The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart

“For most of us, whatever we call our politics—leftist, feminist, anti-racist—dignity and survival are our core concerns.”

Dignity and survival are at the root of Garza’s politics. As a queer Black woman, she has experienced how each of those aspects of her identity are undervalued and underrepresented in current society. Her goal as an activist and organizer is to restore dignity to these groups and create a world where their survival is no longer challenged daily.

“By the time I came into the world, the revolution that many had believed was right around the corner had disintegrated.”

Garza demonstrates an early interest in civil right movements and a knowledge of Black history. However, she laments that during her time, the revolutionary gains of the 1960s had largely been rolled back or unenforced. The next generation has not followed in their predecessor’s path.

“To be sure, Black communities have always been policed and surveilled in this country, and with each new decade, the methods of control and containment become more sophisticated.”

This quote illustrates how anti-Black racism persists to this day. Garza argues that the narrative of Black people having “won” their rights is not realistic. Black communities remain the primary target for state and police violence.

“My white peers were already having sex, sneaking out of their houses, drinking forty-ouncers in large lavish homes under the not-so-watchful eyes of au pairs and live-in nannies, and yet here I was, being accused of doing drugs when I’d never gotten so much as a B- on a report card.”

Garza’s Blackness is highlighted and punished in white spaces. To this day, she is more at risk of being singled out and unjustly accused purely because of her skin color. Black people are punished in real life for the same culture that popular media romanticizes. Consequently, Garza is suspected of misconduct despite her perfect record. More broadly, this explains Garza’s reluctance to rely on “respectability politics” to enact change.

“This too was an impact of the War on Drugs: a fetishization of Black culture as outlaw, as rebel, as renegade, while criminalizing Black people whether we were outlaw, rebel, renegade, or not.”

This quote supplements the previous one. It demonstrates how Blackness is perceived as cool and rebellious in white culture while law enforcement punishes these same traits. Black people are punished for a narrative they did not popularize.

“Organizing has been a part of who I am ever since I can remember, although for a long time I didn’t call it by that name—I thought I was just working with other people to solve the problems that impacted our lives.”

Garza has a passion for organizing. However, organizing and activism both require strategy and knowledge. Working in a collective is rewarding but it becomes much more efficient if leaders and members alike are politically informed.

“The mission and purpose of organizing is to build power.”

This is the fundamental principle behind Garza’s politics. She values organizing as a means to unite people for a cause. The larger an organization is, the more powerful it becomes.

“Bayview Hunters Point was the first place where I was forced to grapple with the contradictions Black people engage in to survive—whatever survival means for them.”

Garza expresses her grief at realizing Black people did not always act in each other’s best interests. Blackness is a broad category encompassing multiple groups and identities. Therefore, contradictions are inevitable when every individual’s survival and dignity are at stake.

“Capitalism and racism have mostly forced people to live in segregated spaces.”

Garza clarifies her stance against capitalism and racism. She values unity and intersectionality, two things that are threatened by the abovementioned ideologies. Garza’s vision for the future remains one of cohesion, dignity, and connection.

“This, we saw, is how Black people die here. Here, in America, Black people die from someone else’s fear of us.”

Garza summarizes her feelings on police violence. Black people are disproportionately targeted by police. By virtue of their skin color, they are suspected of wrongdoing and feared, even when they are innocent and just trying to survive.

“Ferguson exposed what has happened to Black leadership; the rebellion was primarily against predatory policing but was also, implicitly, a rebuke of Black leadership that has forever changed how we look at resistance.”

This passage points out the shifting nature of Black leadership. Whereas people have historically rallied behind male religious leaders, this tradition is slowly dissipating. The Black community at Ferguson largely rejected giving a platform to Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

“[T]he longer I’m in the practice of building a movement, the more I realize that movement building isn’t about finding your tribe—it’s about growing your tribe across difference to focus on a common set of goals.”

This is a fundamental lesson Garza has learned throughout her years of organizing. It is a theme throughout the book. Garza firmly believes that certain activists with radical politics tend to become increasingly exclusive rather than inclusive. She believes this is counterproductive because power can be built only in numbers.

“Successful movements know how to use the tools of media and culture to communicate what they are for, and to help paint a picture of what an alternative world can look like, feel like, be like.”

Regulating one’s own narrative is crucial. It cannot be done without wielding power. Media and culture are tools for movements to communicate their goals to a broader audience.

“We must challenge our fear that Black people organizing means that the rest of us will be left behind.”

Garza defends the necessity of identity politics. Even though movements should be intersectional and inclusive, Garza warns that organizations do not exist in a vacuum and can replicate society’s discrimination. Black people occupy a unique space, and allowing them to organize among themselves is not detrimental to a broader unity of marginalized peoples.

“No one form of leadership is superior—but the forms that we adopt must be honest and adaptable for the environment they are being deployed in.”

Garza has a definitive perspective of what leadership should not be, which she details in Chapter 10. She structured Black Lives Matter to avoid the pitfalls and errors she’s witnessed in other leadership styles. However, she remains open to different forms of leadership, as long as they are appropriate for the organization and its purpose.

“Black Lives Matter designates itself a leader-full organization.”

This powerful quote illustrates how BLM differs from other organizations. For example, while Occupy Wall Street calls itself leaderless, that is not truly the case: Organizing efforts were mainly led by white males. In contrast, BLM does not purport the impossible: Successful organizations are never without leaders, and Garza’s work is to produce as many of them as necessary.

“Controlling the story of who we are and what makes us who we are is an exercise in power.”

This passage demonstrates the importance of being able to control one’s own narrative. This is a form of power that Black people have never been given. Movements must therefore strive to build and spread their ideals and their story.

“Black women in leadership carry the unique dilemma of being seen as too tough and not tough enough.”

Garza illustrates how male leadership is afforded flexibility, whereas women, especially Black women, are judged and challenged on their personal boundaries. On one hand, Black female leaders are questioned when they are too cold, and people expect them to treat every member as if they were friends. On the other hand, when they are too soft, their leadership is questioned. These are manifestations of the patriarchal social order that seeks to delegitimize women’s power.

“Every successful social movement in history was undergirded by organizations: the suffrage movement, the anti-apartheid movement, the anti-war movement.”

This quote provides historical evidence for one of the book’s central claims, which is that movements cannot succeed without organizations and a large, dedicated membership. This alludes to the popular misconception about hashtags being movements. Garza firmly divides hashtags, which build brands, and movements, which enact change by bringing people together.

“Knowing that oppression wasn’t a function of people being mean to each other but instead was a means to an end helped me see that I’d better get to the business of fighting back and working to take and reshape power.”

This quote explains Garza’s motivation for organizing. When she realized that oppression is systemic rather than the act of isolated individuals, she understood that long-lasting change could only come from a shift in societal power dynamics. Without distributing power evenly, oppression will not cease.

“For some, movements comprise people who think alike and act alike—but in reality, movements come alive when those who are unlikely to come together do so for the sake of achieving something.”

Garza defends the effectiveness of popular fronts and encourages organizers to broaden their membership to include people whose politics might not perfectly align with theirs. This is because power can be found in greater numbers and alliances can be profoundly educative. Garza provides a personal example of this when she describes how POWER worked with the Nation of Islam in their efforts to enact change at Bayview Hunter’s Point.

“Movements must grapple with the narration of our stories—particularly when we are not the ones telling them.”

This quote emphasizes how important it is for organizations to have the power to regulate their narratives. The BLM movement’s early years suffered from multiple instances of people hijacking their platform and their name. Garza admits this is in part due to their own lack of initiative. Organizations and movements need to maintain their cohesiveness even when others try to tell their stories for them.

“I believe that Black communities have the power not just to save the country but to lead the country.”

This powerful quote highlights Garza’s hope for Black people and for America. By building strong movements and institutions, Black people will transform the political system. They will fight against injustice and oppression and make America the free country it always purported itself to be.