Written for My Reflection Matters Unschooling Cooperative
To the outer world, Liberation is generally understood as something that we fight for from the structures that control and govern the macro and micro of our everyday realities. The term Liberation conjures up images of armed struggle, marches, violence. But in a space like this, where families are committed to decolonizing ourselves, it is more closely understood that Liberation is a daily experience, more than it is a major historic moment.
I created NOIR Labs because I wanted to contribute to my Ancestors’ efforts to end the suffering and oppression experienced by Black people globally. And I wanted to do this in a way that was fun, joyful, fruitful and that made me personally feel free, feel Liberated. I wanted to do this in a way that would have lasting impact for generations to come, and not die away like so many of our movements have. Having experienced poverty, violence and the other inner- and outer- body ramifications of the Colonized Dispensation in which we live, I desired another reality.
I’d been a part of radical movements, marches, actions. I’d looked around and recognized that the people leading this work were not happy or fulfilled, which meant they were not free, and that to me was an unacceptable contradiction. How can we lead people to “freedom” when we are not free ourselves? If we must stay angry for our work to be effective or relevant, if we must deceive and swindle and harm each other even within “movements” then what hope is there for the larger humanity we are seeking to Liberate? Deeper still, if we are constantly reliving our traumas and exacting those energies on others, how can we possibly hope to be truly free in a way that lasts beyond the next series of “actions”, that serves our children’s children’s children?
So for me, because of this understanding, because I know that our generation doesn’t have to go the way of our parents’, grandparents’ and other previous generations, I know that Liberation must be an internal process that radiates its positive impact outwardly. If we can heal ourselves of our traumas, ritualize our true joy, increase the energy of our abundance–if we can radiate that towards all whom we meet, 1- we’ll have an actual, healthier sense of community based on joy and love rather than on trauma bonding, 2- we’ll economically increase in power individually and collectively, 3- we won’t need anyone to Liberate us because we’ll command such power–more fluidly able to build the realities we desire–that efforts to violate or oppress us will end in destruction for the oppressors.
It’s like when you try to fight a well-oiled machine with an obstruction here and there. When the machine is stronger than any obstruction you can throw at it, every attempt to harm it will only end your own destruction. That’s the goal of Liberation from Within. To create a people so well-oiled, so fulfilled, so free from within, that no obstruction can derail us from the path of Liberation for a hundred generations.
21 Days to Liberated Habits is a program to help me achieve this within myself at a deeper level–in a more powerful way–and to invite others who desire this pure form of total Liberation to achieve it within a community that is loving, kind, hopeful and generous. And disciplined. When we fortify ourselves on a daily basis, with truths, practices and experiences that elevate our mind-body-spirit energy, we become more and more impossible to oppress individually. The challenges that used to derail and depress us simply don’t hold the same power any more. We stare down the barrel of the proverbial gun and we tell it where to go sit. We use our magic to command matter. We terrify the terrorists. The second greatest fear of white supremacist delusion is an organized Black race. Their greatest fear (and most of them don’t know this yet) is a collaborative and organized BIPOC/Global South block.
When we can get organized around a common vision of Liberation from Within, we will be impossible to oppress.
I have two affirmations in my personal prayer book that speak to this moment. One says “I have found my people”, and the other “I have incredible best friends who love to travel the world with me; who are possessed with a passion for Black Liberation through art; who are emotionally and spiritually supportive of me and all their friends, and who are raising joyful, Liberated children.” This offering is my invitation to the Universe to bring those people into my life in a way that ritualizes our communion and our connection, and Liberates us collectively, from within.