Harmonious Rage
Hello my favorite peeps,
There are moments in history when staying quiet feels easier. And then there are moments when silence becomes participation. This Pride Month feels like a month for speaking up.
I am outraged because people I love are being harmed, erased, exhausted, and pushed further to the margins. So I’ve been asking myself:
How do we stay loving and active?
How do we stay woke without drowning in despair?
How do we block cruelty without becoming cruel ourselves?
Maybe the answer is something I’m calling Harmonious Rage.
What Is Harmonious Rage?
Harmony means people moving together in feeling and action, creating a more powerful force together than alone. Rage is anger, and yet - “all the rage” also means wildly popular. So what if Harmonious Rage became a wildly shared, unified form of righteous anger?
I want to be clear: this is about awakening an embodied refusal to normalize cruelty. This is not advocating for hatred or vengeance. These are very different flavors of rage.
Because there has been such a backslide in civil rights, trans rights, women’s rights, immigrant rights, and protections for marginalized people that many of us feel inflamed and swollen with rage and want to direct it in an effective way. Some people are even calling this moment a “whitelash.” And honestly, I understand why.
I Took My Head Out of the Sand
Over the last few months, I have pulled from my arsenal of coping strategies to help ride these waves of grief and rage. I have prayed and meditated and cried and disassociated and focused on the beauty. I dove deep into the news, then ignored it, only to come back again. And while I still believe beauty matters deeply, I am at the point where I need to take my head out of the sand.
Not because I care about performance politics but because I care about people.
I do not want this essay to become another endless rant spiraling into hopelessness, so I want to talk about actions. Small, sustainable actions. Because I believe that is where culture changes first.
We Are Living Through a Social Earthquake
My neighbors have been talking lately about earthquake preparedness: emergency water, batteries, food storage, plans. And I keep thinking: We are already in one of the biggest social earthquakes of the 21st century.
So how are we preparing ourselves emotionally, spiritually, and collectively?
Because preparation is about strengthening the kind of communities we want to live in. We need:
Compassion strong enough to keep people connected instead of isolated.
Honesty strong enough to face reality without turning away.
Relationships that remind people they are not alone.
Food for our bodies, stable homes, healthcare, education, and communities that actually care for one another.
And we need COURAGE: the courage to speak up and to stay human with one another. The courage to protect people being targeted, excluded, or harmed. The courage to participate in building something fair, loving, and more sustainable.
That, to me, is Harmonious Rage. A rage that mobilizes and organizes and feeds people, protects people, and reminds people that they matter.
The Question of Fairness
Let me ask you something: How much income tax did you pay this last April?
Most ordinary people contribute taxes to the systems we all rely upon: education, healthcare, infrastructure, Social Security, roads, housing support, and community resources.
But the system only works if everyone participates.
And yet many major corporations pay little or no federal income tax at all through loopholes, subsidies, and systems designed to protect concentrated wealth. Companies like:
Tesla
United Airlines
Yum! Brands (KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut)
Southwest Airlines
Citigroup
Disney
Palantir
CVS Health
PayPal
When a big corporation forms, wealthy investors “risk” their money to support the corporation’s growth so they can cash in when the business grows. Large corporations also hire accountants and use AI to apply loopholes and creative accounting to avoid paying federal income taxes. This way, it appears on paper that they made no income requiring the corporation to pay income taxes.
Meanwhile, ordinary people continue carrying the burden.
That disconnect matters.Why? Because communities begin to fracture when contribution becomes optional for the powerful and mandatory for everyone else.
So maybe one form of Harmonious Rage is asking harder questions about fairness.
Who benefits?
Who pays?
Who gets protected?
Who gets sacrificed?
And what systems are we unconsciously agreeing to when we stop paying attention?
Six Ways to Practice Harmonious Rage
1. Speak Your Truth
Silence can become permission. As Audre Lorde famously said: “Your silence will not protect you.”
When you witness a microaggression, discrimination, cruelty, or dehumanization, say something if you safely can. In my lived experience, being witnessed and defended changes people. Most of us remember the moments someone stood beside us.
2. Support One Another Locally
Invite people over for a potluck. Check on elderly neighbors. Bring flowers. Cook soup. Offer childcare. Pull weeds. Share books. Start a Little Free Library.
3. Support Fair Tax Reform
One of my accountant friends recently proposed something surprisingly simple: a flat 10% gross income tax across the board, for corporations and people alike. Just shared participation. With that alone, she estimates that there would be enough money to cover all of our country’s needs and more.
Whether or not you agree with her exact proposal, I think the deeper point matters:
We want to build a society where healthcare, education, childcare, housing, and food security are not luxuries, available only to the wealthy.
4. Support Independent Media
Mass media consolidation shapes culture more than most people realize so diversify what you consume!
Read local journalism.
Support independent writers.
Listen to thoughtful podcasters.
Seek nuance.
Question narratives.
Look deeper.
Knowledge is power. Where you place your attention matters.
5. Face Reality Honestly
Women.
LGBTQAI+ people.
Immigrants.
Black and Brown communities.
Religious minorities.
Disabled people.
Many are experiencing increasing hostility, discrimination, misogyny, and fear. Pretending this is not happening will not protect any of us.
History teaches us that avoidance does not prevent suffering, it usually prolongs it. And perhaps part of healing is learning to recognize the Beloved in people we were taught not to see fully.
6. Ask Yourself Who You Want to Be
Who do you want to become in this moment of history?
Can you live with courage, justice, and truth when things become uncomfortable?
These are not abstract questions anymore, they are deeply personal ones.
These solutions may seem tiny compared to our global problems. But community is built exactly this way: conversation by conversation, acts of courage - one by one. This is how we survive hard times, together.
One Act of Courage
This month, I invite you to practice one courageous act of Harmonious Rage. Maybe it is:
A conversation.
Volunteering.
Speaking up.
Refusing to become numb.
It is Pride Month, after all. And Pride has never only been about celebration.
It has always been about BEING REAL, visible, provocative, and loving.
Thank you for reading and for listening. I appreciate you being present here with me in these complicated and tender times.
And if this resonated with you, please share it with someone else who may need it.
Until next time, my Curious Peeps: Stay curious.
-Afia