Finding your style of anti-racism

Healing yourself, loving the world

Each of us has different personalities, personalty types, human design charts, and motivations.  That’s a core part of my client work – supporting people in knowing themselves and their way of interacting successfully with the world.

These past few months as I’ve dug more into anti-racism work, I have heard and seen a variety of actions and commitments that white people have made. Listening to Black voices, marching, exploring local policies, tracking police data, joining community organizations, supporting black businesses, doing your inner work around biases, doing your trauma work around racism, having difficult conversations, and so on.

As you think about finding your style of anti-racism work, realize that some of us are wired to take concrete, outward action. Some of us do the inner work. Some of us inspire. Some of us confront.

White people, what anti-racism action have you taken since Floyd’s death?

After George Floyd’s death, I wrote and talked about white privilege and what white people need to be doing to combat racism and be anti-racist. I was surprised when I got some pushback from a few readers, but the majority of feedback I received was aligned with what’s needed to be done. Holding myself accountable for taking action, I want to share what I’ve done since then. I’m not sharing this to show I’m a good person. I’m sharing this to show the variety of actions that can be taken.

  1. Continue educating myself on the history of black people and how they have been mistreated.  The movie 13th was an eye-opener about how the 13th amendment set up the conditions for prison sentencing to continue to enslave black people.
  2. Sign up to receive news and education from black owned organizations.  Push Black is a powerful advocate and educational site.
  3. Read and listen to Black based social media groups, without commenting or centering myself.
  4. Donate financially.  I donate a tiny amount to Push Black and Boosting Black Business.  Boosting Black Business is an awesome Facebook group that supports one black business a month.  Each member of the group commits to donating $20 a month to each chosen business.  Last month the group raised $22,000 for a food service group. This month they are supporting a laundromat/cafe project in Evanston
  5. Examine my own white fragility, biases, white supremacy, silence, and so on. I participated in a  month-long book study group sponsored by Center for Spiritual Living using the book Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad.
  6. Watch fictional Black centered shows. Queen Sono on Netflix and Blood & Water on Netflix are two shows created and shot in Africa.

White-centering

White centering is an interesting concept that’s subtle to grasp at first, but then becomes quite clear when you study it and watch interactions.  Basically it shows up as white people making the conversation about them and their feelings and actions. I feel it as an energetic imbalance and lack of respect for Black voices. If you are curious about this idea, here’s a great article.

Confronting racism is not about the needs and feelings of white people by Ijeoma Oluo

Finding your style of anti-racism

As you look at the list of resources and think of what you’ve been doing to address racism, do you notice how your personal values are showing up? Can you appreciate your actions and commitment? And do you want to do more?

  1. PushBlack – education and advocacy group
  2. Boosting Black Businesses FB group – a group that contributes monthly to black businesses
  3. TLC – laundromat/cafe fundraiser – specific black business currently being funded
  4. Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad – book with 28 exercises ongoing your inner and outer work as a white person
  5. Blood & Water on Netflix – fictional series on Netflix; so many more to watch as well!

Photo by Francesco Ungaro on Unsplash

 

 

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Deborah Donndelinger

Deborah Donndelinger

I'm writing from Maryland, but my heart goes out all over the world. I'm cheering you on as you tackle the hard stuff, embrace the easy, and show up to help others.