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I think most people actually dont choose to do this work, Alicia Garza says with a laugh, her voice clear and crisp, filled with a restrained confidence. But I think that whats more true is that for all of us, we have experiences that shape our understanding of how the world works, she continued.

Its Thursday, March 12, and while we were on opposing coasts, both of us were collectively bracing ourselves for the unprecedented response to the coronavirus. But outside of a public health pandemic, Garza has witnessed a threat which evokes the same level of fear, found within the daily threat of racism and homophobia as a queer, Black woman in America.

I ask Garza about what led her to organizing and activism and she responds that it began with watching her mother struggle as a single parent.

I know that women like my mom are juggling so many responsibilities and yetwere literally holding our country together, but our country doesnt do the work to hold us together, Garza said. While her mom remarried and found success as a thriving small-business owner, Garza is aware that itsnot a shared experience among Black Americans. But the memory of the journey stays with her, fueling her body politic.

The work Garza refers to is the devotional and oftentimes thankless dedication to those whose power has been stripped, ratified by white supremacy and systemic oppression. To change the current power structures in play, Garza calls for a re-imagining of the way politics have served Black voters.

In 2018, she shifted gears as one of the co-founders of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) Global Network to create the Black Futures Lab. Much of her urgency stemmed from watching her community of organizers go without crucial resources like access to safe, livable housing and health support.

Our work is really focused on building the capacity of Black families to make the rules so that we can change the rules.

What I realized very quickly is that resources are distributed unequally and that is really a function and a question of power, she said. Coming out of the 2016 elections, Black Lives Matter was really in full swing and yet there was very little, if any attempt to speak to the issues that Black communities cared about across the country.

The lab was started to make Black people powerful in politics. We know that every time an election cycle rolls around Black people are engaged culturally but not substantively around issues that we care about and that means that were not a part of the decisions being made about us and that has implications, Garza continued.

Recently the Black Futures lab launched and completed the Black Census Project, which Garza proudly describes as, the largest survey of Black people in America thats been done in 155 years. Along with engaging voters and the creation of the Black Census project, the Black Futures Lab encourages Black influencers with large social platforms to use it for politics instead of projects.

We now can use that data to inform how policy is developed and shaped in cities across the country, Garza said in regards to the Black Agenda 2020, whichexamines the concerns that surfaced from the census project, coupled with prompts on how to address those issues with policy actions.

So much of the time, we engage in these kinds of politics that are transactional for some that leave a lot of people behind.

Black Futures Lab was able to fund their work through a grant from the Marguerite Casey Foundation. Since 2012 the organization has invested over $15 million dollars. $5 million in the past year was issued to 50 different Black and brown grassroots organizers to oversee outcomes for the 2020 election, which will undoubtedly affect the most marginalized of us.

I think institutions make rules about how they want to intervene in the equal distribution of resources and I know that the Marguerite Casey Foundation for example has relay prioritized improving the lives of Black and brown families across this country in every part of their lives.

Inducing a shift from what Garza describes as a race neutral approach to a race forward approach, is one of the Black Census Projects tenants, along with the Black Futures Lab. Reminding the general public and politicians vying for office that Black people are not a monolith, only concerned with police brutality and vigilante violence, but also have a vested interest in healthcare, global warming and the economy.

We are focused on political power because the problems that we face are immense and the solutions actually require that we dont keep doing the same old thing and getting different results, said Garza.

I think were seeing Black people act decisively, but yet its not really clear what commitments were receiving around changing whats happening on the federal and local level, Garza said.We cant afford to give anything up for free, and we have to challenge this notion that the people who are speaking out on our behalf have our best interest at heart.

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We Cant Afford To Give Anything Up For Free: Alicia Garza Is Shifting The Power To Black Voters With The Black Futures Lab - MadameNoire