White Supremacy & Anti Racism work
You see the pain that individuals experience when they are oppressed or violated because of their identities. Maybe you are really angry and sad about these injustices, but do not know how to turn those emotions into action as a white person. You are starting to do your own personal work, but have realized you need a space to do it so that you are not asking your Black friend what to do to support them. You understand that putting your pronouns in your email signature could be supportive, but you want to understand why it may be better to not directly ask anyone what their pronouns are.
It may feel overwhelming to clean out the junk drawers of your mind - it’s conflicting and vulnerable to discuss the mistakes you may have made in the past, the times you’re not proud of the things you said or did, or the times you felt obligated to side with your family. Or maybe you’re feeling shame and hurt over the things you were raised to believe. My clients feel guilty and struggle with this inner conflict of what they were raised to believe by their families, communities, or churches and schools. It’s this conflict that ignites their passion for change, big change, in the systems they know must change.
Some of my clients grew up in angry, racist households where they felt they had to agree with the things being said and done as a matter of survival. They feel shame for the things they were taught to believe and struggle with knowing how to move forward while healing from the negative self-talk or the negative things they were told about themselves.
Others of my clients grew up with activist parents, diverse friend groups and feeling like the way they learned to be anti-biased and anti-racist was well-meaning but symbolic. They feel guilty and frustrated that their hearts are in the right place, but they’re still not done “doing the work” and want to move forward authentically.
If you are someone who holds identities that are largely privileged, I invite you to join me in work to recognize the ways in which implicit bias has shaped your actions, and the actions of other privileged people. If you consider yourself a change maker or social change agent, internal exploration is the first and crucial step to combatting oppression and violence. White people need to be doing this work together. Along with personal work we will explore how to support diversity, equity and inclusion work as a privileged person.
Those of us who benefit from oppressive power structures (white supremacy, patriarchy, heteronormative systems) cannot make change alone. We also should not expect people with identities that are systemically oppressed to teach us how to heal. And so, we need to be in community with other privileged bodies so that we can hold one another accountable, and create space to metabolize the oppression.