The tragedy of the commons narrative posits that increased demands for common resources depletes available resources to the point that harms all stakeholders. The ecologist Garret Hardin was the first in 1968 to popularize such a view in his essay “tragedy of the commons”. In essence, Hardin argues that strategies driven by short-term self-interests of individuals and nation-states for common resources results in environmental catastrophes ranging from overfishing to the present climate change crisis. Although such a downward spiral is certainly plausible, potential outcomes are far more complex. Recent interdisciplinary research demonstrates that cross-feedbacks between socio-ecological strategies and the environment can lead to changes in incentives potentially mitigating the depletion of resources. In a recent symposium in August 2018, organized by the Black Ecologist section at the annual Ecological Society of America conference held in New Orleans, we reported on this coupled feedback between resource strategies and the environment. By approaching this feedback loop across a range of ecosystems and scales, from microbes to humans, we developed a socio-ecological framework that explores how changes in resource use alters strategies for future action. First, we deconstruct the uses and beneficiaries of the shared resource.  Then, we identify potential cascades of conflict across scales explicitly including lens of resource partitioning, plasticity, and mitigation strategies.  Nested within these dynamics is an inherent human dimension; though not simply as exploiters but rather as ecosystem mediators. We consider how individual representation of who studies these processes, through the inclusion of black ecologists in the society, can alter the framing and outcome of this ‘tragedy’. The interdisciplinary scholarly work undertaken by black ecologists provides ample hope that the tragedy is not inevitable after all.  Through a range of case studies, we identify design principles for managing resources sustainably. We find that inclusive oversight at different spatial and temporal scales can help us cope with the complexity of the commons.