Two Proverbs and "The Big Lie"

Hello and welcome back to the Word Force Observer, a monthly newsletter from your Word Force editors, Megan Izen and Nikesha Elise Williams.?

We’re two weeks out from the general election and I am nervous. After the last five years of book bans, Moms for Liberty, anti-CRT campaigns, Parental Rights in Education, S.T.O.P. W.O.K.E., January 6, the big lie, ongoing genocide in multiple countries around the world, and now conspiracy theories that the government controls hurricanes, I know that revisionist history will be treated as fact and disinformation as reality by a not-insignificant portion of Americans.?

Which makes truth-telling a courageous act in a country that cries wolf.?

Speaking out and standing with systemically disempowered and strategically undervalued people? is the work of an activist, an agitator, a changemaker. Change causes ripples, whether it’s compassion where there was none, or anger at losing the comfort of controlling a narrative. Changemaking could lead to arrest, prison time, threats, and even death, but what’s wild is that there are millions of people willing and ready to fight to the death over a lie.?

So what are we to do about this cognitive dissonance we accuse each other of? As I thought about these tensions, two proverbs came to mind.?

The English proverb, “To the victor go the spoils,” stops short of telling the full story of how history, truth, facts, and narrative are crafted.?

The African proverb, “Until the lion learns to write, every story will always glorify the hunter,” explains that not only to the victor go the spoils, but also the ink and paper to document, archive, and enter into the historical record the agreed upon account of what happened in the history of the world.

It’s the reason the United States celebrated Christopher Columbus for 229 years before Indigenous People’s Day was nationally recognized in 2021. (Berkeley, CA was of course ahead of the curve in celebrating Indigenous People’s Day since 1992.) This is despite the fact Columbus never landed anywhere in the continental Americas. His campaign of genocide rendered him the victor and so to him went the spoils (land) and the pen (enduring record of hero in the history books).?

It’s taken centuries to debunk the myth of Christopher Columbus and for the truth to finally enter the chat. How many centuries will it take to undo the lies of our time? How many people will die (literally or figuratively by being erased from the record) martyrs, victims of genocide, or be sacrificed on altars of ego, before enough people find the courage to speak out against oppression and the lies fostered by repressing narratives that are inconvenient to one’s imagined perspective.?

We often say at Word Force and Narrative Initiative that movement work, and narrative change specifically, is generational. We are two weeks away from a significant historical moment that organizers will use as an inciting incident in history for generations. I am admitting now that I am nervous. And I am not okay.? ?

Yours in Organizing,?

Megan Izen and Nikesha Williams

Member Spotlight ??

This month we’d like to highlight Word Force Changemaker Organization, Amplify Georgia who are rigorously sharing their message for reproductive freedom across several social media platforms. From this thread that distilled their research about what Georgia voters really want when it comes to reproductive rights, to this reel highlighting the reason why judges shouldn’t decide what happens to birthing people and their bodies, Amplify Georgia is exemplifies the effectiveness of the strategy to go around the gatekeepers. You can learn more about Amplify Georgia here.

Resources

This month as a resource we want to alert you to the Voice of Witness Storyteller Initiative. This program supports storytellers from all backgrounds including oral history, documentary and more. VOW is looking for changemaker storytellers who want to “uplift stories from their own communities.” Applications for the fellowship open on October 24. You can learn more about the fellowship here which comes with a $10,000 stipend per year for up to two years.?

Another resource you may be interested is a new workshop from RadComms: How to Measure Narrative Change. In the session five narrative change and evaluation experts will break down how to measure the true impact of your campaign, art activation, or direct action work. The 90-minute workshop will be held October 25. You can register for it here.?

What We're Reading ??

This month we’re recommending Ta-Nehisi Coates’ latest book The Message. The book is composed of three essays that reckon with the stories we tell ourselves about place and history. From Dakar, Senegal home to Goree Island and it’s infamous “door of no return” that propagated the Middle Passage in just one leg of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, to Columbia, South Carolina a capital of the Confederacy and a little more than 100 miles from where the Civil War began, and finally on to Palestine where Coates recognized with white-diamond clarity how easy it is for the once oppressed to become oppressors and justify their inhumanity with the language of unity, nativism, and God-ordained homeland. You can learn more and get a copy of the The Message here.

We also want to remind you about Silky Shah’s book, Unbuild Walls: Why Immigrant Justice Needs Abolition. Shah, who is an alumna of the inaugural Changemaker Authors Cohort in 2022, is the Executive Director of Detention Watch Network. In Unbuild Walls, Shah argues that our only hope for creating a liberated society for all is through abolition. With personal experience as an organizer, as well as stories of people, campaigns, organizations, and localities that have resisted detention and deportation, Shah assesses the immigration/abolitionist movement’s strategies, challenges, successes, and shortcomings. You can read an interview with Shah about the book when she was still part of the Changemaker Authors Cohort here and grab a copy for yourself here.