We Will Not Cancel Us: And Other Dreams of Transformative Justice

by Adrienne Maree Brown

We are not engaging in principled struggle, and we desperately need to be. In a nutshell, principled struggle is when we are struggling for the sake of something larger than ourselves and are honest and direct with each other while holding compassion.2 It is when we take responsibility for our own feelings and actions and seek deeper understanding before responding (by asking questions, or reading the referenced materials). It is when we consider that a given organization, formation, or space may or may not be the space to hold what we need to bring, and that side conversations within that space should be for the sake of better understanding rather than checking out of the work.