What now? Radical responsibility

By Aswad Walker
Defender
Reprinted – by Texas Metro News

There is an idea, a life approach sweeping the nation, or at least those circles where individuals and organizations are obsessed with growth and development. It’s called “Radical Responsibility.”

RADICAL RESPONSIBILITY EXPLAINED

If you look it up, you’ll find just as many different definitions for “Radical Responsibility” as articles are breaking it down. But what they all have in common is this core belief that if you (the individual, organization, or group of people… i.e. Blackfolk) are serious about achieving your aims and becoming the best, most powerful, and impactful version of yourself, the best way to get there is to accept full responsibility for any things that happen to you.

That means, if you have a specific goal, and you don’t meet that goal, even if the actions or inactions of others played a role in you missing your mark, you still accept complete and full responsibility.

Social scientists and life coaches who preach this gospel of “Radical Responsibility” say that taking such an approach, refusing you use anything outside of your intelligence, work ethic, creativity, and grit as an excuse for falling short, rewires your brain and intestinal fortitude to be able to exponentially increase your chances of being successful moving forward.

APPLYING IT ELECTION 2024

Using that logic, Blackfolk need to apply this “Radical Responsibility” mindset to our review of what in the actual hell happened that allowed a 34-time convicted felon, racist, sexual predator who epitomizes unearned privilege and overused anti-Blackness, to defeat the over-qualified VP Kamala Harris for the presidency?

The easy route would be for us to blame the Trump victory on white people being white people—no matter what they say about being for women’s rights, ending racism, being in solidarity with workers’ rights, and the need for criminal justice reform and voting rights protections, at the end of the day their klan always, always comes through to protect the myth of white supremacy and reality of white power domination—to hell with things like humanity, justice, equality, democracy, etc.

Or we, the Blacks, could lament how our Latinx sisters and brothers fell for the okey-doke, and put in office someone who hates Brownfolk nearly as much as he hates Blackfolk.

We could even place all the blame on members of our own house who didn’t vote or who voted for a dude endorsed by the Klan, neo nazis, and white domestic terrorist groups that pray to their peckerwood messiah for a race war so they can take us all out.

WHAT MUST WE DO?

But “Radical Responsibility” says we must look solely in the mirror and ask ourselves, what have we not done nearly enough of, and what have we done too much of, over the past months, years, and decades that’s squashing our ability to build the kind of society (world) we want and need?

Whatever the answers are, we’re responsible for allowing anti-Black agents to convince so many of our people that voting doesn’t matter. We’re responsible for believing white women would ever vote for our common humanity over their white privilege. We’re responsible for allowing misinformation to hold more weight with our people than facts and history. We’re responsible for not demanding the Democratic Party do what Rev. William Barber has been crying in the wilderness about—centering that huge, untapped voting bloc, the poor. We’re responsible for allowing Dems to stay committed to Israel’s Gaza genocide even as their base screamed for change.

Long story long, we’ve f’ed around and we’re about to find out what not taking care of business looks and feels like. And blaming anything or anyone outside ourselves, won’t move us forward to where we want and need to be.