Stewarding Social Justice: A Thing I Didn’t Know I was Doing
The term 'social justice steward' is new to me, and I'm intrigued. It sounds more appealing than 'social justice warrior', a term that to me evokes a picture of someone so dedicated to a movement that their commitment becomes a detriment to their well-being (physically, emotionally) and relationships (family, others in their movement).
While warrior evokes a combative posture, steward makes me think of the tenderness I felt when raising my kids, or about the three very small trees I recently planted. Steward feels like cultivating, tending, nurturing: it's about others. Warrior feels confrontational and individualistic—not my sense of social justice.
For context, I'm thinking about these things because I've been invited to be a facilitatorfor my colleague James Boutin's 2-day Social Justice Stewardship training, coming up June 20–21 in Seattle. I'm thrilled to be part of this team, and immersed in James' brilliant work. In one of our first conversations about the training, I asked him what exactly social justice stewarding tends.
The answer that got my attention: movements. Social justice stewards tend their movements. Which raises more questions in me: what exactly is a movement? Are all movements about social justice causes? Can I be involved in social justice without being part of a movement?
My answer to all those questions: I'm not sure, and I'm not sure it matters. Which means for now, I'm happy enough to stay in the questions and not force my way through to answers. I'm enjoying letting my thoughts wander around these concepts. Like about movements: at age 15, I dedicated my studies and future working self to protecting wilderness and the natural world. I would have said I was part of the environmental movement, but I'm not sure studying natural history and backpacking a lot meant I actually was.
In my 20s and 30s, I definitely was part of the alternative education movement, motivated by specific social justice elements like honoring children & youth as people worthy of more respect & self-determination than our culture affords. Co-founding an anti-ageist, democratic alternative school clearly was both stewarding and movement work. Many of you know me now for my racial equity commitment: a very visible form of social justice work with a very recognizable movement. The stewarding is more obvious to me, too: hosting a monthly gathering for white anti-racist practitioners supports each of us to sustain our efforts and hone our skills. Writing this newsletter each month is an accountability step for my continued reflection and ongoing conversation with you all. Both of these actions fortify the racial equity movement.
These days, I find my focus broadening beyond anti-racism, into social justice issues such as Christian hegemony and LGBTQIA+ rights. I think of anti-racism as one slice of a whole pie—the pie being the comprehensive system of supremacy in which we live. Other slices include a couple I've mentioned here—environmental justice, children's rights—and a dozen more oppressions I'm sure you can fill in.
My takeaway in this moment: no matter what social justice issue I'm committed to, the big movement I feel I've always been stewarding is the Human Rights movement. Loretta J. Ross talks about this compellingly in her Calling In course (she's my Recommended Resource for the month). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ratified by the U.N., contains 30 rights—or slices of the pie, you could say. It was ratified in 1948 in response to the Holocaust—the same year the Nakba happened in Palestine. Another takeaway: those 30 rights have probably never been collectively experienced.
But let's not let that stop us. We can all be social justice stewards: tend your baby trees, tend your souls, tend yours and everyone else's rights. Onward.
May 2024 Back to Blog Home
I offer coaching for individuals, groups & workplaces.