"Calling In" for the Holidays
The Holiday Season is the Time to Celebrate our Shared Humanity… and Resist the Harm of Division.
Indeed, the holiday season is a time when we focus on peace, giving, love in action and helping others. It is the joy of sharing, and the spirit of charity that makes the season truly meaningful. It is this season that brings about a once-a-year acknowledgement that we human beings are a family across the world, all wishing for a “season of peace on earth, and goodwill to all.”
As unionists we are best when we strive to embody these values. We stand together to mutually support each other, and dedicate our solidarity to establish protections for the weakest of us. We endeavor to look past our individual differences and embrace our diversity, pulling together the immense variety of talents and perspectives we give to the world every day. As a union, this makes us strong, builds our community – and when we arrive at the negotiation table or the picket line – we are stronger for it. It also makes us better people.
And yet we are living in a difficult era for sustaining a “season of peace on earth and goodwill to all.” The polarization in our culture and politics has put a strain on our sense of community. We have suffered difficulties in our relationships and division within our friends and family, as we find ourselves in righteous disagreement. The algorithm – controlling content on social media platforms – has aggravated our alienation by grouping us into marketing demographics, separating us from other, and cultivating an “if you are not with me, you are against me” mindset.
Activist Loretta Ross says, “Don’t call people out, call them in.”
Within these difficult times, “calling in” may provide a way forward. “Calling in” is a phrase coined by activist Ngọc Loan Trần. It has been recently popularized by lifelong social justice activist Loretta Ross. In her recently published book, Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You’d Rather Cancel, she tells of her personal experiences of counseling both white supremacists and convicted rapists to transform their thinking, and to become advocates for those they had done harm. As a victim herself of rape and incest, racism and misogyny – as difficult as she found these interactions to be – she learned that it was possible to make allies of those she could have easily gone on righteously hating, and feeling perfectly justified to do so.
As she explains it, “a call in is basically a call out done… with love,” where we invite people in, rather than push them out. As Ross explains, with the name calling and accusation that can accompany calling out, we are inviting them to a fight. We risk making enemies when we could be creating allies.
With calling in, we resist the impulse to shame and punish people – and instead – invite them into a conversation. As union organizers, this is basic to building consensus and solidarity: listening more than talking, keeping an open mind, practicing empathy, finding common ground (all hard work!). While calling in is not meant to replace calling out – giving abusers a free pass – it can provide a tool to employ in those conversations, making us better organizers.
It may also help us to be better people, and provide us a path for healing, strengthening our bonds by learning about each other, forgiving each other when we make mistakes, and not forgetting that we have more in common than otherwise.
Perhaps this holiday season we should consider calling in someone from whom we have been alienated, someone we miss. Just as we work to create a more perfect musicians union, we can also work to make a more perfect world, and heal some of the breakage from our divisive age.
My best wishes to every one for this season of peace on earth, and goodwill to all.
Also see:
Loretta J. Ross website: https://lorettajross.com/