Last week, my work team and I facilitated virtual circles about courage, finding your voice, and social injustice. These circles offer a safe space for sharing, for listening, and for strengthening our community, and they have been a very powerful way of connecting during this time of emergency remote teaching.
One of the prompts from the circle has continued to resonate with me.
“How are you using your position or your privilege to confront social injustice and systemic racism?”
Let’s unpack that, shall we?
Many white people still believe that white privilege is a myth. It’s not. Our country was built on white privilege and that same privilege has been sustained throughout generations. Acknowledging that privilege does not mean that people haven’t worked hard to overcome their own obstacles. It means that some people have had to work harder simply because of the color of their skin.
Glennon Doyle, in her latest book Untamed, puts it like this:
“Privilege is being born on third base. Ignorant privilege is thinking you’re there because you hit a triple. Malicious privilege is complaining that those starving outside the ballpark aren’t waiting patiently enough.”
If you do not have to think about racism and the impacts of racism every minute of every day, that’s privilege.
So back to the question: “How are you using your position or your privilege to confront social injustice and systemic racism?”
My beliefs and values about education always take me to a place of wanting to know more. I recognize that not everyone has that same passion, but this is a topic that shared experience in whiteness is not going to help. It is important that whites read about racism, about white privilege, and about white fragility in order to begin to see the world differently.
Even asking questions is a good place to start. Acknowledging that you don’t even know how to begin to talk to your kids or your colleagues or your friends about race is a good starting point. Acknowledging that you don’t know about black culture, rather than making assumptions about black culture based on your own white culture or media perceptions, is a step. Acknowledging that you have made mistakes, that you have misunderstood or misrepresented all African-Americans based on a singular experience is a huge step.
You know how your parents used to tell you that you would be judged by the friends you keep? Check the way your friends talk about race. If you are silent while racist comments, jokes, or microaggressions are happening, then you are missing an opportunity to dismantle systemic racism.
Have difficult and uncomfortable conversations. Too often, we attempt to make something uncomfortable into a joke, but systemic racism is not a joke. The negative leadership that is being demonstrated in this country regarding racism and police brutality is not funny – it is horrifying. Leaders who mock, insult, taunt, threaten, and bully are not leaders and are definitely not funny.
Speak up. Speak out. Show up.
Whether you just realized that Santa Claus is not real and our country was built and sustained on systemic racism or if you are already actively speaking out, speaking up, and showing up in solidarity, this is the time to take action. Desmond Tutu said, ““If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.” This is not the time for silence. This is not the time for denial. This is the time to speak up, speak out, and show up.
