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

Although the Black Lives Matter movement has been around for nearly a decade, it’s garnered a lot more attention in the past year. I’ve been reading about racism and racial history recently, and I wanted to learn more about #BlackLivesMatter specifically. What better place than person who started it all? Alicia Garza wrote The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart about the origin of #BlackLivesMatter and how our society can move forward to finally enact real progress for racial equality.

The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart by Alicia Garza
Audiobook Narrator	Alicia Garza
Audience	Adult
Genre	Nonfiction: Race; Politics
Book Length	9.5 hours
Format I Read	Audiobook
Original Publication Date	October 20, 2020

Official Summary

An essential guide to building transformative movements to address the challenges of our time, from one of the country’s leading organizers and a co-creator of Black Lives Matter

“Excellent and provocative . . . a gateway [to] urgent debates.”—Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, The New Yorker

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY Time • Marie Claire • Kirkus Reviews

In 2013, Alicia Garza wrote what she called “a love letter to Black people” on Facebook, in the aftermath of the acquittal of the man who murdered seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin. Garza wrote: 

Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter.

With the speed and networking capacities of social media, #BlackLivesMatter became the hashtag heard ’round the world. But Garza knew even then that hashtags don’t start movements—people do. 

Long before #BlackLivesMatter became a rallying cry for this generation, Garza had spent the better part of two decades learning and unlearning some hard lessons about organizing. The lessons she offers are different from the “rules for radicals” that animated earlier generations of activists, and diverge from the charismatic, patriarchal model of the American civil rights movement. She reflects instead on how making room amongst the woke for those who are still awakening can inspire and activate more people to fight for the world we all deserve. 

This is the story of one woman’s lessons through years of bringing people together to create change. Most of all, it is a new paradigm for change for a new generation of changemakers, from the mind and heart behind one of the most important movements of our time.

Review

Alicia Garza begins The Purpose of Power with her own backstory. From experiences coming of age as Black woman to how she started getting involved in political activism, we see the innumerable ways racism plays a role in everyday life in America.

She then turns to the major news stories of the 2010s, including the tragic murder of Trayvon Martin in February 2012 and the killer’s acquittal in July 2013. This is when Alicia first wrote “Black Lives Matter” on Twitter, where it took on a life of its own and turned into a movement by the following year.

Political change comes from all in politics, perhaps especially the president. Alicia offers her criticisms of the 2016 presidential candidates (though I respectfully disagree with her on Bernie Sanders bringing up his track record dating back to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s; that proves he’s always been committed to racial equality). She spends less time on the 2020 election, given that it was still underway when this book was published.

At this point we get further into the real ideas surrounding how we enact change. First up is intersectionality: Feminism must include all women, including women of color. Racial equality must include all people of color, not just men. We must lift each other up. There’s no need for a contest between who is the most marginalized; lifting up one doesn’t take away from the other. Real progress comes when we all work together for justice and equality for all. That said, all aspects of identity are important to pay attention to. White people: stop saying you don’t see color or that we’re all a human race; it’s not helpful! Acknowledge where people face discrimination, whether by race, gender, sexuality, religion, or so on.

From there, Alicia turns her attention to identity politics, the patriarchy, and deconstructing hegemony. The latter refers to things we accept as normal and rarely question: for example, that boys wear blue and girls wear pink. Or consider compulsory heterosexuality, the idea that men must have sex with women. (I just read about this in another book, Ace, which I highly recommend!) These are social constructs about gender and sexuality that shape how we all live or are allowed to live. It’s important to identify and challenge such norms—such hegemony—if we want to rethink how our society should function.

Before we can achieve policy change, we must first achieve culture change. (This is illustrated really well in regards to LGBTQIA+ people and how media has portrayed queer people over the last few decades.) Doing culture work may be seen as less important or prestigious, but it is absolutely necessary. Alicia describes Popular Fronts versus United Fronts; they are distinct, but both are necessary, and you could say that the former ideally leads to the latter. This is another fascinating topic that is explained well here.

Final Thoughts

The Purpose of Power is an informative and rallying book for anyone who wants to learn more about racial justice and, moreover, get involved in making cultural and political changes. I appreciated getting more insight into the origins of #BlackLivesMatter and in seeing how people can come together to progress a nation forward.