Is Joy an Act of Resistance?  ## Metadata - Author: [[Code Switch]] - Full Title: Is Joy an Act of Resistance? - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/5af73f26-7a1d-4276-9972-1a2260d317a3 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Joy as a Popular Resistance Phrase** - The phrase "joy is resistance" has become popular on social media and in culture. - It is used by diverse groups to reclaim joy amid hardship and oppression. Transcript: Leah Dinella A few months ago I noticed more and more of the people I follow on social media using the phrase, joy is resistance. B.A. Parker That's because joy is resistance. Or joy is an act of resistance is the other version I've seen. Shout out to the poet Toy Derricotte. Leah Dinella Yep. And it's a phrase I'd heard before, but never this regularly and never to describe such a normal array of experiences. On Instagram, for example, I was seeing people post pictures of things like eating dinner with their friends or looking at flowers or getting a new manicure. And they would caption the photos, hashtag Joy is resistance. ([Time 0:01:30](https://share.snipd.com/snip/6d1a998c-5f63-47de-b165-1c37d4789263)) - **Context Shapes Joy's Power** - The power of joy depends on context and who experiences it. - Joy is a more compelling act of resistance for those facing direct oppression. Transcript: Leah Dinella I was also wondering, like, whose joy? I mean, Mahmoud Khalil was essentially abducted from his home, taken to another state and imprisoned by ICE, despite being a U.S. Green card holder, all while his wife was pregnant about a month away from giving birth. And he was targeted for that in the first place because he had been outspokenly protesting for Palestinian rights. Like, am I wrong for thinking that him being able to laugh and feel joy at a comedy show after being detained for months is a little more compelling than, like, me doing that? Or random people in the audience? ([Time 0:04:00](https://share.snipd.com/snip/f352ff33-540a-4e78-b509-075926301379)) - **Joy Must Invite Participation** - "Making the revolution irresistible" means joy that invites real participation. - Surface-level joy without collective action may not be true resistance. Transcript: B.A. Parker Resistance might actually look like in practice? Because I think a lot of people might agree with what she's saying, but there's still like a really nice vacation or dinner is what brings me joy. Yeah. Leah Dinella I mean, yeah, a nice dinner can be great. But one of the things we got into was the difference between making the revolution irresistible, to paraphrase that famous Tony Cade Bambara line, and making the revolution look irresistible. B.A. Parker The revolution will not be televised or live-streamed or TikTok-ed. Exactly. Speaker 4 I think one of the things we have to be careful of is painting a picture for people that's not rooted in a reality that they can come be a part of, unless we let people know, like, come co-create Something. And that invitation has to be a real one. But Adrienne said even if she isn't always seeing something that looks like real resistance ([Time 0:13:50](https://share.snipd.com/snip/174c94aa-eedb-4792-b51f-bd74c166b35a)) - **Enslaved Women's Secret Joy** - Enslaved women would secretly hold dance parties miles from plantations. - These gatherings were acts of carving out joy despite immense danger and oppression. Transcript: Kellie Carter Jackson Something that is traumatic, that is painful, that is grievous, and you are insisting on justice. You are insisting on your basic humanity. And for me, to see that in action, I mean, it's a very joyous thing. It really is. It can be contagious. But not everybody gets the depth of joy unless you understand the suffering, unless you understand the cost that is required to conjure up that joy. Can you talk more about that cost? What is the cost? I mean, the cost is steep, especially when I think about racism, when I think about white supremacy, when I think about all the isms, capitalism, sexism, homophobia. When you think about how taxing those isms are, how oppressive those isms are, how How they engage your everyday life, how you are constantly being interrupted and distracted and burdened By people's inferiority complex of you or by people's stigmas of you or their negative ideas about you or their deficit ideas about you. Trying to combat that is not easy. I think about it a lot just in terms of like culture. So when I think about the Black Panther Party, for example, I think one of the greatest things they contributed in their movement, aside from like the free breakfast program and sort Of like all of the social work that they were doing, was cultural pride, was being able to look in the mirror to see a white nose and a full lip and kinky natural hair and say, that's beautiful. That's great. You know, say it loud. I'm Black and I'm proud. Like, there was a real movement to create language and an identity and a culture of Black self-love, because so much about white supremacy is about hating who you are, hating your look, Wanting to be someone else, aspiring to whiteness. And so for me, when I think about the past, I think about the ways in which we have culturally as Black people created wells to draw upon that will feed us and nourish us to get us through Those really tough times. And, you know, some people might say, oh, that's just like smagger or it's like, you know, coolness or like the braids or the clothing, the aesthetic, all of that, that it's superficial. But I think that that does work. I think it does really meaningful work in how people see themselves. I ([Time 0:23:30](https://share.snipd.com/snip/f064a0e7-f2f3-433f-8ce7-7a4a39c9a8fe)) - **Joy Sustains Justice Work** - Joy is not justice but a vital remedy along the path toward it. - It sustains people so they don't give up before achieving justice. Transcript: Leah Dinella Book is that joy is a remedy on the path to complete healing. I'm wondering if you can talk about that idea. Yeah. Kellie Carter Jackson Joy is not justice. It is not justice. And I think that we have to be careful because if we confuse joy with justice, then we will look at someone who is smiling or happy and say, see, they're okay. See, we don't have to do anything else. See, you know, mission accomplished. And that is not how joy works. I look at joy as a splint. I look at it as a cast that's sort of holding that broken bone in place so that it can heal properly. But that healing really comes from justice. But joy is meant to help you get there on the way. Joy is there so that you don't quit, so that you don't give up before you've gotten to where you want to be. If justice ([Time 0:27:30](https://share.snipd.com/snip/39c66e23-fb45-4154-9d46-c63aaea4b71e)) - **Joy Differs by Oppression Context** - People not facing systemic oppression experience joy and happiness differently. - For marginalized groups, joy has a gritty context connected to survival and defiance. Transcript: Leah Dinella Oppressed or marginalized, can they experience joy? Kellie Carter Jackson So I say in my book that it's not that white people per se can't have joy, but I think that oftentimes they are not faced with systemic oppression. They do not have to sort of face the day in and day out challenges of what it means to be black or to be oppressed and so because of that joy for them will probably look a little bit different Um and we'll have a different context attached to it um and i've often found and i even say this in my book too that like it's like white people get to be happy but black people get joy And That can feel kind of like a rub because happiness doesn't have anything tethered to it. It just sort of is. You can just be free. You can just, you know, be your own identity. You know, there are no assumptions made about you. But joy has to come from a different place. ([Time 0:29:52](https://share.snipd.com/snip/ed72ff2a-86c5-40c4-887a-fc5d1a527518)) - **Executed Women’s Defiant Smile** - During the Haitian Revolution, captured women smiled at execution as defiance. - Their joy was a powerful statement of resisting oppression and claiming liberty. Transcript: Kellie Carter Jackson A story during the Haitian Revolution in which Black revolutionary fighters were fighting against the French. And some of their warriors had lost their battles. And as a result, the French executed them. And these were public executions. And they would often be done in front of everyone as a message of saying, this is what happens not only when you get out of line, but when you get caught. And these women that had been captured by the French, they refused to let the French take their lives. And so when they go to the gallows, some of the women are smiling. And they're not smiling because they're happy. They're smiling as a form of defiance. They're letting their oppressor know, no, no, no, you don't take my life. I'm robbing you. I'm robbing you of my labor. I'm robbing you of my being. I'm robbing you of your profits. And that I will happily go to the gallow because it's liberty or death. And it was such a powerful moment in which these formerly enslaved women are saying to their daughters who are about to watch them be executed, don't cry for me. Your wombs will bear free children. Like, I do this for you as a way to bring about your freedom. ([Time 0:31:20](https://share.snipd.com/snip/49fc99a3-02a4-4b55-bbf0-565380313413)) - **MLK’s Joyful Replenishment** - Martin Luther King Jr. enjoyed simple, joyful moments on vacation. - These breaks were necessary replenishments to sustain his civil rights activism. Transcript: Kellie Carter Jackson And then I show people a picture that most people have not seen. There are several pictures and it's of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. On vacation in Jamaica. And he is like shirtless in the swimming pool, like propped up. Coretta's right there with him. It's a picture of him and Coretta like walking on the beach. There's another picture of him and Coretta like eating dinner on a veranda, you know. And I love looking at these pictures, not just because MLK is shirtless, but because like he is experiencing joy. And he says, in Jamaica, I feel most like a human being. And I think it's because, you know, we only see MLK in suits. We only see him doing the work. We only see him giving the speech. We only see him marching. And I'm like, but if he took a break, but if he needed to be replenished, if he was on the beach in Jamaica, like, and not forever, but like you go, you get replenished you tap out you ([Time 0:35:20](https://share.snipd.com/snip/ecf1fe8c-040d-4225-b24c-3344be06b9ac))