Thanks, Khytie, for a thought-provoking post!

I was particularly struck by what you said about the possibility of dreams:

“I posit  that changes in society often happen on the level of imagining possibilities, dreaming (Laurence Ralph’s work discusses this and even the words of Dr. King) and being able to envision the world in ways that defy the conventions of the current space and time.”

It seems to me that some of the most important and meaningful changes to society come in a large jump, not tiny, incremental shifts. The examples I can think of under this theory relate to huge gains in technological knowledge, or the start of a war.

Or, leaving that behind, if that’s too much of a stretch: if you can’t dream of the most far-reaching and “ideal” society or changes you want to see, you will never be able to come close to them. Political action and community organizing is a game of compromise, and the first idea or demand brought to the table often undergoes significant whittling down before the change is actually made. If you enter these spaces with ideal, visionary, and bold demands, perhaps the changes you will actually see made at the end of the day will reflect the potential to actually achieve those changes. Or, even better, perhaps those changes will be made all at once, if you have enough conviction and drive. Saying that changes aren’t realistic or won’t actually happen should be the role of the government or other lawmakers, not of the activists and protestors. I see this most clearly with the demands made by students of color around the country at various college campuses. Their demands have been what mainstream journalists and administrators may see as radical. But in large part, they have been listened to, at places like Yale, Pomona, Brandeis, and more. These students were able to articulate what they wanted, even if those wants were a large departure from the current status quo. And perhaps this can be reimagined to change that affects more than just one college campus, too.