When you experience racism or when you are a witness to someone’s experience of racism, trying to find your way through is often one of the hardest things to do.
Those moments can freeze you into place, leaving you wondering if it’s best to slowly back away, or stand up and speak out.
While I agree that “silence is violence,” being loud without a strategy or plan can be just as problematic in the face of racism. In fact, when our eye is on the prize, and the prize is to build an anti-racist world, I will take strategy over being loud without strategy any day.
So where can we learn this strategy that Dr. Lindo speaks of?
Right here, in the e(RACE)r Network™, my friends!
Each month, I will share a new example with you that shows how I have walked through the three foundational pillars of anti-racist work:
- Understanding the Social Context.
- Recognizing the Power of my Sphere of Influence.
- Mobilizing My Privilege.
By using concrete examples from my own life “doing” anti-racist work, I aim to focus our discussions each month in a way that benefits you. This approach gives us something concrete to discuss – something that can help you fine-tune your own anti-racist projects, no matter how big or small they might be.
Before we jump in, just one word of caution:
How we approach anti-racist work depends on many factors: who we are, how we identify, what we hope to achieve, our short and long-term plans etc. That means that my approach to doing the work has also shifted and changed as I have learned to incorporate anti-racist teachings into everything I do. With that in mind, the idea is not to try to do exactly what I do, or to approach the work exactly as I have. Rather, it’s to figure out what works for you, how you can grow on your own anti-racist journey, and to build your toolkit for equity.
To help guide our discussions, try to hold onto these questions as you watch the videos I share each month below:
- What did resistance to Dr. Lindo’s anti-racist project look like, and how did she navigate the resistance?
- When she pivoted to avoid a pitfall on her project (or when she fell in!), what did that look like (and might that pitfall have been)?
- What aspects of the project and the work was Dr. Lindo tied to 100%, and what aspects were up for negotiation?
And now… let the games begin!
