December 2024
The morning after the national election, Black Twitter was buzzing as folks began pointing out an eerie parallel between our current political and social climate and the dystopian world of Octavia Butler’s Parable of Sower. First published in 1993, Butler's speculative novel paints a grim reality for the 2020s, where America is in ruins—ravaged by environmental disaster and extreme economic disparity. Wealth and resources are concentrated in the hands of a few, the government is absent, and have left citizens to fend for themselves in the face of widespread violence and poverty.
To make matters even more prescient, on November 7, 2024 the presidential candidate Donner wins office, leading with the slogan, “Make America Great Again.” This chilling echo of Butler’s fictional world raises the question: how much longer until we find ourselves living in a future that she not only predicted but warned us about?
As a cautionary tale, Parable of the Sower underscores the role of Black women as navigators through systemic oppression. The heroine, Lauren Olamina, sits at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities, she’s black, disabled, poor, and a woman. The culmination of all these identities uniquely positions Lauren to transform ecological wounds perpetuated by state violence into seeds of collective power, freedom, and hope for a better future. By stressing the importance of building upon and learning from past histories and trauma while remaining open to change, Butler creates a map for us to follow, a path that thousands of Black women have traveled before us. So, post election, let’s follow their lead and remember to:
Rest up! We’re tired. Shouldering all the work, working twice as hard, never getting invited to the table nor receiving the recognition we deserve...is a lot of weight to carry. Black feminist scholar Audre Lorde even admits that she had to examine the “devastating effects of overextension. Overextending myself is not stretching myself. I had to accept how difficult it is to monitor the difference. Necessary for me as cutting down on sugar. Crucial. Physically. Psychically. Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”
How many of us did not rest and continue working as if the election didn’t happen? Sustaining ourselves in the fight for racial equity requires prioritizing self-care. We cannot advocate for our communities, or for a better future, if we don’t take care of ourselves first.
Mobilize, build, and strengthen your care networks. By leaning into mutual care and community with people you trust, you can explore creative ways to gather, grieve, rest, and heal collectively. Reflecting on Black people’s long history of cooperative models of living including Lauren’s Earthseed community, creating sustainable, community-centered ways of thriving is possible. For instance, when local and state governments failed to address the deep poverty and food insecurity in Mississippi, Fannie Lou Hammer developed the Freedom Farm Cooperative so that poor, Black residents could reclaim economic livelihood. The cooperative pooled resources, funding, support to provide healthy produce, civil rights classes, housing assistance and more.
To zoom out, how could we emulate or create our own cooperative models? Maybe by sharing or requesting items from friends before purchasing, swapping streaming services and subscriptions, organizing potluck dinners, or creating spaces for knowledge sharing through PPT nights and book clubs.
Celebrate the wins. Change is slow moving. Often, it’s like a ripple in a pond, pushing the needle slightly forward—where we may not be able to reap what we sow in our lifetime. In a world that blasts negativity and bad news, it can be difficult to see the progress we are making… even in this election. Voters for the first elected two Black women to serve simultaneously in the Senate! This is a historic first! Never have two Black women served at the same time. Harris was only the second Black woman and first South Asian woman to serve in the Senate. Harris made room for this to happen, so next time we’ll be ready to go even further.
(Delaware’s Lisa Blunt Rochester and Maryland’s Angela Alsobrooks)
Just like her Bible’s namesake, Butler’s seeds sprang up and bore fruit a hundredfold—charting a path for the numerous Black women sci-fi authors, as well as for movies and stories starring Black women as leads to come after her. Lauren is now one of the many Black women leading the movement tackling systems of oppression and ecological crises. As we look toward the next four years and beyond, Butler’s work serves as a call to action, reminding us that there is still so much work to do (and we are well-equipped for the job), so much love to share, and so much community to build.
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