My favorite college violence story was the one where I was repeatedly asked if I wanted to donate; to the university; donate to the food supply drive whilst hungry with no money or access to food or transportation; donate to children who hold marginalized identities; donate to the sick kids; donate to the scholarship.
I find that it is a repeated type of violence towards people who are fighting to survive and thrive while experiencing generational poverty that is accepted as a normal way of existing.
I solve raising food for people struggling with food insecurity by going to work every day to earn a dollar or 2.
I don't think there's a very clear solution. I recognize both the need to fill and the well intent of the one asking.
It's the "acting like we are not present in institutions that hold power and that are gatekeepers to income" that stings. It's the erasure of the need in front of you.
It's the shame getting in the way of creative solutions; on either side.
What does an equitable world actually look like in practice? Who have you acknowledged is present?
This isn't a moral battle of wits. This is an approach based on reality. Seeing the problem, you want to solve right in front of you, is knowing the problem. It is both the literal easiest way to find out whose voice holds weight and the best way to put respect on the knowledge we claim to know.
"Letting people in" begins with acknowledging we are actually already here in a loud bold way; in a with kind of way; in a solution for the people who exist now that impact your life kind of way; in an acknowledgment of the community's role kind of way.
With. Not for. With.
I invite you to explore the everyday violence you experience as acceptable norms.