Equity practice notes part 1
– – – on the work of equity.
The work of making more equitable world is about being less shitty to each other.
If you want to be an ally start by asking what the affect of my your choices have on others. If you realize perhaps your decisions may lack empathy and compassion ask: when did I learn the limits of these two words? What must I nurture in myself to offer this kindness to other?
– – – on practicality
There’s an incredible pressure for those made marginalized by our systems to perfectly boil down our experiences to basic “practical” action steps for change. All the while telling trauma filled stories to have their most basic requests for respect understood.
The micro level of human interaction remains the foundational level in which we see systemic change. (read adrienne maree brown Emergent Strategy)
Before we start ascribing what’s practical. others, I want everyone on an equity journey to find the part of themselves that was not seen, neglected and abused and give it time to heal. This is the practice we must bring into the forefront of our interpersonal connections with our loved ones, communities, coworkers and people with whom we did not share a lived experience, opinion or common truth.
It’s in the stillness of curiosity, the painful pang of silence when we don’t know what to do next and the anxious reaching for the next steps that we nourish our capacity for empathy.
– — – on the skill of equity.
Equity is a skill we learn from pain, from knowing the world was not designed for us and that we desire it to be that way for everyone. This desire is sometimes infuriatingly difficult, and even worse violently disregarded.
When we are faced with the hurdle that is “practicality” we must remember that sometimes practicality means what’s normal. What is normal is constructed by the limitations of an imagination that has been asked to stop thinking at the horizon. From a young age we are served messages about who and what is normal, that not everyone can actually belong and that we must bend and hide to be a normal. So we can survive.
Practical is not available as a solution as easily and within arms reach because – the majority thinking does not allow for it yet. That does not mean that equity is impossible or impractical. It just means that’s equity requires an imagination wanting to to try and stretch and question.
What practical ought to be of making the desire for equity tangible and meaningful to those made marginalized by the systems that cause them harm.
Ask now:
What if you fed your most hurting self love and validation? What would that do for your ability to understand others?
