Reimagine
Everything
From
a Speech
by Grace
Lee
Boggs
a veryold woman.I was bornin 1915 in whatwas laterknownas theFirstWorldWar,twoyearsbeforetheRussian
- I learnedveryquickly
I'mRevolution.
And becauseI was bornto Chineseimmigrant
parentsand becauseI was bornfemale
thattheworldneededchanging.
44
But whatI also learnedas I grewolderwas thathow
we changetheworldand how we thinkabout changing
theworldhas to change.
We
The timehas come forus to reimagine
everything.
haveto reimagine
workand go awayfromlabor.We have
and getbeyondprotest.We have
to reimaginerevolution
but
to thinknot onlyabout changein our institutions,
in
where
the
We
are
at
the
ourselves.
stage
changes
in
of
the
and
industryare
people
charge
government
with
their
cut off.Its
around
like
chickens
heads
running
and notjustprotest
thealternatives
up to us to reimagine
better.
them
and
them
to
do
expect
against
We are at the point of a culturalrevolutionin ouras the
thatis as far-reaching
selvesand in our institutions
transitionfromhuntingand gatheringto agriculture
11,000 yearsago, and fromagriculture
to industry
a few
hundredyearsago. How do we reimagineeducation?
How do we reimagHow do we reimaginecommunity?
How
ine family?How do we reimaginesexualidentity?
in thelightof a changethat
do we reimagineeverything
to make?We
is so farreachingand is our responsibility
have to think beyond capitalistcategories.We cant
expectthemto makeit. We have to do the reimagining
ourselves.
How Do We Reimagine?
We reimagine
bycombiningactivismwithphilosophy.
We haveto do whatI call visionaryorganizing.We have
to see everycrisisas both a dangerand an opportunity.
Its a dangerbecauseit does so muchdamageto our lives,
to our institutions,
to all thatwe have expected.But its
forus to becomecreative;to become
also an opportunity
the new kind of people thatare needed at such a huge
That's whyit'sso wonderfulto be
periodof transition.
in such
heretoday- thatwe dareto talkaboutrevolution
terms.
fundamental
Detroit:FromUnimaginableto Reimagined
I came to Detroitnearly60 yearsago and sincethat
timeI've livedin thesamehousemostof thetime.When
I came to Detroit therewere two millionpeople here.
[Now thereare about 700,000.] The Chryslerplant,
wheremyhusbandworked,employed17,000 workers.
Outside myhouse,ifyou threwa stoneup in theair,it
workeron thewaydown.Withina
would hita Chrysler
the
workers
dwindledto 2,000. High-tech
17,000
year,
automationwas eliminatingthe jobs that had made
Detroitthearsenalofdemocracy
duringWorldWarII.
How do we grapplewith a changeas remarkableas
that?How do we takeadvantageof hightechto createa
new mode of production?How do we use it to make
and moreproductive?
ourselvesmoreself-reliant
We haveto reimaginework- we can'ttalkaboutjobs
anymore.We can'tbeg forjobs or hope forjobs. And we
haveto recognizethatjobs in theindustrialperiodwere
our humanity.We began to
actuallya way to fragment
dependon higherwagesand consumergoodsto compenWe haveto createformsof
sateforour dehumanization.
I
workthatcreatecommunity
and expandourhumanity.
meanthat'swherewe are!
thesedays.
That'swhywe haveto talkaboutrevolution
We haveto getridof theold ideas of leadershipand folto createthenew.
and use ourimaginations
lowership
I'd like to say somethingabout thecrisiswe facedin
a lot
Detroitin the 1980s. In thewakeof therebellions,
who
ofviolencehad brokenout in thecity.The veterans
werecomingback fromtheVietnamWar,weredevelop- a lot of crack,a lot of violence
ing a crack society
Race, Poverty& the Environment
| Vol. 19 No. 2 - 2012
This content downloaded from 137.151.141.100 on Thu, 21 May 2015 04:42:28 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
■ Photo:
worker
attheBoggs
Center.
ofboggscenter.org
Youth
Courtesy
■ Photo:
LeeBoggs.
©2012
Robin
Holland
Grace
againstone another.[Mayor]Coleman Young proposed
that we should create a casino industryto createjobs
fortheviobecause[he said] a lackofjobs was responsible
lence. We said "no." The alternativewas to involvethe
theredefining,
and thereyoungpeoplein therebuilding,
of
the
from
the
We
created
this
city
inspiritirig
groundup.
Detroit
Shea
Howell
was
the
cocalled
Summer.
program
coordinatorof the firstDetroit Summerand formany
yearsafter.I thinkthatis visionary
organizing.
How do we rebuild,how do we redefine,
how do we reWe
our
communities
and
one
another?
cant expect
spirit
Obama or Mitt Romney to abolish the war in
They have put us in thosewars.They have
Afghanistan.
createdthecrisis.Theyarenot goingto solveit.We re the
ones who have to solve it by creatinganotherkind of
societyand by takingadvantageof theirhelplessnessand
theirpowerlessness
to do it.
We havebeen luckyin Detroit.Out of thedevastation
of deindustrialization,
we have recognizedthe need to
createa post-modern,
society.I urgeyou to
post-industrial
cometo Detroitand gettheidea and sharetheexperience
of theAmericanrevolutionwe are creatingand to begin
yourownvisionaryorganizingback in yourown commuwe have the challengein
nity.We have the opportunity;
this period to createa new humanity,to createa new
to createa wholenew paradigmof education.We
society,
have to thinkof educationand young people not as a
problembut as a solution.We have to enlistthemin the
solutionsto the problemsof our communities.That's a
wholenewwayof reimagining
youthand therelationships
betweengenerations.[Its] an enormouschallenge,an
enormoustask.Now,wheredo we go fromhere?
It seemsto me thatwe don'tneedto talkonlyaboutthe
betweentheway
hoursof workbut about the difference
womenlook at workand thewayyouhavea job. You have
jobs thatdemeanyou,thatdehumanizeyou,thatfragment
you;thatmakeyouan appendageto themachine.We make
up forit by demandinghigherwages or shorterhours.
What we need is the kind of workthatwomendo- not
countingthe hoursbecause theycare- and that'sa real
froma patriarchalconceptof]workto a
transformation
matriarchal
conceptof work.That'swherewe are. I mean
we are fundamentally
[challenged]in termsof ourhuman
at
this
moment.
Untilwe approachthismoment
identity
withthatchallengein mind,we'regoingto getlost.
GrowingOur Souls
I firstused theconceptof growingour souls about 10
yearsago. Radicals don'tusuallytalkabout souls- but I
thinkwe haveto. What I meanbysouls is thecapacityto
createtheworldanew,whicheach of us has. How do we
talkabout thatwithone another?It'snot onlyimportant
to act, it's importantto talk because whenyou talkyou
begin to createnew ideas and new languages.We've all
- it'snot onlythecapitalists
been damagedbythissystem
who are the scoundrels,thevillains;we are all partof it.
And we all haveto changewhatwe say,whatwe do, what
we think,whatwe imagine.
I liketo encouragefolksto not onlythinkdialectically
butalso to thinkmoreaboutourbrains,
and philosophically
- about thecapacitywe haveto think
about neuroscience
anew.We can onlydo thatifwe understandthatthere'sa
of our brainsto getfixedin old
tendencyin thestructure
into
to
locked
old concepts.That'swhyphicategories, get
is
so
losophy
important thinkingdialectically,
thinking
aboutgrowing
oursouls.■
philosophically,
thinking
Grace
LeeBoggsisa Detorit-based
from
"OnRevolution:
A Conversation
heldon
Between
Grace
LeeBoggsandAngela
Davis"
organizer.
Excerpted
March
2012
at
the
Ballroom
of
California
of
Contact.
2,
, University
, Berkeley
Pauley
Transcript
courtesyMaking
Race, Poverty& the Environment
| Vol. 19 No. 2 - 2012
This content downloaded from 137.151.141.100 on Thu, 21 May 2015 04:42:28 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
45