The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart

The Purpose of Power is based in the conceptual framework of critical race theory (CRT), a movement launched by American scholars who sought to create a cross-disciplinary field reevaluating race, society, and American law. Critical race theory finds fault in the current liberal movement for failing to uphold racial justice. It emerged in the mid-1970s after the gains of the civil rights movement of the 1960s were rolled back or unenforced. CRT highlights the failure of the American legal and social systems to uphold “colorblindness.”

At the core of critical race theory is law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality, which she coined in 1989. This analytical framework seeks to demonstrate how an individual can exist within multiple social and political identities, which can force them to endure different modes of discrimination or enjoy various forms of privilege. Intersectionality and critical race theory encouraged the rise of Third-wave Feminism, which critiqued the First and Second waves for considering the rights and needs of only cisgender, heterosexual white women at the expense of women of color, lesbian and bisexual women, and trans women. Like critical race theory, Third-wave Feminism addresses power imbalances in society and attempts to redistribute power equitably and across a broader spectrum.

Because The Purpose of Power is an exercise in critical race theory, it makes sense of the author’s personal experiences by analyzing how various aspects of her identity are subject to political and legal bias and discrimination. Garza reasons that her persisting feeling of loneliness as a child resulted from her growing up in a predominantly white neighborhood where her Blackness was equally romanticized and demonized. However, with no theoretical framework to help her understand these social biases, she could make sense of her experience only by thinking of structural injustices as individual failures. It was during her time at college that Garza first encountered Black and queer scholars and learned to apply Black feminism to understand her own experiences.

In line with the analytical structure of critical race theory, Garza is extremely cautious of existing power imbalances between white communities and non-white communities. Occasionally, the biases that arise from unjust power dynamics persist even in radical left-wing organizations, which do not exist in a vacuum and can unconsciously (or consciously) replicate the racial biases of the larger society.

In The Purpose of Power, Garza repeatedly defines her politics as queer, radical, and Black. She occupies an intersection often overlooked by certain left-wing movements: She urges them to critically reassess their politics. For example, at the start of her career, POWER, one of the organizations she felt the most comfortable working with, acknowledged these different aspects of her identity, welcomed members of sexual and gender minorities, and encouraged Black women to take on leadership roles. Garza cautions other left-wing organizations and movements against undervaluing the works of Black women, lest they replicate the racial and patriarchal structures that have weakened their bases in the past.

Her own organizations—the Black Lives Matter Global Network and the Black Futures Lab—demonstrate Garza’s commitment to upholding the values of critical race theory and Black feminism, which include equitable distribution of power, critical thinking, and a form of women’s liberation that includes women of color, sapphic women, and trans women. Garza stresses that radical movements can fight against the traditional hierarchical structure without losing the benefit of efficiency, and she puts this belief into practice in her own work. Rather than pretending the movement is leaderless, she has structured the BLM movement to be “leader-full” by training members who desire leadership positions.

Furthermore, the Black Futures Lab itself seeks to challenge the current sociopolitical order by empowering Black people in politics. By providing adequate political education and training, the BFL envisions a society where American political and legal spaces will no longer be dominated by white men. A better distribution of power will mitigate the racial bias exercised by various American institutions, thereby addressing, and possibly resolving, the social problems that critical race theory unearthed. In sum, The Purpose of Power ideologically reflects the analytical structures of Black feminism and critical race theory, evidenced by Garza’s background and her political stance throughout its pages.