OUR COMMON GROUND
MISSION ∝ CALL ∝ IMPERATIVE
Speaking Truth to Power and Ourselves
OUR COMMON GROUND exists to create and sustain independent Black space for serious conversation, critical thought, community, memory, and action.
THE OCG CALL
Throughout the Black freedom struggle, “The Call” is a summary document distributed to activists summarizing and explaining why and what the next mass action is being taken. It summoned people to gather, organize, deliberate, and act when circumstances demanded more than observation.
We believe Black people must have places where we can speak freely with one another—not merely about what is happening to us, but about who we are, what we believe, what we need, where we disagree, what we owe one another, and what we are prepared to build together.
The OUR in OUR COMMON GROUND is intentional. It does not mean finding a comfortable middle ground or avoiding difficult differences. It means our ground—a place where Black people can question, challenge, teach, learn, disagree, remember and imagine together with respect, dignity and honor.
OUR COMMON GROUND examines the systems, institutions, policies and structures that shape Black life and perpetuate racial, political, social and economic inequity.
But our responsibility does not end with speaking truth to those who exercise power over us.
We speak truth to ourselves.
We examine our own institutions and leadership. We question our assumptions. We confront difficult truths about class, gender, culture, politics, faith, responsibility, and accountability within our communities. Liberation requires both. We cannot demand accountability from the world while refusing to practice it among ourselves. That is why OCG has always been more than commentary.
The conversation is the work.
THE ANCESTRAL IMPERATIVE: BEAR WITNESS
OUR COMMON GROUND recognizes an obligation that reaches beyond any broadcast, platform or generation.
THE ANCESTRAL IMPERATIVE: BEAR WITNESS.
Our ancestors carried the struggle as far as they could and placed unfinished work into the hands of succeeding generations.
We inherit not only what they endured, but what they imagined, resisted, created, protected and made possible.
Our obligation is to carry the torch forward.
To BEAR WITNESS is our obligation to memory and our responsibility to the future.
∝ We remember what happened.
∝ We name what is happening.
∝ We preserve the voices of those who were there.
∝ We resist the distortion and erasure of our history.
∝ We testify to the fullness of Black life—our struggle and resistance, intellect and imagination, grief and joy, failures and victories, courage and creativity.
Memory becomes testimony.
Testimony becomes history.
And one generation speaks to the next.
Bearing witness is not simply looking backward.
It requires us to recognize and document the history being made in our own time—and to leave an honest record for those who will come after us.
THE WORK
OUR COMMON GROUND calls us to:
Think critically.
Question courageously.
Listen deeply.
Challenge power.
Challenge ourselves.
Preserve Black memory.
Honor those who carried the struggle before us.
Bear witness to our own time.
Build community with respect, dignity, and honor.
And CONTINUE TO ASK: What can we build together?
∞ The platforms may change.
∞ The technology may change.
∞ The microphone may change.
The mission does not.
Our mission has always required more than conversation for conversation’s sake. Alternative Activist Empowerment Talk Radio describes how OCG turns independent thought, critical inquiry, and information into engagement.
READ: Alternative. Activist. Empowerment. Talk Radio
OUR COMMON GROUND
Speaking Truth to Power and Ourselves
BOLD. BRAVE. BLACK.