Parisa Fitz-Henley Instagram – Love this tag team right here. We have to be aware that we are pitted against each other from every angle, looking down on each other for the lack of, or multiplicity of, the numbers on our checks. The system we live under keeps us doing that rather than critiquing the system itself and the thought processes that support it — many of which we are feeding into by considering each other less worthy of care, less human, for making a little money, or a lot. We don’t beat this just by changing contracts. We have to use this as another opportunity to work on changing our minds and hearts. We have to dismantle the idea — at the root of every -ism we have — that any human is inherently more worthy than another, so that when we are in positions of power we don’t perpetuate this. And we are in positions of power a lot more than we realize. Even from behind our phones, in the comments, we have the power to hurt another soul. That’s huge. If we are in a place like the US, even if we are struggling financially we are doing vastly better materially than literally billions of others in the world. And we are shaping their lives with our choices constantly. That’s power too. We have to zoom out, even while we fight our specific battles, and increase our perspective. When we don’t realize that we can both be oppressed and at the same time oppress others we can do a lot of damage and add greater strength to the system that benefits from our division and the wounds we inflict on each other. I’m grateful to all these folks for highlighting the importance of being conscious of the entirety of what’s happening and our place in it. Solidarity is key. REPOST @consciousleespeaks: “Let’s talk Class Consciousness… Video Credit: @lesdogggg & @crutches_and_spice”