Power: Visible, Invisible, Integrated, Sustained Journaling Questions

Think about an organization or community you belong to. Where does the visible power live — titles, budgets, policies? Now look deeper: where does invisible power actually operate — who gets heard, who holds credibility, whose norms go unquestioned? What does that gap reveal?

The lesson distinguishes between power sharing (dividing a fixed pie) and power expanding (growing what’s possible together). Where in your life or work are you operating from a scarcity model of power? What would it look like to shift toward an expansive one?

Have you ever stayed silent, held back, or avoided acting because you were afraid of getting it wrong? What did that cost you — and the people around you? What would a more imperfect, accountable approach have looked like?

The lesson names colonial logics as assumptions about whose knowledge, culture, and ways of being are considered ‘legitimate.’ Where do you see those assumptions operating in your professional or community spaces? Whose knowledge is centered — and whose is treated as supplemental?

Solidarity work has no finish line. Reflect on your own history with this work: Where have you disengaged, burned out, or checked out? What brought you back — or what still stands between you and returning? What habit or relationship could help you stay in it for the long term?

Power Over runs on a scarcity mindset — the belief that power given up is power lost. Reflect honestly: In what relationships or roles do you tend to operate from Power Over, even subtly? What fear underlies it — and what might be possible if you released that grip?

Resistance is reframed here not as obstinance, but as a signal that Power Over is being wielded. Think of a time someone resisted something you were pushing — a decision, a process, a direction. Looking back, what were they communicating? How did you respond, and what would you do differently now?

Rage is described as a reasonable response to sustained injustice — data, not dysfunction. Have you ever tone-policed someone’s anger, or had your own anger dismissed? What was the cost of that dismissal? How can you practice honoring rage as information rather than managing it away?

Respectability politics can be both a survival tool and a trap. Reflect on a time you (or someone you observed) code-switched or self-muted to belong. What did that cost in terms of authenticity and power? What would it take to create conditions where that penalty no longer exists?

Power With is built through collaboration, relationship, and trust — and it takes time because it rewrites norms. Think of a relationship or team where you’ve experienced genuine Power With. What made it possible? What conditions had to be present — and how can you help create those conditions elsewhere?

Power Within is the most overlooked form of power — the confidence, dignity, and self-awareness that allows you to recognize your own capacity to create change. Where are you most solid in your Power Within? Where are the gaps? What would it mean for your solidarity work if you strengthened your inner foundation first?