Exploitative Labor is Not the Way to Liberation - Associate Organizer DART Center Employee Review

Disclaimer: this review is solely my opinion and based on my personal experiences and observations while working in the network. “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” I think this quote from Audre Lorde is probably the most succinct way to describe what is fundamentally wrong with the way the DART network operates. For years there have been discussions about how to deal with the issue of high turnover and burnout among organizers, which is not necessarily an issue specific to DART. However, it is an issue that reflects the physical and emotional toll of white supremacy culture, a culture that, in my opinion, DART has allowed to thrive and even themselves utilized in order to co-opt BLACK and BROWN liberation theology for the purposes of carrying out agendas that are centered around and spearheaded by white people. Be it through emotional manipulation (read: “self-interest”), gaslighting, and the scarcity mindset they claim to be combating, DART attempts to convince mostly well-intentioned people that they should deal with being overworked, underpaid, and suffer indignities left and right because it is for the greater good. It is an extremely toxic and exploitative tactic that is used by many nonprofits, and DART is unfortunately no exception. If you are going to bring hundreds of local leaders together for conferences where you preach about bringing forth a culture of abundance, you should probably start by cultivating that culture for your own organizers rather than exploiting their experiences of oppression for labor. I could say a lot about DART’s structural issues: lack of transparency and accountability, a top-down organizing model that accelerates short-staffed organizers’ burnout, misleading claims of being “grassroots” while training organizers to essentially dictate issue campaigns using community members’ lived experiences, etc. However, as this probably has a word limit and my review is mostly targeted towards prospective organizers, I will instead focus on this grounding vision for justice. Liberation work should be liberating. Simple as that. If we are fighting for fair compensation and dignified working conditions for our community members, DART and its affiliates should do the same for their organizers. People should not be made to work out of guilt or some misconception that this is the only impactful way to achieve justice, but rather the assurance that their wellbeing is valued as much as their work. For those who are current organizers or considering joining the network: choose yourself. It is not selfish to choose yourself. It does not make you a bad organizer or a bad person to choose yourself. Choosing yourself is radical, and it is a rejection of a work culture that disguises exploitation as liberation.