Suspending Judgement

Organizing beyond those we are comfortable with is a matter of life and death.

Our hearts are broken. 

How could they not be?  This is the year that for many, climate change moved from a looming threat to present-day reality. Then just as we thought we might beat back a pandemic, instead a variant rages on, killing thousands a day across the world. We were horrified by the images and stories of when the US Border Patrol deported thousands of Haitian Asylum seekers, a crisis that continues. The solutions to these issues and many more seem further away as disinformation sends huge portions of our people into alternative realities.  

In the face of it all, one thing feels certain: We will not solve any of it if we continue to narrow who we are willing to organize. We do not have the luxury of choice here. Organizing beyond those we are comfortable with is a matter of life and death.  

Earlier this year, I sat down with veteran organizer Gerald Taylor. I asked what he learned as a Black man organizing white ethnics in Brooklyn, New York in the 1970s. His answer? “How to suspend judgment.” 

Merriam Webster defines suspension as holding in an undetermined or undecided state awaiting further information. Suspending judgment is hard. It is easier to judge. A snap judgement can simplify things very quickly. Suspending judgment requires a willingness to give up the (often false) sense of security that comes with being certain about something. Instead, when we suspend judgment, as if relational acrobats, we open up to new possibilities for where a relationship might go.

When we suspend judgment, we also expand who we can organize. It may be someone just outside our comfort zone - someone who we agree with on nearly all things, but not everything. Or it could be someone who we agree on a few big things, but not on many others. We have to decide for ourselves how far we are willing to step beyond what feels comfortable. 

I believe if we are never uncomfortable, we are missing an opportunity to do the work that needs to be done on ourselves and in the world.  

These days, I try to work from the assumption that everyone I encounter is showing up the best they can. To be blunt, sometimes people’s best is not very good. Still, I have no idea what led to this moment in their life. What struggles they’ve faced, how they were raised, the chemistry they inherited, what happened earlier in their day.

Each person’s life is a mix of experiences. What makes me think that if I had the same experiences, I would behave or see the world any differently than the person I am meeting? Is their worldview the natural outcome of their accumulated experiences?

When we are in relationship, we have the opportunity to be among those experiences. As organizers, we seek to create experiences that help people reexamine limiting beliefs, and create new ones. Those experiences can be a one-on-one conversation, an agitation, moments of solidarity, transformative action, and winning.

None of this is possible if we are not able to be in relationship with a broader set of people. If we are only able to relate with people who agree with us on all things, we will be comfortable in our organizing, but also fail to build a “big enough we” to shift the underlying conditions that define this era.

What does suspending judgement look like for each of us?

What is one ring outside each of our comfort zones?  How could broadening who we are prepared to organize help build beyond the choir to move from a collective state of despair, to a growing sense of possibility, to heal our broken hearts? These feel like questions worth asking. 

Forward, 

George Goehl