Blog Post #3
I recently finished Layla Saad’s 28-day anti-racist program, Me and White Supremacy, which was as challenging, eye opening, and discomforting as she warned me it would be in the introduction to her book. This blog post is my way of organizing my thoughts.
Join me in repeating 15 times a day:
I will recognize my white privilege, and do all I can to direct it toward dismantling white supremacy.
I will transcend my white fragility so that meaningful criticism can be leveled, heard, and effected.
I will never tone police. I will listen.
I will be brave enough to step out of white silence, even when it puts me at a disadvantage to speak up.
I will train my mind to undo years of white superiority conditioning.
I recognize that I am not exceptional, and that white exceptionalism is a disease.
I recognize that the concept of “color blindness” is misguided and harmful.
I recognize that I have exhibited anti-black behavior toward black women, men, and children. I have fallen into typical patterns of white supremacy.
I have carried racist stereotypes my whole life, and I will work every day to reverse them.
I see how destructive cultural appropriation is. I regretfully admit to having engaged with it my whole life. I vow to think carefully about this in advance of any creative endeavors.
I confess to white apathy and perfectionism. I will get out and get my hands dirty with anti-racist work, even if it is uncomfortable, or I look foolish.
I vow to stop taking a white-centric view of the world.
I will be extremely vigilant for cases of tokenism in my life.
I will stop trying to be a white savior, and start looking for BIPOC-led projects that I can join. I will listen.
I will do everything I can to cease being an optical ally and be a true ally, someone who works every day to undo institutional racism.
I will be open minded and calm when I am inevitably called out or in. I will not be over sensitive. I will apologize.
I will make an effort to engage with and understand intersectionality. I will view feminism, LGBTQIA rights, etc, as broadly as possible.
I will address white leaders as bravely as I can.
I will regularly talk anti-racism with my friends. I will be brave with them too.
I will try to talk about all these things, and be brave with, my family.
I will be honest about my values and stop being chicken shit about going after them.
I will be willing to lose privilege.
I will regularly review this list, and remain committed daily to this cause.
Value Commitments:
I am committed to showing up for this lifelong work because I have done harm, but I want to become a good ancestor.
I will challenge my own fragility by standing up publicly for this work.
I will raise my voice with friends, on dates, and at work.
I will challenge leadership where I effect on-the-ground change.
I will uplift and center BIPOC work and BIPOC artists in my creative life. My hiring, my text choices, the stories I choose to tell and how I tell them. I will always consider the moral and ethical ramifications of who gets platform space. I will make room.
I will lend financial support to Black Lives Matter to the extant that I am able, and donate time to anti-racist work.
I will decenter my white privilege by expanding my learning program to include daily anti-racist work. I’m committed to daily work, on feminism and intersectionality too, forever.
I will break my white apathy by doing the work diligently and daily.
I will show up, even when I make mistakes, and especially when it will not benefit me to do so, socially or financially.
I will use my privilege to combat racism by creating space for other voices, and by shutting up and listening.
I will take a hard and honest look at my actions and identify optical allyship.
I commit to all of this in the hopes of one day being a good ancestor.
9.25.20 on the road between Kansas City, MO, and Mancos, CO