North Beach, San Francisco, from San Francisco Bay. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

Nearly a century ago, Walter Benjamin observed that what those who lived in comfort perceived as a state of emergency were normal conditions experienced by the oppressed. Throughout history, oppressed peoples have lived in regions where danger was the rule, not the exception.

Today, new emergencies seem to emerge every day. The environment, economy, electoral system and educational apparatus are all in crisis. People in power can’t fix what they broke, they can’t undo the damage they have done and continue to do to the planet and its people. They wage endless wars, incite hatred for entertainment purposes, and encourage vile and violent attacks on those who need it most. From the mass murder of civilians in the Middle East to families separated and children held in cages at the US-Mexico border, the world’s people are increasingly faced with nightmares from which we cannot wake up. From elected officials adopting policies that criminalize reproductive rights and terrorize doctors who provide medically recommended care to transgender people, to the global promotion of white nationalism, immigrant hatred, and authoritarian rule by wealthy entrepreneurs and investors.

It is both tactically and morally imperative to do what we can to oppose these states of emergency and stand up for those who suffer the most. But the same oppressed tradition that Benjamin mentions teaches us that it is equally important to identify and transform the taken-for-granted social practices that produce hatred, pain and fear, and make spectacular violence and exploitation inevitable. These practices can obscure the profound wisdom developed through the survival strategies of the oppressed.

In his big book Black Reconstruction in AmericaWEB Du Bois shows what formerly enslaved people were like By creating an active and participatory public sphere based on universal access to education, health care, voting, jury service, and economic opportunity, the United States created the first true democracy the nation had ever known. Their emphasis on democratic participation emerged long before emancipation, in the solidarity they formed in the workplace, in the aid they offered to those resisting or escaping bondage, and in the ways in which prayers, songs, and dances represented the collective freedom required by the conditions of slavery. He forced them only to dream. At a time when we urgently need to create new democratic practices, processes and structures, this tradition of the oppressed has much to offer us.

my new book The Danger Zone is Everywhere: How Housing Discrimination Harms Health and Steals Wealth argues that residential racial segregation is both an economic injustice and a public health hazard. It argues that housing insecurity and its health consequences constitute essential components of an unjust, destructive, and deadly racial order. These grave racial injustices; zoning ordinances, construction of municipal and school district boundaries, artificially low home value assessments combined with artificially high tax assessments, insurance company algorithms, misdemeanor arrests and municipal fines, fees, and debts, flaws in law and medical education, anti-drug laws, environmental pollution and unquestioned social science methods.

Because the danger zone is everywhere, health and housing injustices cannot be solved by a single law, public policy, medical practice, or technological solution. It requires the creation of an active and participatory, multi-domain popular mobilization that engages people to invent and implement new democratic practices in many different areas. These initiatives are already well underway. Inside Danger Zone is EverywhereI highlight the profound wisdom and powerful accomplishments of grassroots fair housing groups, health and healing arts collectives, environmental justice initiatives, community land trusts, autonomous learning circles, and community collaboration initiatives. In the process of proposing short-term, medium-term, and long-term remedies for health and housing injustice, these groups also challenge the dominant culture of competitive cruelty and greedy individualism by establishing networks of mutual recognition and respect. They know that no one can do everything, but everyone can do something.

Nowadays, it does not seem possible to solve emergencies from top to bottom. Indeed, governments, corporations, and wealthy individuals have a direct stake in spreading and exacerbating these crises. But bottom-up social movement mobilization has the potential to enable new worlds, from demonstrating that race is a political category and racism is structural, systemic, cumulative, and persistent, to creating good health and decent housing when public resources are protected. the purchase of common goods at the highest cost rather than private goods. From law and medicine considering the importance of precautionary principles to address foreseeable harms before they occur, to advancing democratic participation for all by creating an active public sphere for health and housing justice. The danger zone is everywhere, but that means that wherever there are people, there is meaningful work to be done.

This article was first published at: University of California Press blog and is reprinted here with permission.