December 26 — Umoja (Unity)
- Ruby N Lewis
- Dec 26, 2025
- 4 min read
December 26 — Umoja (Unity)
“We Cannot Build Together While Tearing Each Other Apart.”
By Please Don’t Die Black Men (PDDBM)
Umoja means unity—but before we can talk about unity, we have to be honest about where we are.
Here in the Pacific Northwest, one of the most painful realities for Black people and other marginalized communities is the lack of true community. Too often, people and organizations operate in silos. Cliques form. Doors close. Invitations become selective. Resources are guarded instead of shared. People become territorial instead of collective.
And the result?
Children and adults who are lonely, depressed, withdrawn, and quietly asking themselves, “Where do I belong?”
This isolation doesn’t just hurt feelings—it harms futures.
In a region already steeped in systemic racism, implicit bias, and educational inequity, Black youth are watching closely. They see whether the adults around them collaborate or compete. They see whether organizations uplift or undermine one another. They see whether unity is practiced—or just preached.
And right now, too many of them are seeing division.
Unity Is Not Optional — It Is Survival
Throughout history, Black people have never survived alone. We have survived—and advanced—because we came together.
Black Wall Street (Tulsa, Oklahoma) thrived because Black families, businesses, and professionals pooled resources and protected one another.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott succeeded because tens of thousands of people made a collective sacrifice for over a year.
The Civil Rights Movement was powered by unity—churches, students, elders, laborers, organizers, and everyday people moving as one.
The Underground Railroad worked because entire networks risked everything together.
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were built because the community refused to wait for permission to educate its own.
The Pullman Porters Union organized collectively to fight exploitation and win dignity.
Mutual aid societies, burial clubs, and community funds existed long before nonprofits—because we understood that survival required shared responsibility.
**Dawson Park in Portland’s Albina District — historically central to the Pacific Northwest’s Black community, serving as a gathering space, meeting ground for civil rights activity, and symbol of neighborhood solidarity even as surrounding racist policies and gentrification displaced residents. Community voices helped restore and preserve the park as a space for connection, cultural memory, and collective gatherings.
None of these victories happened because of ego.
None of them happened because of cliques.
None of them happened because people refused accountability.
They happened because people chose Umoja.
📌 Why Dawson Park Matters for Umoja
Dawson Park isn’t just a park — it’s a legacy of Black community unity in the Pacific Northwest.
For decades, it was a hub of social life, civil rights organizing, political speeches, and community events in North Portland’s Albina neighborhood.
It stood as a place where neighbors gathered, celebrated, protested, and built relationships — long before gentrification disrupted the community.
Even after displacement and systemic pressures tore at the neighborhood, local leaders and residents worked together with city partners to restore the park and keep its community essence alive.
Dawson Park is a powerful example of how collective history, memory, and action can resist erasure, maintain connection, and foster unity — even when external forces try to dismantle community fabric.
The Crab Pot Mentality Is Killing Us
There’s a saying often used to describe what happens when unity breaks down: the crab pot.
If you put one crab in a pot, it can climb out.But when multiple crabs are placed together, something tragic happens.
Every time one crab tries to climb out, the others pull it back down.
The crabs aren’t defeated by an outside enemy.
They aren’t defeated by the pot.
They aren’t defeated by the fire.
They are defeated by each other.
This is how we get “cooked.”
Not because we lack talent.
Not because we lack intelligence.
Not because we lack vision.
But because we fight each other instead of lifting each other out.
When we tear each other down, refuse collaboration, get defensive instead of reflective, or see accountability as an attack—we do the work of oppression for free.
Accountability Is Not Division
Umoja does NOT mean blind agreement.
It does NOT mean silence.
It does NOT mean protecting harm.
Unity means holding each other accountable with love, not ego.
It means correcting without canceling.
It means uplifting without competing.
It means understanding that no one wins alone.
We can disagree and still be unified.
We can improve and still belong.
We can grow without tearing each other apart.
Our Children Are Watching
Black youth in the Pacific Northwest are navigating schools filled with implicit bias, low expectations, and systems that were never designed for them.
When they don’t see unity among Black-led and minority organizations, the message they receive is dangerous:
“You’re on your own.”
That is not the lesson we can afford to teach.
They need to see collective power.
They need to see organizations collaborating instead of competing.
They need to see adults modeling unity, humility, and shared purpose.
Umoja Is a Call to Action
At Please Don’t Die Black Men (PDDBM), Umoja is not a buzzword—it is a commitment.
A commitment to:
Build bridges, not walls
Collaborate, not isolate
Hold each other accountable without destroying one another
Lift as we climb
Unity does not erase differences—it strengthens impact.
We have survived too much, lost too much, and fought too hard to allow division to finish what oppression started.
We don’t have to fight each other.
We don’t have to stay in the pot.
We can lift one another out.
That is Umoja.
That is survival.
That is power.
And that is the future we choose.
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