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“It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains,” Assata Shakur wrote in her 1987 autobiography. Here's what we can learn from her powerful words today.
Shakur knew something that we must: liberation is a long road. We will get tired along the way, but when our ancestors got knocked down, they didn’t stay down. Their persistence got us this far, and it's our duty to continue.
In an anti-Black world hellbent on oppressing us, we have nothing to lose but the chains forced onto us centuries ago. We can build a self-determined Black future by committing to love and support.
We can all commit to being purposeful about buying Black. Research the Black-led organizations in your community doing work you believe in, from fighting food insecurity to climate justice, and support them with your time and/or money. Need to build something? Commit to working with Black suppliers, producers, and partners to get it done. We have everything we need in each other.
Imagining and building a new world for our people is a lifelong duty. We must endure not only to witness changes to our present reality but also for future Black people whose lives we have the potential to impact in the best way possible with the work we do right now.