Rest, Renew, and Remember Our Shared Power: Thoughts on the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election
By: Rhonda Broussard, Founder & CEO, Beloved Community
In the wake of the 2024 United States Presidential election results, I know many of us are feeling discouraged or disheartened. Many of us are looking out at the future through an anxious lens. I’m filled with concern for my family, my children, and my communities: LGBTQIA+ women and girls, Black people, and immigrants, because our rights have been threatened throughout this entire campaign. I’m worried about what the next weeks, months, and years have in store for us and our pursuit of more equitable communities and a more equitable world.
Thinking about those who have run this race before us and those pressing toward freedom now, we’re reminded that change-making power isn’t limited to established systems. This moment calls us to remember that the power to make change truly lives in the heart of everyone in our communities. We know that democracy in America wasn’t designed to represent us, and no saviors are coming. Now is the time to internalize the truth: People Change Systems, and we have more power than we know. We can use that power to make our impact where we live: our neighborhoods, our schools, our jobs, our homes—and continue to use our voices to influence policy and create accountability in our local contexts, like with these recent victories in New Orleans, Missouri, and Memphis.
These times also call us to prioritize self-care and mutual support. It is vital, especially now, that we do not just process our grief, our anger, and our frustration in isolation or online but in deep, intentional community with one another. Our team has been in our Fall Retreat this week, and we recently finished a post-election release and reflection session with Jackie O, our team’s holistic wellness coach, and it left us feeling renewed. Where you are, where you can, share your light with others in your community. Help ease each other’s unique journeys. As Octavia Butler reminds us in her Parable series, our connections to each other’s essential humanity will help us develop the fortitude to push toward a future devoid of the same-old, same-old systemic oppression.
It’s a hard day to be a believer in the beloved community, but our work is needed now more than ever. We at Beloved Community remain committed to our values and are resolved to advance our communities as far as we can on our leg of the relay. We urge you to rest up, renew, refresh yourself, and rejoin us as we push toward the future our communities deserve.
Beloved Community is a leading nonprofit racial and economic equity consulting firm that supports nonprofits, businesses and schools to develop and implement sustainable diversity, equity and inclusion policies and practices to create broader systemic change.
