Todo lo no previsto por este convenio se sujetará a las disposiciones de la Ley General de Sociedades Mercantiles y

One factor that pushes narrators to continue with the work that they do, despite their direct and indirect experiences of racism, is the empathy and compassion they have for the people they are helping. Other factors include remembering client’s and their own resilience and having a broader understanding of history and how change happens; that is, slowly. Here I will share the analysis of how Bridges and Journey say they keep on keeping on.

Bridges is also exhausted by his work as having the power and privilege of being an administrator has its own challenges:

What I am observing is in terms of the energy required is really working with young people who are hungry for change, who desire to see authentic engagement. Some who have the skills, the communication skills and the kind of sophistication to navigate the codified language [...] and there are some young people who are raging. I don't mean raging or ready to blow the place up. They are raging for change.

It’s like: “Come on, give me something. Everything in the world tells me my community and all of its children are under attack and that is putting us in an emotional and mental position of desperation or defensiveness and you cannot be upset when we are sensitive. You can't be upset when we respond.”

[...] Because when young people are coming in, they want to know that I hold power and I can do something. That is their perception. Also letting go of my ego is saying, "This is the limitation of my power, actually"; and being able to look at the disappointment in

their eyes. I am supposed to be the guy behind the curtain. No, I am not […] So the energy is about dealing with that impatience and challenging myself to meet young leaders in a place that acknowledges the truth of their existence, the urgency of change that they feel, that they are demanding. Their sense of safety and belonging that is at stake and helping them to pause, breathe and think about how to do that strategically. They are pushing.

He wants to coach these young leaders how to push in a way that organizations can hear, without killing their passion and fuel for change. So he says to them:

“Okay, I get why you are angry, I understand why you are upset, but if you really want to affect change, you can't play into that. They are ready for that. They are ready for the young angry Black guy; they are ready for the young angry Black woman. There is all kind of systems waiting for you. So you have to come at it a different way. You have to channel that anger or urgency very differently.”

[...] I look behind my shoulder and I say, "they are coming” [...] You cannot push it back behind this line. We need to get about 100 feet further but for a number of reasons, I may only move you [the organization/the system] an inch, but at least you are not going to move me back. I refuse to be moved back any further than what we have accomplished. I don't want to lose ground. I want to make sure that the position that I am in, the work that we are doing, is creating the conditions for the next generation to come and say, "Okay, they held the ground, we want five feet. We want five feet."

He replies to the youth:

“I can't just give you advice and you are going to be different tomorrow. This is a five year journey with you, potentially. I have seen that with some young leaders that I have worked with who are now in a position to say, "I get it."

So he concludes, “It feels worth it to keep holding this line because [they] are going to be released in five or six years”. He “holds the line” is by taking advantage of the policies that are put in place, but policies are only words until people hold the organization accountable to them:

When you are dealing in the professional environment you have things that you can leverage […]You can say, ‘Okay. One of the values in this organization is diversity, inclusion, equity. Here is what that means to me’[…] So it gives building blocks [...]There is a relatively common value system playing out […] So, the exhaustion can come out in ways in which you expect better because we are in the same line so you make an assumption that you get it […] Then you have to remind yourself, ‘Change comes with repetition repetition repetition repetition and maybe that is all your role is going to be: Maybe just repeat repeat repeat repeat’[…] Sometimes, my role is just to

hold the line. I am not actually going to score the touch down and part of that is letting go of your ego.

He too has faith in gradual change. To “hold the line” means to repeat. This alone becomes worthwhile as he reflects on the youth who are coming to join the ranks to push some more. Also, by acknowledging his privilege, he is not returned to innocence as suggested by Badwall (2013); rather, he is forced into accountability. What does one do with their power within White supremacy? Bridges decides that he can affect change from within. He is obligated to help the people he identifies with to experience these spaces of dominance differently. Again, he is not in a professionalized position and so there is less, if any, pretense about neutrality and biases. Here, double consciousness serves as a skill, when used with privilege, to bridge many worlds.

Journey also talks about her work as a slow journey. As mentioned above this work is also taxing for her, but she too takes strength through her understanding of both systemic oppression and the actual speed in which change happens:

It might take us all day, it might take us all year. It might take six years. Some people who are adopted a long time ago when they are babies and there are no records anywhere and you look and you look and find out if they are status, if they are from a reserve, find out if their mother is alive. All that stuff, it takes time.

Clearly, this kind of narrative is only spoken by people who have the privilege of being supported by an agency to take “six years” to work with one person. For the professionalized working in neoliberal agencies, this same understanding can lead to frustration rather than relief. Journey says that she has learned the art of taking time from her work through witnessing her clients’ resilience:

Journey: The answer is not as important as the journey to get to it. So, I don't know...You don't have to worry about any of that stuff, how it turns out. At the end it doesn't matter. PG: What is important about the journey? What tells you that you are on a good journey?

Journey: Oh, the people that you meet! The people that you talk to; all the stories, all of that, it helps.