Sorry, Boo! It Ain’t About You
And as people - White people, Black people, men, women - shared their “aha” moments and their sadness in a very supportive environment, there was a lot of thoughtful listening. There was respect.
Until the ugliness that is rooted in hate and oppression, in White superiority, and a complete lack of cognitive humility, or any semblance of cultural sensitivity, or even cultural awareness, spoke out.
How to Stop a Racist in One Simple Step
In my workshops, I'm often asked why do I focus on race and racism?
Why do I focus on privilege?
And why don't I focus more on other issues of equity, like LGBTQ?
And my answer to all of these is because it's easy for us to look at other stuff. But it's not always so easy to address our nation's original sin. And it's not so easy for us sometimes, to look deep down within ourselves at the bottom of the iceberg, as I call it, and understand the ways that we as individuals have the ability or the tendency to continue to support systems of oppression, to support racism, as it appears in systems, particularly when we benefit from it.
Confronting & Teaching Hard History
This is going to be a fun one as we chat about confronting and teaching hard history.
So, although controversial, there's this guy whose name was Mark Twain. Maybe you've heard of him. Stay with me. Mark Twain wrote,
"The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice."
Is that not cool, or what?