Category: anti-racism

Black History Month

Karen

I follow Rachel Cargle’s Instagram and for the month of February, she’s been putting up events and culture related to Black History Month to google on your own.

It’s been eye opening and uncomfortable to realize how much I don’t know about either Black history or culture. And that quick daily search usually leads me to more links and more I didn’t know about. And I think back to how entirely whitewashed my education was and how I didn’t think there was anything wrong with that.

So I’m sharing a little of my journey here, not to get “woke points” but just in case your education was similar to mine. This is what I’ve just researched in the last week that I never heard about in school:

and, to end on a note of Black joy, I listened to the “Black national anthem” for the first time, Lift Every Voice and Sing.

 

 

“Protests don’t work”

Karen

If you’ve ever thought that, here’s some evidence to the contrary:


More at The Guardian: Minneapolis lawmakers vow to disband police department in historic move

 

And over in England, someone (about 10,000 people!) got the memo to protest by throwing things into the harbor:

More at Mashable, which is not the finest news source, but has a deeply satisfying take: Enjoy watching as Brits tear down a slaver’s statue and dump it in the river

What a time to be alive, truly.

Tuesday Project Kickoff: Learning And Talking About Racism

Karen

I never said anything here about how much White Fragility shook me last year because..what if I said the wrong thing? What difference would my words make? This is a place for things I like, and wow does talking about race make me uncomfortable. Maybe I could sign a petition or two instead?

Well, guess what? It’s not about me. Being able to ignore race because it doesn’t affect me, or makes me uncomfortable, or to read one book about racism and call it good, is a massive privilege. As for what difference my efforts would make, I have to go back to seeing the Dalai Lama in 2016:

You should not think of world problems as huge and that one individual cannot do much. This is wrong thinking. A peaceful world/[an anti-racist world] starts with one person, then spreads to one family, then 10 families, then 1,000 families and whole communities.

So I apologize for my past silence. It needs to be talked about. Like I saw once in a tweet about therapy, “Everything you ignore just goes down to the basement to lift weights and get stronger.” White America has 400 years of racial violence we’ve organized, benefited from, and ignored to address now.

I’m going to start by reading and posting about the essays in The 1619 Project at the New York Times every week. Then I want to work through the original (free!)  Me and White Supremacy Workbook by Layla Saad. Then I want to work my way through the reading list here.

I want to learn. I want to listen. I want to be able to speak up. I want to do better.

(I found all of these resources through this Google Doc, which has everything from books to podcasts to social media accounts to follow. There are literally hundreds of links to anti-racism resources being shared right now; just search.)