barb 2022). However, progressive Catholic interests are relatively marginalized in institutions like USCCB.
II. The January 6th Campaign and Catholic Bishops’ Tactics
The 2020 election campaign witnessed “unprecedented levels” of polarization among Catholic bishops and the US population writ large (Gayte 2022, 113). Such polarization continues as the USCCB has failed to issue an updated “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” document, which informs Catholics’ political obligations (Reese 2022). For example, DiNardo claimed in 2019 that climate change is “important” but not “urgent” (Schlumpf 2019). Olmsted endorsed the view that Biden should not receive communion (Catholic News Agency 2021). This culminated in the January 6th attack, which exemplified many Republican elites’ disdain for a key tenet of democracy, namely that parties accept election results (Williamson 2023).
The bishops’ pro-democracy responses to January 6th consisted of multiple tactics. These included signed public statements, declarations by organizations and institutions, letters of opposition or support, and interviews with journalists.
It should first be noted that Catholic leaders and institutions outside of USCCB also spoke out against the January 6th attack. For example, Father James Martin wrote an op-ed denouncing the attack, while Catholic laity held commemorative vigils for January 6th a year later (Martin 2021, Jenkins 2022). The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (2021) released a newsletter denouncing the attacks. And the Catholic lobby NETWORK also issued a response (2021) to the “violent effort by extremists to overthrow the United States government.” Finally, Catholic media including America Magazine (2021) and National Catholic Reporter (2021) also denounced the attacks.
We can begin our analysis of bishops with Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez, also USCCB’s president. Gomez expressed that “peaceful transition of power is one of the hallmarks of this great nation. In this troubling moment, we must recommit ourselves to the values and principles of our democracy” (USCCB 2021a). Gomez’s response was noteworthy given his statements both before and after January 6, 2021. For example, on January 20, Gomez authored a letter stating, “that our new President [Biden] has pledged to pursue certain policies [related to abortion] that would advance moral evils and threaten human life and dignity” (USCCB 2021b). Gomez’s letter furthered divisions among US bishops. For example, Chicago’s Cardinal Blase J. Cupich authored his own letter in response, which called Gomez’s statement “ill-considered” and issued without other bishops’ prior consultation (White 2021). This exchange highlights the centrality of abortion politics in USCCB.
In Chicago, Cardinal Cupich lamented “the deliberate erosion of the norms of our system of government [and] violence in the service of a falsehood,” prayed for “the peaceful and orderly transition of power” and implored elected officials to “recognize threats to democracy, no matter their source” (Archdiocese of Chicago 2021). Philadelphia’s Archbishop Nelson J. Perez affirmed that “Regardless of political affiliation, we are united by democracy,” expressing his gratitude to those who “worked through a dark day in our history to ensure the peaceful transition of power” (Archdiocese of Philadelphia 2021). And in one of the most forceful statements, San Diego’s Bishop (now Cardinal) Robert McElroy said “We must be clear in identifying this moment as the logical trajectory of the last four years of President Trump’s leadership of our country…we have stood by without giving greater witness to the terrible danger that leadership rooted in division brings to a democratic society” (White 2021).
Other archbishops’ responses are noteworthy for their omissions. For example, New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan condemned “the man [Trump] who should be leading us…[for] stoking these flames” (Lavenburg 2021). Although Dolan omitted mention of the attack on democracy, his direct criticism of Trump was surprising in light of his behavior during the 2020 campaign. Indeed, Dolan had called Trump a great friend, “salute[d] Trump’s leadership” on Fox News, and gave a prayer at the 2020 Republican National convention (White 2020, Warren Davis 2020).
In addition to Dolan, San Antonio’s Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller, Dallas’ Bishop Edward J. Burns, and the Diocese of Austin all tweeted for “peace” without explicitly mentioning the attack on democracy (Gledhill 2021, Guidos 2021). Meanwhile, Houston’s Cardinal Daniel DiNardo and Phoenix’s Bishop Thomas Olmsted were noteworthy for their silence, unsurprising in light of their conservative views on social issues. These omissions cohere with Reese’s (2020) finding that across 160 USCCB press releases between 2019-20, bishops were unlikely to criticize Trump by name and instead make references to his “administration.”
What patterns can we glean from these varied responses? Consider first the bishops who diagnosed January 6th as an attack on democracy. One thing that stands out is their broad political agendas that encompass more than just abortion. For example, both Bishop McElroy and Cardinal Cupich have been strong advocates for immigration, anti-poverty, and the environment, lamenting the church’s narrow focus on abortion (O’Loughlin 2015). Archbishops Perez and Gomez also have strong records on immigration and poverty, although they seem content with the USCCB’s prioritization of abortion (Gayte 2022). Looking at the neutral or silent responses, one finds bishops who are more singularly focused on abortion, including Cardinal DiNardo (Reese 2019).
III. Beyond USCCB and January 6th
Looking beyond USCCB and January 6, there are several domains of Catholic political activity that may be relevant to pro-democracy organizing. To begin, bishops and parishioners have criticized prominent Catholic politicians with anti-democratic sympathies. Ron DeSantis in Florida and Greg Abbot in Texas have faced Catholic backlash, albeit more for their stances on immigration and capital punishment (Scanlon 2023, Guidos 2022, Nowlin 2020). It is crucial that Catholic organizers recognize the threats DeSantis and Abbot pose to democratic practices such as voting rights and lawful protests (ACLU 2023, 2024).
A second domain is higher education, where Catholic leaders at universities like Notre Dame, Fordham, and Villanova have denounced Donald Trump’s immigration ban and racist rhetoric (Jenkins 2020). As with Catholic governors, university leaders could go further by identifying Trump’s threat to democracy. Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics (2021) was exemplary in this respect, providing a host of analyses that linked the January 6th attack to narrow self-interest, charismatic demagoguery, and disinformation.
Finally, Catholic podcasts have become important forums for articulating pro-democracy agendas and shaping parishioners’ beliefs via digital video and audio art. For example, The Commonweal Podcast and Just Politics have broadcast episodes entitled “Should Catholics Promote Democracy?” and “Actual Strategies for Saving Democracy,” respectively. NETWORK, a Catholic lobby for social justice, has sponsored a three-part “White Supremacy and American Christianity” series. Organizing via podcasts and universities may help reach youth voters, a key demographic, yet one that is more religiously disengaged.
IV. The Future of Pro-Democracy Catholic Politics
The USCCB’s right-wing orientation that prioritizes abortion may generate pessimism that Catholics can be a pillar of democracy. However, there are several sources of optimism. First, Catholics are more liberal than Evangelicals –and many mainline Protestants– on issues like immigration, affirmative action, and social welfare (Sammon 2008). Relatedly, the Catholic church is among the US’ most racially integrated and diverse Christian denominations (Lipka 2015). This cluster of issues may serve to push Catholics toward politicians who emphasize inclusive, multiracial democracy.
A second reason for optimism is that Catholics are a key swing constituency. Because official church doctrine pushes them in opposite political directions, strategic political parties cannot expect unwavering Catholic support. In addition, Catholic voters are concentrated in midwestern swing states. That Donald Trump courted fringe Catholic elites –like the conspiracist Carlo Maria Viganò– during his 2020 campaign may serve to further push Catholics away from leaders who propagate conspiracies about elections (Anti-Defamation League 2023).
Finally, and concerning bishops specifically, Pope Francis appointed many bishops who wish to broaden USCCB’s agenda and prioritize social and economic issues (Allen 2016). Although these bishops currently constitute less than a quarter of the USCCB, they have been outspoken in attempting to change the conference’s priorities. Especially in the post-Roe environment, many USCCB bishops have taken a conservative hard line on issues like trans rights and the religious liberty to discriminate. So long as such issues continue to direct the conference’s agenda, many bishops and parishioners may continue to support anti-democratic politicians.
Discussion Questions
- Catholicism is a very hierarchical denomination. How might bishops best use these hierarchies to engage priests and deacons in pro-democracy activity?
- In addition to abortion, some Catholic parishioners prioritize “culture war” issues (e.g., related gender and racial identities) over issues relating to US democracy. How might these priorities be reversed?
- How might Catholic organizations educate more Catholics to consider issues beyond abortion when deciding who to vote for at the local, state, and national level?
You can access all the caselets from the Pillars of Support Project here.
References
– ACLU. (2023). “ACLU Of Florida Condemns Passage Of Anti-Voter Bill In Florida Legislature.”
– ACLU. (2024). “ACLU Of Texas And ACLU Urge Texas’ Highest Criminal Court To Review Conviction Of Peaceful Protesters.”
– Allen, J. L. (2016). “With Pope’s cardinal picks, Bernardin’s ‘seamless garment’ is back.” Crux
– America Magazine. (2021). “The January 6 Insurrection Is Still a Crisis for American Democracy.”
– Anti-Defamation League. (2023). “Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò.”
– Archdiocese of Chicago. (2021) “Statement of Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, on Today’s Attack on Democracy at the U.S. Capitol.”
– Archdiocese of Philadelphia. (2021). “Statement of Most Reverend Nelson J. Pérez Regarding Yesterday’s Violent Protests at the United States Capitol.”
– Audi, T. & Rocca, F. X. (2015). “The Bishops’ Theological Divide.” Wall Street Journal.
– Barb, A. (2022). “Catholic Patterns in the American Left.” In M. Gayte, B. Chelini-Pont, M. J. Rozell (Eds.), Catholics and US Politics After the 2020 Elections, pp 25-45. Springer.
– Catholic University of America. (2023). “Catholics and the 1936 Roosevelt Victory.”
– Catholic News Agency. (2021). “Phoenix bishop warns of ‘deadly apathy’ of silence on pro-abortion Catholic politicians.”
– The Commonweal Podcast. (2022). “Should Catholics Promote Democracy?”.
– Davison, M. (2021). “Panel urges stop to Trump administration planned executions.” National Catholic Register.
– Feldman, G. (2006). Unholy Alliance: Suppressing Catholic Teachings in Subservience to Republican Ascendance in America. Political Theology, 7(2), 137-179.
– Fichter, S. J., Gaunt, T. P., Perl, P. M., & Hoegeman, C. (2019). Catholic Bishops in the United States: Church Leadership in the Third Millennium. Oxford University Press, USA.
– Gayte, M. (2022). “A Climax in the Culture Wars? The US Bishops and the 2020 Election.” In M. Gayte, B. Chelini-Pont, M. J. Rozell (Eds.), Catholics and US Politics After the 2020 Elections, pp 103-132. Springer.
– Gledhill, R. (2021). “US bishops pray for peace as Capitol under siege.” The Tablet.
– Gray, M. M. & Bendyna, M. E. (2008). “Between Church, Party, & Conscience: Protecting Life and Promoting Social Justice among U.S. Catholics.” In K. E. Heyer and M. J. Rozell (Eds.) Catholics and Politics: The Dynamic Tension Between Faith and Power, pp. 75-92. Georgetown University Press
– Grumbach, J. (2022). Laboratories against democracy: How national parties transformed state politics. Princeton University Press.
– Guidos, R. (2021). “Chaos stops electoral vote count as Trump supporters mob U.S. Capitol.” Catholic Review.
– Guidos, R. (2023). “Bishops: Using migrants as political pawns ‘offends God’.” America: the Jesuit Review.
– Jenkins, J. (2020). “Theologians, activists, former bishops staff urge Catholic voters to oppose Trump.” National Catholic Review.
– Jenkins, J. (2022). “On Jan. 6, vigils recall the insurrection with competing narratives.” Religious News Service.
– Lavenburg, J. (2021). “Cardinal Dolan accuses Trump of ‘stoking the flames’ in Capitol violence.” Crux.
Leadership Conference of Women Religious. (2021). “LCWR and Other Faith Leaders Speak Out Against Assault on the Capitol.”
– Lipka, M. (2015). “The most and least racially diverse U.S. religious groups.” Pew Research Center.
– Markkula Center for Applied Ethics (2021). “Violence at the Capitol.”
– Martin, J. (2021). “How Catholic Leaders Helped Give Rise to Violence at the U.S. Capitol.” America Magazine.
– Martinez, J. & Smith, G. A. (2016). “How the faithful voted: A preliminary 2016 analysis.” Pew Research Center.
– Massa, M. (2021). “Anti-Catholicism in the United States.” In M. M. McGuinness and T. F. Rzeznik (Eds.), The Cambridge Companion to American Catholicism, pp 197-215. Cambridge University Press.
– McAndrews, L. J. (2021). “Catholics and Politics.” In M. M. McGuinness and T. F. Rzeznik (Eds.), The Cambridge Companion to American Catholicism, pp 159-178. Cambridge University Press.
– National Catholic Reporter. (2021). “Editorial: Catholics need to confess their complicity in the failed coup.”
– NETWORK. (2021). “Catholic Lobby Responds to the Violent Siege of the U.S. Capitol.”
– Nowlin, S. (2020). “All 16 of Texas’ Catholic Bishops Blast Gov. Greg Abbott, Who’s Catholic, for Decision Not to Accept Refugees.” San Antonio Current.
– O’Loughlin, M. (2015). “US bishops press on with marriage, religious freedom goals.” Crux.
– Prendergast, William B. (1999). The Catholic Vote in American Politics. Georgetown University Press.
– Reese, T. (2019). “Abortion preeminent issue, global warming not urgent, say bishops.” National Catholic Reporter.
– Reese, T. (2020). “Analysis: Catholic bishops reprimand Trump as often as they praise him.” America Magazine.
– Reese, T. (2022). “Catholic bishops punt again on ‘Faithful Citizenship,’ reflecting divisions on politics.” National Catholic Register.
– Rozell, M. J. (2022). “The “Catholic Vote” in the United States.” In M. Gayte, B. Chelini-Pont, M. J. Rozell (Eds.), Catholics and US Politics After the 2020 Elections, pp 1-22. Springer.
– Sammon, M. R. (2008). “The Politics of the U.S. Catholic Bishops: The Centrality of Abortion.” In K. E. Heyer and M. J. Rozell (Eds.) Catholics and Politics: The Dynamic Tension Between Faith and Power, pp. 11-26 Georgetown University Press
– Scanlon, K. (2023). “Florida’s Catholic bishops criticize DeSantis for lowering death penalty threshold.” National Catholic Reporter.
– Schlumpf, H. (2019). “Bishops’ meeting reveals division over how to influence political debate.” National Catholic Register.
– Smith, G. (2020). “8 facts about Catholics and politics in the U.S.” Pew Research Center.
– U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (2021a). “U.S. Bishops’ President Condemns Violent Protests and Prays for Safety as Chaos Threatens U.S. Capitol.”
– U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (2021b). “USCCB President’s Statement on the Inauguration of Joseph R. Biden, Jr., as 46th President of the United States of America.”
– Warren Davis, M. (2020). “The USCCB Just Showed Its Hand.” Crisis Magazine.
– White, C. (2020). “Trump Says He’s ‘Best President’ in History of Church History in Call with Catholic Leaders.” Crux Now.
– White, C. (2021a). “‘You reap what you sow’: Some bishops decry violence at Capitol.” National Catholic Reporter.
– White, C. (2021b). “Dueling Statements from Bishops, Pope, on Inauguration Day.” National Catholic Reporter.
– Williamson, V. (2023). “Understanding democratic decline in the United States.” Brookings Institute.
How you can more effectively advance multi-racial democracy
On March 3, 2024, Maria J. Stephan, co-lead of the Horizons Project, discussed her work to strengthen multi-racial democracy in the US and globally to the Forum at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church. Since 1943 the Forum has served as a platform for discussing significant issues especially those involving ethical values in the Contemporary World. The full interview is embedded below. You can find and edited version with links to resources mentioned in the interview that was broadcast on 90.1 KKFI FM on their website as well as an exerpt on the Effectiveness of Nonviolence on Soundcloud.
Introducing Our Race and Democracy Portfolio
Chief Network Weaver, Julia Roig, and Director for Race & Democracy, Jarvis Williams, have a conversation about why the Horizons Project created this new role and portfolio of work and our goal of supporting partners to break down siloes to place racial equity and racial healing at the center of our pro-democracy organizing. To find out more check out these resources.
Can Multiracial Democracy Survive?
*This article was written by Chief Organizer Maria J. Stephan and was first published on Sojourners.
Racial justice and pro-democracy advocates share a common agenda.
DEMOCRACIES OFTEN DIE by a thousand small cuts. The slide from a robust, if unfinished, democracy to an authoritarian government is incremental and uses inherent weaknesses in a country’s institution and culture. In the U.S., racism has been a core weakness debilitating progress toward a vibrant inclusive democracy, exploited by autocrats to maintain power no matter the cost to human dignity and freedom.
Since 2015, the U.S. democracy score has slid from 92 to 83, according to Freedom House’s global index, lower than any democracy in Western Europe. At a point when pro-democracy and anti-racism movements need to be strongest in the U.S., we find them at odds.
I work in many pro-democracy coalitions committed to political and ideological pluralism where it is challenging to identify the role of white supremacy and Christian nationalism in undermining democratic norms. Conservatives see these as “leftist” issues and moderates fear dividing an already fragile coalition. I also work with political progressives who often see police brutality and mass incarceration as aberrations in a functioning democracy rather than direct attacks on democracy itself, as political scientists Vesla M. Weaver and Gwen Prowse have laid out in their analysis of racial authoritarianism and as Black intellectuals and activists have understood for decades.
Authoritarianism is a system that concentrates wealth and power in a relatively small group of unaccountable people. Authoritarian systems are made up of authoritarian leaders and their institutional enablers, including members of political parties, media outlets, businesses, and religious institutions who provide autocrats with critical sources of social, political, economic, and financial power. Authoritarian systems engage in a range of anti-democratic behaviors to consolidate or expand power, such as weaponizing disinformation, gutting institutional checks on power, subverting free and fair elections, undermining civil liberties, and condoning political violence.
Notwithstanding our country’s powerful founding ideals of liberty and justice for all, both our main political parties are rooted in white supremacy, the historical, cultural, ideological, and institutional practices that benefit white people and disadvantage people of color. Since our country’s founding, there has been a struggle over who is allowed to participate fully as a citizen, particularly through the right to vote. It took the U.S. civil rights movement — the greatest pro-democracy struggle in our history — and the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to establish a legal foundation for inclusive democracy. Only in 1965 did the U.S. achieve full adult suffrage.
But with every advance has come backlash. In the U.S. this has included expanding the state repressive apparatus via policing, mass incarceration, and prison labor, followed by a “war on drugs” aimed at Black and brown communities. The election of our first Black president advanced a multiracial democracy on many fronts, but also activated authoritarian forces ready to exploit America’s racism.
Ex-president Donald Trump became the political vehicle for that vengeance and used the Republican Party to advance an authoritarian agenda. The MAGA faction has now captured the GOP to such an extent that the party, which in earlier eras fought to end slavery, has now abandoned democracy all together. An endemic American authoritarian faction that was once anchored in the Democratic Party in the early 20th century is now dominant in the Republican Party in the 21st century. In both cases the parties built their authoritarian rise around racism.
If racial authoritarianism is a politically ascendant trait in the U.S., what does this mean for the pro-democracy movement?
First, don’t silo strategy on racism away from strategy on democracy and authoritarianism. See them instead as two sides of the same coin. If we are countering polarization and its corrosive effects on U.S. democracy, how does that work address racism as the most virulent form of toxic polarization? If we are working to build resilient institutional democratic norms, are we grappling squarely with how the Electoral College, a relic from the period of slavery, is an impediment to multiracial democracy? Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt confront these structural questions in their new book, Tyranny of the Minority.
Second, talk honestly about how racism and white supremacy prevent the U.S. from developing as a democracy and see these conversations as strengthening citizenship. We must grapple with why, as Rev. Otis Moss III puts it, “Black conceptions of democracy are radically different from those that have participated and are privileged in the democracy.” Racial grievances have been used as a pretext to undermine democratic norms and principles, whether during the fall of Reconstruction, the enactment of Jim Crow, or the Jan. 6 coup attempt.
Third, invest in and amplify practices that simultaneously address racism and strengthen democracy. We need joint strategy-setting across a broad-based democracy movement that incorporates racial justice into political education, organizing and advocacy efforts, and in community dialogue. For example, labor unions significantly reduce racial wage gaps and racial wealth gaps between Black and white workers. Because of this, unions play a critical role in pushing back against authoritarian practices and strengthening an inclusive democracy.
Churches and religious institutions — particularly Black churches — have been pillars of support for democratic norms in the United States. Now, too many white evangelicals and Catholics are supporting the rise of authoritarianism and, in some cases, providing cover for political violence in the U.S. And those Christian leaders who stand against rising authoritarianism, such as former leader of the Southern Baptist Convention Russell Moore, are forced to step down because of threats from within their own community when they condemn white Christian nationalism.
However, as we witnessed in 2020, other faith organizations played a key role in upholding basic principles of democracy by countering misinformation, protecting the sacred right to vote, and deterring political violence. These roles will be critically important amid contentious national elections in 2024. Faith leaders can draw on moral authority and organizational power to highlight the urgency of this moment, support free and fair elections, insist on pro-democratic behaviors in politicians, and hold individuals accountable for political violence and other anti-democratic behaviors. Beyond the elections, faith organizations can speak prophetically about the awesome challenge and opportunity of building a multiracial democracy in the United States, grounded in mutual flourishing, and backing that vision with concrete action. In states that have become laboratories of democratic backsliding, faith leaders and communities can employ tactics such as public statements, symbolic protests, protective accompaniment of vulnerable community members, and (where necessary) acts of nonviolent noncooperation to apply principled pressure on those actively working against democracy. Churches can lead and support local and state-based efforts to advance truth, racial justice, and racial healing while grounding these efforts in a transformative pro-democracy movement. In this way, faith-based efforts to combat racism and strengthen democracy would instill hope and rejuvenate religious imagination for drawing us closer to the Beloved Community.
This article, Can Multiracial Democracy Survive?, was originally published in Sojourners magazine, April 2024. Reprinted with permission.
Defending Democracy by Expanding the Agenda
*By Research Assistant Sivahn Sapirstein and Director for Race and Democracy Jarvis Williams.
As 2024 continues, all eyes are on the Presidential election. Many Americans are focused on the colossal task of ensuring our democracy can survive another crucial election without descending into violence. Yet, as we become increasingly focused on such a pivotal election, it is also important to remember that defending democracy neither starts nor ends at the ballot box. In fact, defending democracy is a far more expansive project. Louis Brandeis, former Supreme Court justice, once proclaimed that the most important office in a democracy is the office of citizen. Pro-democracy organizers agree with these words, and it is their constant practice to put these words into action.
It would be an understatement to say that practicing democracy is easy. American history is littered with testimonies reminding us that it is not. Like all worthy enterprises, defending democracy is fraught with challenges and sheer disappointments. Pro-democracy organizers would do well to spend some time considering this history. In the face of our current democratic crisis, and its more visible authoritarian manifestations, pro-democracy organizers would benefit from recognizing the manifold ways Americans have compromised democracy in the past. This knowledge would help pro-democracy organizers identify the current threats to democracy more clearly and expand their imaginations about the possibilities of democratic engagement. In this moment, establishing racial justice as the foundation for all pro-democracy work, seeing what multiracial visions emerge from that foundation, and crafting strategies that embed that learning into every aspect of our pro-democracy playbook is the challenging work that must be done.
Protecting and expanding access to voting is one of the most prominent strategies for defending democracy being modeled across pro-democracy organizations. Many organizations develop grassroot networks and work tirelessly encouraging citizens to participate in the electoral process. The New Georgia Project and ProGeorgia are two such organizations which have been particularly effective in registering and mobilizing new constituencies. These organizations see voter registration and mobilization as a key step towards a multiracial democracy. Other organizations such as America Votes, Common Cause, and Movement Voter Project, alongside think tanks and policy groups such as States United Democracy Center, Brennan Center for Justice, or Protect Democracy, are all equally engaged (amongst a host of other activities) in defending democracy by exposing efforts to undermine elections and advancing new mechanisms to safeguard election systems.
While appreciating the importance of all these efforts, the authoritarian threat confronting the nation requires that pro-democracy organizations embrace a more expansive display of democratic agency. To be sure, many pro-democracy organizations are aware that democratic participation exists beyond the ballot box; some are also engaged with civic education programs or policy campaigns around gerrymandering, while others are bridging voter registration campaigns with issue specific organizing such as reproductive rights and raising the minimum wage. These are all critical elements of expanding the playbook for democratic defense beyond participation in electoral politics. Nonetheless, the nature of the authoritarian threat requires that we go even further.
A more expansive defense of American democracy begins with the understanding that the seeds of our current democratic crisis can be found in our past. Our current threat emerged by exploiting unresolved narratives of white supremacy and its unspoken acceptance of systemic racism. Ta-Nehisi Coates drew a link between these unresolved narratives and their capacity to produce electoral success. After Trump’s election in 2016, Ta-Nehisi made this observation, “it is often said that Trump has no real ideology, which is not true—his ideology is white supremacy, in all its truculent and sanctimonious power.” Other writers do not see these unresolved narratives as causative but merely correlative. In their view, seeing Trump as merely a mirror is the most constructive way to understand our current democratic dilemma.
The overarching point is that one presidential election should not be viewed as the source of our current democratic crisis. It is critical for pro-democracy organizations to see this moment in relationship to our larger history of tolerating anti-democratic laws and norms based on race. This history shows the emergence and maintenance of “authoritarian enclaves” up until 1968. Following 1968, a revised framework for excluding groups from accessing democratic rights, opportunities, and resources emerged. The new framework mobilized social prejudices and sought to legitimize them in our institutional practices. Of critical significance was the decision in Terry v Ohio that made stop and frisk constitutional (something people today are demonstrating violates the 4th amendment). The ongoing refusal to practice democracy with integrity in America is what Weaver and Prowse have labeled as “racial authoritarianism.” Constantly engaging American history is critical for understanding the true nature of our current threats and resisting their cancerous effects in our current moment.
As it stands, the conversations and organizing around democracy and racial justice remain largely distinct. One way to bridge these spaces is by advocating for the acknowledgement of racism as a critical “animating factor” within our current democratic crisis and integrating that awareness into existing pro-democracy spaces. Another way to bolster the pro-democracy efforts is by seeing what themes racial authoritarianism and racial justice can illuminate within the American democracy conversation. Through this approach, several new categories emerge under the banner of pro-democracy organizing work in America: confronting structures of policing and mass surveillance, reforming the justice system, and addressing economic inequality (specifically access to housing). For each category, there are passionate organizations advancing what could be considered a more expansive democratic defense strategy. Yet, these defense strategies remain mostly outside the traditional framework of pro-democracy work.
The absence of policing, mass surveillance, and criminal justice reform from most discourses on defending democracy is particularly glaring. While the relationship between policing and democracy in America may not seem apparent at first glance, it is worth noting that, when analyzing other countries, we typically assume a relationship between policing practices and structures of authoritarianism. Why not probe that relationship in the US? For example, in the spirit of defending American democracy, we should interrogate police militarization, the proliferation of SWAT teams and their disproportionately high use in Black neighborhoods, how racial profiling deepens a distinct experience of citizenship, and the worrying trends in police education which deepen the divide between police and the communities they are supposed to protect. Campaign Zero and Southern Center for Human Rights are two organizations working to develop clear steps for advancing community safety and strengthening accountability and fairness – key concepts in our fight against authoritarianism. Civilian review boards – though often stymied by politicians and police – can serve as a foundational concept for future initiatives demanding the democratization of police departments and their relationships to local communities.
The other component is mass surveillance, and specifically the increasing practice of data sharing between major companies and the police, which poses a threat to our freedom of movement. Project South is one organization working on addressing the way mass surveillance erodes democratic norms through their report on state surveillance of Muslim communities. Reform Georgia, Southern Center for Human Rights, and Justice Reform Partnership are just a few of the organizations working on criminal justice reform issues such as private probation, cash bail, decriminalizing poverty, and, more broadly, ending mass incarceration. Even though voting isn’t the whole story of democratic defense, it is useful to highlight that each of these issues is intimately related to the question of who can physically participate in our democratic system.
Addressing economic inequality must become more squarely situated within pro-democracy discourse. Linking economic inequality to rising authoritarianism is not itself a novel idea; one common narrative explaining the rising support for a more authoritarian type of leadership amongst Americans is the dramatic and persistent level of economic inequality. From another angle, research on democratic participation has found empirical evidence showing that socio-economic status is the clearest indicator for a person’s level of democratic engagement (the poorer the individual the less likely they are to participate in a variety of democratic activities). Adding to the conversation the stark reality of the racial wealth gap in America, itself a legacy of racial authoritarianism, enables us to see why economic justice must be a key component of our pro-democracy organizing. Partnership for Southern Equity incorporates housing and economic justice as central pillars of their racial justice work. Atlanta Civic Circle also incorporates both housing rights and democracy within its strategic playbook. While addressing economic inequality may seem beyond the scope of pro-democracy organizing given the urgency of the upcoming election, our defense of democracy must be both audacious and expansive.
Admittedly, defending democracy is challenging work. And when you include the impact of policing and mass surveillance, the criminal justice system, and economic inequality in the assessment of our democracy a more disconcerting picture appears. Nevertheless, defenders of democracy must confront this picture with calm resolve. They must be assured that we can resist the authoritarian trends compromising our democratic aspirations. And it must never be forgotten that civil resistance works. In truth, we have an expansive democratic playbook bequeathed to us by social movements both within the US and around the world. Therefore, we must resolve to weave together all the strategies of democratic defense and unapologetically engage in pro-democracy work grounded in an unwavering commitment to racial justice.
Race and Democracy
Within the broad ecosystem of social change in the US, we often find a lack of alignment between racial justice and pro-democracy agendas. At best, there are siloed efforts of potential allies—and at worst, considerations of race are left out of democracy reform or civic revitalization work because it is seen as too “divisive” or ideological. At the Horizons Project, we seek to help break down these siloes, and we want to support our partners in placing racial equity and racial healing at the center of our pro-democracy organizing. We believe that addressing both historic and current racial injustice is an essential part of building healthy connective tissue among actors and strategies working to confront the latest manifestation of the authoritarian threat in the US and working towards a shared democratic future.
Stoking racial divides and fear is a tried-and-true element of the Authoritarian Playbook. The antidote to this tactic is to come together within broad-based movements across many lines of difference, including race, class, religion, geography, etc. Horizons is committed to supporting a pro-democracy united front that is working to block, bridge, and build at the same time. We must organize to block the most harmful effects of the authoritarian resurgence that continues to fall predominantly upon BIPOC communities; we must bridge amongst sectors to find common cause across all lines of identity and mobilize our collective action for change; and we must tirelessly work to build a multi-racial, pluralistic, inclusive democracy where all people can thrive.
There are many entry points to working on race and democracy, at times in tension with each other—prioritizing different time horizons, different target audiences, and deploying different theories of change. As systems-level organizers, the Horizons Project commits to highlighting this diversity of perspectives and naming the points of tension in service to our ability to collectively synergize and strategize our efforts. In this spirit, we’ve compiled a list of resources (that is surely not meant to be comprehensive) that we hope helps to shape the contours of organizations and tools to help navigate this essential topic:
RESOURCES
What Does It Mean to Have a Strong Multi-Racial Democracy? Harvard University’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
“Racism, rather than being the exception to the rule of American democracy, was fundamental to how many of the country’s founders understood themselves and conceptions of citizenship, argues Khalil Gibran Muhammad. Speaking with Archon Fung, Muhammad describes the often-tortuous path the United States has taken towards building a more inclusive, multiracial democracy. ‘So, when you ask the question about how racial conflict or solidarity advance or don’t advance the American project, first we have to recognize that conflict or solidarity are not these moments where we’ve either gone wrong or we’ve come together. But indeed, moments where we’ve responded to the fundamentals of our political nation.’”
Racial Authoritarianism in US Democracy, by Vesla Weaver and Gwen Prowse
“Recently, casual and savage violence of police against peaceful protesters and images of police in military gear sweeping up residents into unmarked vans has led journalists to question whether U.S. democracy is in peril. Many observers described these recent actions as authoritarian. But racial authoritarianism has been central to citizenship and governance of race-class subjugated communities throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries. It describes state oppression such that groups of residents live under extremely divergent experiences of government and laws. Yet when police engage in excessive surveillance, incursions on civil liberties, and arbitrary force as a matter of routine patrol, many scholars of American politics are reluctant to consider it a violation of democracy and instead deem them aberrations in an otherwise functioning democracy. This mischaracterization is not limited only to intellectual discourse but also affects the public sphere. By obscuring evidence of racial authoritarianism, reforms will not land where needed.”
11 Terms You Should Know to Better Understand Structural Racism, The Aspen Institute
“Structural racism is not something that a few people or institutions choose to practice. Instead, it has been part of the social, economic, and political systems in which we all exist. It is part of America’s past and its present. This glossary describes terms related to structural racism and terms used to promote racial equity analysis. It was created by the Aspen Institute’s Roundtable on Community Change, a group that worked with leading innovators to produce strong and reliable frameworks for successful and sustainable community change and development.”
Equity vs. Equality: What’s the Difference? by Stephen Menendian
“To summarize: Equality means that the law and government treats everyone the same, irrespective of their status or identity. Equity means that, in some circumstances, people must be treated differently to provide meaningful equality of opportunity. Neither “equality” nor “equity” guarantee equality of outcomes. Equity is primarily in service of equality of opportunity, not outcomes. But achieving equality of opportunity requires both equality (formally equal treatment) and equity (situationally different treatment), depending on the circumstances.”
Racial Equity Tool Kit, Government Alliance on Race and Equity
“Racial equity tools are designed to integrate explicit consideration of racial equity in decisions, including policies, practices, programs, and budgets. It is both a product and a process. Use of a racial equity tool can help to develop strategies and actions that reduce racial inequities and improve success for all groups.”
Racial Equity Impact Assessment, Race Forward
“A Racial Equity Impact Assessment (REIA) is a systematic examination of how different racial and ethnic groups will likely be affected by a proposed action or decision. REIAs are used to minimize unanticipated adverse consequences in various contexts, including the analysis of proposed policies, institutional practices, programs, plans and budgetary decisions. The REIA can be a vital tool for preventing institutional racism and for identifying new options to remedy long-standing inequities.”
Let’s Get to the Root of Racial Injustice, by Megan Ming Francis
This short video captures Megan Ming Francis challenging the idea that education alone can adequately address the lingering reality of racial injustice. In a beautifully cogent presentation, she argues that to combat continuing racial injustices today, we must expand our vision and responsibility to what civil rights means. By this she means that the battle against racist violence is inherent in protecting civil rights.
The Structural Racism Remedies Project, The Othering & Belonging Institute
This “open-source, searchable repository of policy-based recommendations for addressing structural and systemic racism or advancing racial equity drawn from a vast array of published material…This project finds significant challenges and barriers to a reform agenda aimed at addressing systemic and structural racism due to: 1) budgetary and fiscal limitations on spending and appropriations, 2) ideological and political opposition to the goals of racial equity or particular proposals, 3) legal and constitutional limitations on consideration of race in policy-making, and 4) systems resistance to policy implementation that undermines policy intentions. Any thoughtful and effective agenda must grapple with these challenges.”
Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Implementation Guidebook, W.K. Kellogg Foundation
“This Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) Implementation Guidebook will help communities, organizations and individuals plan, implement and evaluate TRHT efforts. It includes specific guidance on implementing the different areas of the TRHT framework and ensuring inclusion of a decolonization agenda in the work. It has been updated based on learnings from the first five years of TRHT implementation.”
A Dream in Our Name, Liberation Ventures
“This report is intended to accelerate ongoing conversations about how all of us stand to benefit from Racial Repair. Through this framework, we apply a new lens on what comprehensive reparations can mean, who it is for, and what role we each can play. We clarify the component parts of “repair” to translate it from being an abstract term to an implementable action. Fundamentally, we’re broadening the vision for reparations to ensure that all people see themselves in the work of repair, and we’re calling forth our collective responsibility to do this necessary work.”
Race, Arts and Democracy, The Center for the Study of Race and Democracy, Arizona State University
“The Race, Arts and Democracy series underscores the vital connections between race, the arts and the work to sustain, imagine, understand and document democracy. Programs feature acclaimed and emerging artists in and beyond the United States whose work illuminates the complexities of race and the possibilities of democracy. This [program] series explores the power of creativity and how the arts enable us to see and learn more together about justice, access and equity, civil rights, economic inequality and the multifaceted work to achieve social justice in our world today.”
Talking About Race, Living Room Conversations
“The motto of Living Room Conversations is respect, relate, connect. We know that in the pursuit of racial equity, individual conversations are not the final stop in the journey. Conversations can help us better understand individual bias and racism, as well as consider how racism is part of our systems and institutions. Living Room Conversations has created this resource page in response to increased demand and design to have conversations about race.”
On Talking to Kids About Race, Multiracial Democracy and EmbraceRace, Outside Conversations Podcast
The Co-Founder and Co-Director of EmbraceRace, Andrew Grant-Thomas talks about the organization’s founding, “its work in the world, the future of a multiracial democracy, advocacy and how we can talk (and listen!) to our children about race.”
Global Democracy Supporters Must Confront Systemic Racism, by Ashley Quarcoo
In the article written in 2020 during the rise of racial justice movements world-wide, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published this piece directed to the global democracy promotion sector. “If Western democracies wish to maintain some credibility as lead advocates for human rights and democratic governance, they must seek to fully understand and address the role that racism plays in undermining the legitimacy of their institutions.”
More Resources:
From Scarcity to Solidarity Toolkit, Showing Up For Racial Justice
Martin Luther King’s Multiple Lanes to Multiracial Democracy by Maria Stephan
Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow by Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History by Ned BlackHawk
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nicole Hannah-Jones
Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Davis
Between The World And Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Our History Has Always Been Contraband: In Defense of Black Studies edited by Colin Kaepernick, Robin D.G. Kelley, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt
The Source of Self Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations by Toni Morrison
The Darkened Light of Faith: Race, Democracy, and Freedom in African American Political Thought by Melvin L. Rogers
Where Do We Go From Here?: Chaos of Community by Martin Luther King Jr.
Asian American Histories of the United States by Catherine Ceniza Choy
Dancing in the Darkness: Spiritual Lessons for Thriving in Turbulent Times by Otis Moss III
Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes
From #Black Lives Matter to Black Liberation by Keeanga-Yamatta Taylor
Understanding Pillars of Support
Horizons has been focusing on how various Pillars of Support, notably faith-based organizations, businesses, unions & professional associations, and veterans/military groups, have contributed to authoritarian systems and how they have supported pro-democracy movements in the US and globally.
To complement our pillars-focused research and organizing, we have developed this short, 5-min video focused on what pillars of support are, why they matter, and what it means to both engage and pressure key pillars as part of pro-democracy organizing that reaches beyond the base.
We hope that activists, organizers, trainers, educators, bridgers, funders, and other democracy practitioners will find this tool helpful in your daily work. Please feel free to share the video with interested folks.
Thanks, and we look forward to joining forces in this critical year for democracy in the US and around the world!