The following is a transcript of the video above, from our webinar “Remaking the Economy: How to Change Our Stories about the Economy.” View the full webinar here.
“Multigenerationalism in movements is what will sustain narratives for the long haul.”
When I think about the Land Back movement, that was not created by a marketing firm, that was not created by a think tank. In fact…the marketing firms and the public relations people, all that they said [was]: “It’s not going to work. It’s going to terrify the White people. It’s going to create a more divisive space. It ain’t gonna work.” My first [response] was like, “Yo. Send me an invoice. It was worth every penny. Thank you.”
When I went to the grandmas in my community and [asked], “What does Land Back mean to you?” they almost cried when I asked them that question because they said it means, “Wow. For one, nobody’s asked me that before. Number two, it means everything that was taken from us when they took the land.”
And when I went to a young person and [asked], “What does Land Back mean to you?” They were like, “Hell yeah. I can see myself in that.” Multigenerationalism in movements is what will sustain narratives for the long haul.
We don’t need the latest sexiest thing to be put in the end zones of the NFL—and have it have incremental impact. Yes, I said that. Took a shot at some of that. Because we need narratives that are going to stick around for the long haul. Because we got some serious work to be doing.
So, I think that a lot of times that the world of communications, marketing firms, and the data organizations that support those—they are disconnected, very disconnected from impacted people.
And so, you end up with those informing who “does narrative change work,” giving them misguided and misdirected information, because powerful narratives happen when you build a political analysis from the ground up. And that our identities are attached to it. Our very survival as a people was attached to it. Those have longevity. And then we can get into strategies of how that authenticity gets into what we consider the mainstream.
