Thinking about transformative justice
This post has been written by the accountability pod and consultants working with Charlie
As we began our work together, our pod consultant suggested that Charlie consider the ways that his known harm has affected individuals, organizations, and communities. One of the consultants provided these, and more, questions to him to help him develop a deeper understanding of the impact of his harm on others, and give him a framework to begin to address the needs of those that have been harmed. As of the publishing of this post, we are in ongoing work with Charlie on his personal answers to these questions.
- Who has been harmed and how? What was your role in this harm?
- What are their needs? If you don’t know their needs directly, what do you think/gather/assume they might be and what’s informing these thoughts? If you can’t remember their needs as stated to you, what collateral information might you access to figure that out (e.g. emails, texts, etc.)? If there has been significant time since the incident(s) of harm and now, how have their needs changed (or how do you think they may have done so)?
- Whose obligations are these?
- Who has a stake in this situation?
- What are the causes, both internal and external, of this harm? How did the community and larger social factors allow and/or encourage this to happen?
- What would you do differently then if you had the resources you have now?
Meanwhile we are also focusing on what we are doing to support our process, respecting and supporting the needs of those that Charlie harmed, and help set the stage for transformation of our communities. Here are some of our own thoughts about how we’re doing this work.
How are we working toward and/or affirming the safety, healing, and agency of the people who were harmed?
We have created a story collection process which includes a pod to support those who have been harmed and confidentially receive narratives from those Charlie harmed. Rachel Drake and Bee Buehring form this support pod, both of whom have experience and specific skills around taking reports, navigating acute trauma response, and maintaining confidentiality. Those who have been harmed by Charlie’s actions can engage with the confidential report we set up using Google Forms, which is only accessible by Bee and Rachel. Anyone can reach out directly to Rachel and Bee through email (cgstorycollection@gmail.com) and/or arrange to talk to them over the phone or video call if they desire. We are open and transparent about our process and answer any questions folks may have, without violating confidentiality. No one, at any time, is obligated to make a report. All questions are welcome. The agency, comfort and safety of each individual is of utmost concern and honored by the agreements made with the pod.
We also understand that people can be activated by past trauma and it can be disruptive to their daily lives. We make space by providing resources for calming trauma response and anxiety. We also follow up with the person in whatever way feels best for them. Additionally, we are in contact with the person, if they so desire, as the process unfolds. We understand that what feels safe can change over time; we check in on how they are feeling and provide updates about the process so there are no “surprises” through social media or their interpersonal networks. Our goal is to hold authentic, confidential space where those who have been harmed can be heard without fear or judgement, promote personal transformation, healing and a sense of restored agency/autonomy as much as possible.
On a broader scale, as a team, we are committed to work towards the central tenets of transformative justice and towards the goals of liberation and an end to oppression. To that end, we have created the necessary and protected space for the voices of those who Charlie has harmed, both directly and indirectly. We have worked diligently and thoughtfully to prioritize those voices and their narratives. And, we have created spaces of support and information to those who reach out. We are prepared to be transparent about this process, with the caveat that we are adhering to a code confidentiality for the protection of the people that Charlie harmed. It is our hope that with this framework in place we can create a space where they can have agency to speak truth to power and to begin working towards healing.
How are we working toward and/or affirming the accountability and transformation for those who abuse?
In order to reinforce Charlie’s accountability, we are centering the voices of those who he harmed by creating a public forum for receiving and acting on reports, as well as spaces of both public apology and amends. This is vital since we are aware that many times, harm is caused between individuals in private spaces. With Charlie’s case in particular, though there were public dimensions of harm, there was a lot that happened behind closed doors as well. By countering that dynamic, we hope to affirm Charlie’s accountability for the harm he has caused. That said, we also know that some amends are not done best in public spaces, especially if that would endanger someone who was harmed, and we try to keep both these things in mind.
Additionally, we are working on creating competencies in Charlie to be able to recognize unequal power in himself and others and the harm it causes. By holding confidential space for those who have been harmed and providing a judgement free platform to express their experiences, we hope to identify and articulate the ways Charlie has misused his power and caused harm in the community. We are upholding the self determination of those community members who speak up as a way to help and support others to do the same.
Having this dynamic allows for Charlie to understand the strength of community and communal healing at work. In working with Charlie in this accountability process, we are working toward his acknowledgement of his abuse and its consequences. We are also making space for the requested reparations to those in the community and creating a path for long term-permanent change. This transformative work is being done through one-on-one coaching sessions and discussions , larger group meetings (with him and the pod, and him and the pod and the consultants), comment threads in emails and documents, and more. We challenge his harmful patterns directly, we encourage him to try new ways of doing things, we ask him to interrogate his behaviors (especially when these are patterns of defense mechanisms) and motivations, we provide positive reinforcement for positive change, we bring direct feedback from community members, and so on. This also means we keep an eye out for slippery behavior, even with us as a team, and address it with him in a straightforward manner. Throughout all this, we also hold Charlie’s inherent dignity and worth as a person, and do not make him out to be a disposable human being.
How are we working toward and/or affirming a community response and community accountability? (both in the sense of accountability TO community and FROM community, response TO community and FROM community)
By centering the voices of those who have been harmed and keeping Charlie focused on acknowledging his harmful actions, we are working and creating space for those victims of harm to transform their experience. The process also allows space for Charlie to transform from solely “a person who has caused harm” and doesn’t know what to do about it — or actively runs away from accountability — into someone who A) is aware of his privileges, B) understands how his defense mechanisms can hurt those around him and how his experiences don’t provide justification for those harms, C) sees and can describe the spaces where he abused his power, D) does not solely rely on others to tell him how to repair harmful situations, E) has the skills, a greater capacity for repair and harm reduction to recognize a potentially harmful situation before it happens and how to make meaningful amends when he causes (hopefully less intense) harms in the future.
In this work, we also hope to illuminate community complicity and the role the community played in the harm caused by allowing Charlie’s detrimental behaviors to continue. This will open the possibility of transformation within these communities, where Charlie interacted with the people he harmed, into spaces where behavior and inequities like this will not be tolerated or swept under the rug in the future. We want to be part of a larger movement to encourage and facilitate proactive action that moves us towards liberation from oppressive behaviors. This is why we share our roadmap.
We also acknowledge and validate the many different kinds of responses that this kind of process will bring up. Rather than being defensive if someone is angry or dismissive with this whole thing, we aim to understand why and how that reaction makes sense to the person and this context. We know we won’t be able to please everyone or integrate every bit of feedback, especially as not all of it is coming from a growth mindset, but doing this publicly means being willing and ready to deal with that complexity. To this end, we welcome feedback and challenge, and have dealt creatively with all the ways people have wanted to be in touch with us and share their perspectives (e.g. not demanding everything be in writing, using proxies, doing calls and video-chats, etc.). This is also why we are publicly and privately communicating updates to our communities rather than working in silence and isolation!
How are we working toward and/or affirming a transformation of the social conditions that created and perpetuated these instances of harm?
Through the power of the personal narrative, we are working towards deeper understandings of the cause and effect of long-standing societal norms which are rooted in patriarchy and oppression. We are naming harms that have been experienced by community members, as well as the ways in which appropriate amends and reparations might/should be made. We are also doing that work with each other, and challenging ourselves when we fall into the same traps of complicity — when we are tempted to excuse away some of Charlie’s behaviors, offer simplistic compassion, forget the long-standing dynamics at play because they’re so convoluted, and so on.
This also means that part of this work (later, not now) will involve publicly discussing and addressing in greater detail what social factors and community issues allowed or even encouraged this kind of behavior from Charlie in the first place. We know harm isn’t solely located within individuals, and that this is a critical reason why community accountability is crucial; what needs to change is both the person who caused harm and all that surrounded them. We aim to directly and clearly state what kind of complicity we noticed from members of the community, how social power dynamics played into all this, what larger patterns were replicated in this situation, and what kind of changes would help address that. That said, this will not be forefronted at the beginning so as not to minimize the individual choices Charlie did make throughout this entire collection of situations.
