Anti-racism is about humility: a message to the ‘newly awakened.’
A gentle and VERY, VERY FIRM reminder to my many newly-awakening white and fellow non-Black POC friends:
In your newly fired-up state, as your eyes are opening to the full magnitude of systemic injustice against the Black community, the insidiousness of racism in our society, and the urgency of addressing it…you likely have the urge to “do something big, NOW.” You may be feeling frenetic, or deeply guilty about your inaction and silence to this point.
As a result, you might find yourself tempted to do something massive, on your own, with limited guidance. In the past three days alone, I’ve seen people trying to create and lead collective groups about anti-racism, an individual trying to “compile recommendations” on policy brutality to email to local officials, and countless people creating solidarity art — all of whom are openly stating that they “finally see that there’s such a problem/acknowledge the harm of their silence and are working to learn and do better.”
HOLD. PAUSE. BREATHE. PAUSE AGAIN.
If you barrel forward right now, you are about to create a bunch of work and distractions for people that are already engaged in this stuff.
To give you an analogy: you’re like a person who thought you were in a shopping mall, suddenly blinked and — POOF — discovered that you’re actually standing in the middle of an emergency room, and that tons of people around you are shouting and trying to help others who are injured. Apparently they’ve all been training this whole time, while you were browsing the sale section; you have a vague memory of someone mentioning this to you. Now you feel really guilty and disoriented and freaked; you want to help immediately — how did you sit idly by this whole time??
But you know what? You REALLY should not grab an IV and shove it into someone’s arm right now. If you do that, others will have to step in and fix the damage you do.
Anti-racism is about humility. You begin where you are, so remember — YOU. ARE. A. BEGINNER. At this particular juncture, you cannot and SHOULD NOT be the person compiling recommendations, actively advocating or — frankly — creating public art pieces based solely in your good intentions. When you do this, you falsely position yourself as expert. You speak over the voices of those you claim to be supporting. It causes harm. This is what people call performative allyship. You also haven’t yet done the internal excavation necessary to engage in anti-racism work without causing harm. (Which you’ll be doing forever, that’s how it works; I’m still doing it, and so is anyone truthfully and impactfully engaged in anti-racism.)
So what *should* you do? Well, this work is new to you, but it is NOT new to the Black activists and educators that have been trying to get your attention for decades, and engaging in this work all along. Right now, your job is to ABSORB AND AMPLIFY those voices. Not to speak or contribute. You should be at about 80% absorption and 20% amplification.
Ways to do this:
- Follow and pay existing Black Educators in online spaces: on Instagram, you’ve got @RachelCargle, @catriceology, @laylafsaad, @theconsciouskid and so many, many others. Read. Listen. Absorb. Learn. Unlearn.
- Follow THEIR LEAD or other movement leaders’ requests about calls to action in the current movement. Whether calling, signing a petition, donating, etc. DO NOT OVERSTEP, do exactly what they ask and nothing more. Do not try to contribute or lead beyond doing exactly what has been asked of you.
- Have the grace to recognize the conversations you’re NOT ready to have; you likely aren’t ready to follow scripts that closely engage your corporate organization around bias, because if and when they come back to you for further engagement, you won’t know what to do. In these areas, keep hustling to catch up and learn from your teachers, so that you can be ready to take on this level of engagement soon.
- Don’t compile recommendations or teaching points for anyone. It’s not your place. But you can certainly point others to the resources from which you’re currently learning.
- Donate money to Black-led organizations. If you really want to make art, make something lovely, sell it and donate the proceeds to Black Visions Collective. Don’t make art “on behalf of the movement” right now; that’s not where your energy should be as someone that is just entering into this work.
- Seek out existing groups and teachers that are already engaged in anti-racism work, and figure out how to bring them into your community/work.
- Examples: want to have an anti-racist parenting group? Great. Find a BIPOC teacher that’s *already* offering anti-racism parenting trainings (online or otherwise), pay them directly, and engage together.
-Want to address bias and whiteness in your business? Great: find a BIPOC trainer that already does this. Bring them in. Buy their materials. Then work through it together.
-Note - I’m not saying you can’t share in this reflection together! Just don’t LEAD the content. Want to engage with a few friends? Go for it. Work through a Black-led curriculum together, like The Great Unlearn or White Supremacy and Me.
Remember. The most important thing you can do right now is to ensure you DO NOT DETRACT FROM EXISTING MOMENTUM through misguided efforts coupled with your lack of knowledge. Absorb. Amplify. We still have a long journey ahead. Welcome aboard; now please have a seat and start reading the manuals.
Love,
Meera
I first shared this as a post to social media. I didn’t expect the response to be so massive — both from those that needed to read these words, and those that needed others to read them. And so, here we are. I hope they can help you, too.
