8 Ways to Build Narrative Power Today for an Abolitionist Future

We know that the safest communities don’t have the most police, surveillance, or incarceration–they have abundant resources. But too often, we see that narrative frameworks within social justice and nonprofit communications fail to subvert oppressive systems; many reinforce them.

Narrative power for social justice goes beyond simply disrupting oppressive systems. When implemented as a rigorous discipline, it poses more profound challenges to those systems' underlying assumptions and basic legitimacy. This requires each of us to do our homework of reflecting and responding, then coming together as a coalition to build narrative power for real, collective safety.

At a conference on the science of communication at the University of Florida, I shared specific skills we can all use now to help us do better work in the long term.