Hey, this is Durey and welcome to Bats of the People.

On this episode we have Stacey A. Rums who's running to be the next governor of Georgia.

We also have Arnie Duncan, the former Secretary of Education and one of his partners and his

new venture Curtis to join us to talk about the work that's happening in Chicago.

Now before we jump in, couple things.

One is that there's so much happening in the world that I know I can feel overwhelming

that people feel like they individually can't make a difference.

But one of the ways that sort of oppression works is that it tries to convince you that

you don't have power.

And I've been a lot of spaces and people use this language of empowerment.

Like I'm going to empower you and I'm going to empower that person and empower these

group of people.

And what I remind myself of all the time is that like you can't give people power.

Like that's just not how this works, which you can do as an organizer, as an activist.

Is like help people remember the power that they already have and you could help them

unlock that power.

And this again is talking about sort of interpersonal in the context of systems.

But when we think about empowering other people, it's about helping them tap into the gift

and the power that they have.

Like that is what organizes you, that is what activists do.

And we're always fighting to make sure structures and systems like recognize the power that

people should have over their lives at the structural level and give that to them.

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