Power Not Pity

The fight, as we see it, is not a fight for pity, it's necessarily a fight for power. You cannot accomplish and sustain anything in a big country like this from a standpoint of getting people to feel sorry for you. We've learned in our experience that with people who kiss your ass, if you do anything wrong, start kicking your ass. If you develop any kind of paternalistic relationship, that flips. The relationship has to be working with each other, in partnership with each other, and not paternalisticly in an unequal relationship. That relationship, of working with each other, is a relationship for power, not for pity. Unless we can generate the necessary kind of strength, through organization and building a movement, there's nothing in the history of this country that suggests that we can rearrange the priorities of this nation. Every time, every instance that we can see in history where changes were indeed made, those changes were made on the basis of a relationship with, a relationship for power, and not a relationship and an organization just for pity. This country is full of pity, it has enjoyed a tremendous development in terms of pity; it is the richest country in the world. The notion of philanthropy, the notion of helping people, the notion of volunteerism is something that abounds in the American psyche. Although it has often been based in a very sincere concern for people, that notion has been a source and means of control. So building a movement cannot be based on unequal relationships. It's got to be a movement where each one of us are working along side each other, and understanding that our interests are mutual, and that we need to see these changes made if we're really going to deal with this situation. This is something we see as critical. When you're organizing a movement, you have to take all these things into account. It's like when you're baking a cake. I can't cook worth shit, and have tried from time to time but my wife kicks me out. A few times I've tried to bake a cake, and invariably I always leave out an ingredient. The result? It looks like a cake, and it might smell like a cake, but when you take that bite, something is missing. Our approach tells us that everywhere we've had those five ingredients, we've had sustained progress in terms of reaching out, making things happen, and impacting the thinking, discussion and debates of this nation. That's the five ingredients.

On the Poor Organizing the Poor