I spent three days last week at Commnet’s virtual conference. That’s me in the picture unpacking their fancy swag box and showing off my strategically placed houseplants. Here are the three most valuable things I learned:
1. It’s good when people steal your ideas. The best keynote I attended was led by Tarana Burke, who created the #MeToo hashtag and still works to interrupt sexual violence against people all over the world. I bet you didn’t know she created the hashtag, though, did you? (*I’ll confess: I didn’t, and I sorta work in the sector). Ms. Burke’s point was, it was a good thing that the reporters working the Weinstein story and people around the world started using the hashtag to come together and create a social movement out of the ideas involved. She didn’t feel the need to yell about having said “#MeToo” first.
2. Atlanta’s wealthiest and whitest district wants to secede. I found this out during a conversation about connecting with people across the political divide, and it scared me, because it comes from a place where dog-whistle racist craziness has gone mainstream. And how does one counter it? Well, I don’t know. But we shouldn’t underestimate its danger. It reminded me of Trump and Brexit. In Georgia, which was a swing state, I can see how the battle could become a rallying cry to stoke social division and win votes on the right.
3. We need to come at this work from a place of radical compassion for our so-called enemies. Not unrelated, this point. I took it from a discussion led by john a. powell, director of the Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley. He talked about the time Nelson Mandela hosted a notorious racist at his house. Not only did he make the gentleman a cup of tea, he spoke to him in Afrikaans, a language he’d learned in order to understand his counterpart’s culture. I’m not sure I’ve got what it takes but it’s certainly inspiring.
It really was a great conference. If you don’t know about The Communications Network, it connects, gathers, and informs leaders working in communications for good. See you at next year’s conference in Seattle?
