290 - Tamila Gresham, Part 2 - Engaging a Framework of Power, Belonging and Justice
“Essentially, what's been happening is we're using things like race and gender, sex and class as proxies for things like power, belonging, and justice––but those things are just proxies.” - Tamila Gresham
As promised, here’s the fantastic part two of my conversation with Tamila Gresham. We delve into the foundational pieces of accountability: knowledge, nuance, relationship, and vulnerability.
You know what to do if you haven’t met her yet: hit play on part one. Tamilia is co-founder of Harmonize, a consulting firm that helps organizations bridge the gap between values, vision, and impact. She’s a lifelong educator with formal education in law, sociology, and philosophy. Tamila centers justice and heart-work in her efforts to change organizations and the world.
“My hope is that we can start actually thinking about competence and knowledge, people who've done the work, and then create community with those people,” says Tamila. “We cannot build community by creating boundaries and telling people that because of your bodies or skin color, you can't engage or you can only have a particular role.”
Exclusion keeps us from having conversations that need to happen, observes Tamila. Harmonize builds an organizational curriculum that teaches folks how to understand more deeply. “There's so much going on at once, and we have to be able to see how things are moving and what's happening. We call our framework: Power, Belonging, and Justice. PBJ for short.”
Who doesn't love a soul-satisfying PBJ or creative strategies for truly embodying accountability? “None of us are the wokest in the room. None of us are,” Tamila insists. “We're all trying to figure it out, and everybody's gonna say something sideways on occasion. We need to be able to do that in community with other people who share our values so we can be called in.”
Tamila invites us to put down the call-out hammer and tune into our communities. “Part of the reason I do my work is 'cause I think that groups of people are our best change agents,” Tamila says. “People getting together, trying to make change from wherever they are in the movement.”
Whenever I feel resentful or judgmental, I need to look towards the people who are actualizing what I want to see in the world. Tamilia (and her Harmonize partner Simon) are definitely on that list.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Being White Today: A Roadmap for a Positive Antiracist Life
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Tamila Gresham is a co-founder of Harmonize, a consulting firm helping organizations bridge the gap between values, vision, and impact. She's a life-long educator, with formal education in law, sociology, & philosophy. She centers justice and heart work in her efforts to change organizations to change the world.
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