Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement

by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Both sides of this vent are oft-conflated with untruths that get in the way of transformative change. On one side, there is a conflation of belief in people’s capacity to transform with a belief in their transformation, regardless of evidence of behavior change. This often occurs when people (1) have not witnessed the harmful behavior themselves, (2) are struggling to reconcile it with their positive idea of the person who has done harm, and simultaneously are (3) trying not to wholly deny the survivor’s truth (or not be perceived as doing so, at least). On the other side is the conflation of present behavior with future behavior, a smart protective strategy and an understandable response when we have invested in people’s transformation and repeatedly been disappointed. But neither of these conflations are true. How do we practice belief in people’s capacity to transform with the ability to see them as they are right now? We can do so by building our accountability assessment skills and practicing in relationship with ourselves.