The names of the euro-descended anti-racist warriors we remember – John Brown, Anne Braden, Myles Horton – are not those of people who did it right. They are of people who never gave up. They kept their eyes on the prize – not on their anti-racism grade point average.

This will also be the measure of your work. Be there. No one knows how to raise a child but we do it anyway. We don’t get it right. The essential thing is that we don’t give up and walk away. Don’t get me wrong. It is important to learn and improve and become wise in the ways of struggle – or of parenting. But that comes with time. It comes after the idea of not being in the struggle no longer seems like an option.

One more thing. You may not get the validation you hunger for. Stepping outside of the smoke and mirrors of racial privilege is hard, but so is living within the electrified fences of racial oppression – and no one gets cookies for that. The thing is that when you help put out a fire, the people whose home was in flames may be too upset to thank and praise you – especially when you look a lot like the folks who set the fire. That’s OK. This is about something so much bigger than that.

There are things in life we don’t get to do right. But we do get to do them.

Reprinted with permission from: Ricardo Levins Morales Art Studio

About the author: I am an artist by trade, a healer by temperament and a troublemaker by necessity. My art and my writing both grow out of my relationships with communities and movements in struggle for a more livable world. I also offer support and reflection for organizers and others facing the dilemmas of trying to create a future out of materials from the past.