Webinar: Beyond Bootstraps and Hustle (February 2024)
In February 2024, the Narrative Learning Community hosted a conversation on the fraught role of “hard work” in American culture. It’s an idea that is about much more than work. It’s a cultural value central to the story many Americans tell about themselves and about others. Problematically, it can trigger harmful mindsets about deservingness and, often, it’s a primary language through which racism, classism and ableism get expressed.
Drawing from findings in the Southern Mindshift Project, speakers shared insights from deep narrative research across the South and Southern Midwest. Advocates and organizers reflected on how these narratives show up in real-time campaigns — and how we shift the conversation to advance equity, dignity, and worker power.
Watch:
Elaine Mejia shares findings from the Topos/EARN-led Southern Mindshift Project that lead to a promising opening to shift the story of hard work.
Jasmine Payne-Patterson facilitates a discussion with Southern Mindshift partners Bridgette Simpson and Dev Wakely on challenges and lessons learned from advocacy and organizing campaigns in Georgia and Alabama.
Speakers included:
- Elaine Mejia, Executive Director of Think Big/Senior Impact Strategist at Topos Partnership
- Jasmine Payne-Patterson, Senior State Policy Coordinator at EPI’s EARN
- Bridgette Simpson, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Barred Business
- Dev Wakely, Policy Advocate at Alabama Arise
