To Dismantle Racism, We Must Sustain the Activism

Because racism is a pandemic, then so too must be our sustained response. The solution must be proportionate to the problem.

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The first step needed is an attitude shift which is covered in the companion article, “Dismantling Racism: first step is changing white attitudes”. The second step is action. People may shy away from the hard work that action requires; or it may sound too radical to them. To get to any goal, I urge that we “bite the goals into bite size bits.” As I say in the attitudes article, there is a continuum of where people stand. Some people do not identify with activism; they will help in their own way. The goal is to get people to the next step. Protests were the first step in waking up this country; now the next step is sustained action.

 
From protest to power

People turning out in hundreds of towns and cities in America have been a spark or wake-up call; now we must make sustained change. Many protest movements – whether it was the Vietnam anti-war movement or Lebanon’s WhatsApp Revolution – articulate what they are against, and not what they promote or advocate.


Empowerment is taking responsibility to create our lives and our world as we wish it to be.

A movement really gains traction when people can envision a better future or policies, and break those into tangible action steps to tick off. This is a way of measuring: how far have we come? What have we achieved? What else do we need to tackle?

Barack Obama urged in his essay, “How to make this moment the turning point for change: basic lessons to draw from the past” in The Medium on June 2, 2020, that we must develop ways to make sustained change.

Writes Obama: “So the bottom line is this: if we want to bring about real change, then the choice isn’t between protest and politics. We have to do both. We have to mobilize to raise awareness, and we have to organize and cast our ballots to make sure that we elect candidates who will act on reform.”

This is the map of where protests occurred in the US in June 2020 (courtesy of al Jazeera)

Looks like the measles? Yes, let’s make a contagion of sustained activism.

So what to do to shift from protest to power?

1. Vote!

Urge others to do likewise. Work on campaigns. Register voters.  Make phone calls to swing states… it is an interesting conversation. It is especially the local elections that influence racial justice issues and gerrymandering which impacts voter suppression.

Continues Obama: “It is mayors and county executives that appoint most police chiefs and negotiate collective bargaining agreements with police unions. It’s district attorneys and state’s attorneys that decide whether or not to investigate and ultimately charge those involved in police misconduct. …. Unfortunately, voter turnout in these local races is usually pitifully low, especially among young people—which makes no sense given the direct impact these offices have on social justice issues, not to mention the fact that who wins and who loses those seats is often determined by just a few thousand, or even a few hundred, votes.”

2.  Education and health programs which impact many Americans may be gutted. Don’t let this happen!

This, I believe, is where the most vigilance and action is needed. Long debates and battles have been fought over how to make the American Dream a reality for everyone. Don’t let DACA, Pell grants and Head Start be eliminated.  Likewise, years of work have gone into creating quality of life for everyone in this country, to ensure that families can stay healthy and children are fed. Don’t let SNAP, the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), and school lunch programs be decimated.  Stay on top of things and tell your legislators what matters to you.  Do not let years of civil rights work and activism be in vain.

I found this resource helpful to stay on top of this:
https://firstfocus.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/FACT-SHEET-Presidents-2020-Budget.pdf

3. Corinne Shutack compiled the most comprehensive list of action steps I have seen:

97 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice
https://medium.com/equality-includes-you/what-white-people-can-do-for-racial-justice-f2d18b0e0234

4. Join or follow organizations doing important work

We do not need to re-create the wheel. Join well respected organizations to guide your action steps:

a. NAACP – America’s oldest – started in 1909 to fight Jim Crow – and largest civil rights organization.
http://www.naacp.org/volunteers/

b. Stacey Abrams Fair Fight to ensure fair elections
https://fairfight.com/join-our-fight/

c. Urban League – working on economic empowerment through education and job training, housing and community development, workforce development, entrepreneurship, health, and quality of life.
https://nul.org/

d. Van Jones’ Dream Corps is doing across the aisle criminal justice work
https://www.thedreamcorps.org/get-involved/

e.  Some predict a backlash to the protests. Thus The Southern Poverty Law Center and the ACLU will be as important today and in the near future as they have always been.
https://www.splcenter.org/; https://www.aclu.org/

f. Color of Change designs campaigns powerful enough to end practices that unfairly hold Black people back, and champion solutions that move us all forward.
https://colorofchange.org/

g. Showing Up for Racial Justice
https://www.showingupforracialjustice.org

I thought: there must be to racial justice what PFLAG – Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays – has been to the LGBTQ movement.  I do not know SURJ well, but I think it may be the closest that currently exists.  “SURJ works to bring more majority white communities into movements for racial justice. You’ll be connected to a community of people taking collective action for racial justice. We offer opportunities for you to stay connected to those on the frontlines and make meaningful action to dismantle white supremacy.”

As Corinne Shutack who compiled “97 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice” comments, “Our work to fix what we broke and left broken isn’t done until Black folks tell us it’s done.”

These protests are just the beginning

Dorian Wilson, President of Community Change, an organization whose mission is to build the power and capacity of low-income people, especially low-income people of color, to change the policies and institutions that impact their lives, notes,  “In some ways we’re seeing the vibrant renewal of civic engagement in our democracy.”

I believe these protests are just the beginning; that there will be a tidal wave of change as different groups and different countries say. “Enough!”  For real change to happen, it will require us to envision what we really want in a proactive, positive way; and to nurture, water, weed and push for the rooting of the changes these protests have seeded.

Continue Reading To Dismantle Racism, We Must Sustain the Activism

Dismantling Racism: first step is changing white attitudes


If the killings of Ahmaud Arbery , Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks and so many others and the protests which have rocked America do not wake us up, what will? America is at a tipping point.


It is clear: we must do something. 

Shift in Attitude?

Big news: 76 percent of Americans now say racial discrimination in the US is a real problem, up from 51 percent in 2015. And public support for the Black Lives Matter movement increased almost as much in the past month as it did in the previous two years, according to the New York Times.

I see a sea change in how America is thinking when Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Republican governor of California, posted a video on the 4th of July which said “We must fight every day to make sure that the American dream is as true for a Black child born in Minneapolis as it was for an immigrant white bodybuilder born in Austria.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUHxqcPS010

America is looking to understand racism and do something about it. While I see that Robin DiAngelo’s book, White Fragility is now being widely read, I find Peggy McIntosh’s  “White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences through Work in Women’s Studies”  more helpful.

“It isn’t my problem”

An attitude of “It isn’t my problem” is what Peggy McIntosh saw at the core of male privilege and white privilege.  In 1989 when she wrote the piece, men would dismiss women’s concerns implying domestic violence, rape, the glass ceiling, wage discrimination, no child care at work, and the piles of laundry and dishes were women’s problems. (The good news is this has changed some.)

“Racism is a white person’s problem to solve”

Ernst Owens in his article in Philadelphia Magazine, “White People, Please Stop Declaring Yourself Allies,” says much the same thing: “Racism is a white person’s problem to solve….While racism harms Black and brown people directly, it is caused solely by white people’s actions and cultural influence. These routine abuses, which have been instituted and normalized by white people over hundreds of years, have produced slavery, Jim Crow laws, mass incarceration, redlining, voter suppression, police brutality, gaps in education and wealth, and numerous other human rights violations.”

“White silence is violence”

Owens continues, “The option to care or not is the very definition of white privilege.”
How do we end that silence? My definition of an ally is someone who speaks up and speaks out.


So HOW do we change the attitude of many Americans?

The Stages of Change model: a helpful framework.

Image courtesy of David O’Donnell and James Golding


Carlo C. DiClemente and J.O. Prochaska developed this model in the 1980’s based on their observation of HOW people change behavior – whether it is drinking, smoking, safe sex, overeating or whatever. I think it is equally applicable to changing attitudes and behavior about race.


The stages of change:  

1. Pre-contemplation – Not yet able to acknowledge that there is a problem that needs to be changed ƒ
    Task: raise awareness    

2. Contemplation -Acknowledge that there is a problem but not yet ready or sure you want to make a change
     Task: reducing ambivalence – helping choose to change

3. Preparation/Determination – Getting ready to change ƒ
    Task: helping to choose change strategies   
 

4. Action/Willpower – Change behavior or system    
     Task: help implement change – and learn to eliminate relapse
ƒ    

5. Maintenance -Maintain the behavior or community change ƒ
    Task: develop skills to maintain recovery
    

6. Relapse – Return to old ways and abandon new change and then must strategize how to recover
    Task: cope with the consequences and figure out what to do next



Comments

1. Personal experiences change the most hearts.


2.  The goal is to get someone to the next step; people rarely jump past step in a stage of change.


3. How you choose to contribute to social change and racial justice is very personal, often based on your style, what you have on your plate, how many kids you have clamoring for your attention or your circumstances. I will never forget the woman in Arizona who told me, “I would love to make calls but my fingers are so arthritic I can’t touch the numbers on the phone so I just bake cookies for the cause.”


4.  Misunderstanding and shouting in America occurs because we do not grasp where others are coming from…. their stage of change which shapes both their perspective and terminology.


Strategies

1.  Pedagogy of the Oppressor

Paulo Freire, Brazilian educator and philosopher, wrote Pedagogy of the Oppressed which  advocated conscious raising – conscientização – centered on discussing “what is wrong with this picture?” for the oppressed to understand their role and position…how the world works.  I propose that we shift to Pedagogy of the Oppressor.

2.  Intimate connections, intimate conversations

LivingRoomConversations.org  and Van Jones in Beyond the Messy Truth: How We Came Apart, How We Come Together provide helpful models about how we can talk across divides.  When we get to know people more intimately and get out of our “silos” and partisan grouping, change occurs.


This is different from the intimate discussions in many anti-racism study groups which are more likely to be at similar stages of change and speaking a similar language.  Many alumni of this kind of consciousness-raising are further along the change spectrum and ready for action. The next step for them may be to ramp up their activism. (See the second article in this series, “To Dismantle Racism, We Must Sustain the Activism”)


3. Reaching out into the community

Speaking engagements. In the early years of the domestic violence movement, as community awareness rose about DV, so did the requests for speakers.  I gladly volunteered. Those forays into the community, plus talking to the police and prosecuting attorneys helped me understand how people were thinking.  Speaking up and speaking out is at the heart of movement building.


Music to raise awareness. In the LGBT movement outreach into the larger community and touching hearts was also essential. Dennis Coleman, director of Seattle Men’s Chorus for 35 years, very strategically planned concerts which would attract different sectors of Seattle, e.g. my parents went to their Swing Era concert. Coleman acknowledged the chorus was ambassadors.  They had a “Drop and Go” team of singers who could drop everything and go sing where needed, e.g. in eastern Washington when a gay youth committed suicide. These are the slow but sure steps to change consciousness.


4. Don’t just sing to the choir, expand the chorus

Help facilitate this conversation. Speak, do concerts or comedy acts pertinent to race at grange halls, community colleges, Rotary Clubs, colleges, churches, mosques, synagogues, Buddhist sanghas, your kid’s school, union halls, garden clubs, before concerts or at the local library. Could you set something up at the Sturgis motorcycle rally or the Indie 500? Don’t just sing to the choir; find ways to expand the chorus.  Invite your friends to join you in this effort so you multiply the impact.

5.  Make these conversations not lectures How does your audience think and feel?  It is crucial to assess what stage of change they are at and help move them to the next step. The goal is to see an “I get it!” light can go on in their eyes and heart.
And one step better, laughter and comedy sneak in past barriers and change hearts and minds.


People are busy. They need to know what to do and how to help

Changing attitudes is the first step, but we can’t stop there. For those further along the Stages of Change, in the next article in this series, I will propose tangible action steps.


Can we solve the challenges of our time? Yes, we can!

Continue Reading Dismantling Racism: first step is changing white attitudes

Ann McL on a soapbox with a megaphone

…If you would have asked me a year ago about blogging, I would have shrugged my shoulders with a “meh” – don’t read blogs and don’t have time to write ’em.

Now I realize, I have lots to say. I have forged skills and perspective over years which I think may be helpful to people and movements who advocate social justice, racial justice… who would like to world to be very, very different.

I realize that I became a psychotherapist because I wanted to be a “Catcher in the Rye”. Have you read that book by JD Salinger? A catcher in the rye stands at the top of this cracy cliff and makes sure that kids playing tag do not go careening over the cliff. (recollection rather than exact quote)  Once again I see humanity as a whole at risk of careening over a crazy cliff.  

I want America and humanity as a whole move away from the cliff by solving our problems and building solutions. This is at the heart of what I do as a Transformation and Empowerment Coach.

Empowerment is taking responsibility to create our lives and our world as we wish them to be.

Thus, now I am motivated to write. Now you can’t shut me up. I realize that to change the direction that the world is heading, I want to promote certain perspectives and help people build their skills. Thus, I am now standing on a soapbox with a megaphone.

White People Please Stop Declaring Yourself Allies

…”You don’t get a badge of honor for dismantling the racist system you are complicit in…” by Ernst Owens

Reason for hope amid America’s racial unrest
Same as I see it, personal and social transformation is happening at the grassroots and local level.
Charlayne Hunter-Gault interviews David Brooks.

Continue Reading Ann McL on a soapbox with a megaphone

AnnMcL to white America: racial justice and racism is OURS to solve

The protests that have rocked America after the killing of Ahmaud Arbery , Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks have prompted some of white America to do some soul searching and ask “What can I do?”

Shift in Attitude

Big news: 76 percent of Americans now say racial discrimination in the US is a big problem, up from 51 percent in 2015. And public support for the Black Lives Matter movement increased almost as much in the past two weeks as it did in the previous two years, according to the New York Times.

White America is looking to understand racism. While I see that Robin DiAngelo’s book, White Fragility is now being widely read, I have found Peggy McIntosh’s thoughts more helpful.

In 1989, McIntosh wrote “White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences through Work in Women’s Studies.”  I find McIntosh’s juxtaposition between male privilege and white privilege sheds a great deal of light on the privilege, the power and the dominance that whites have in interactions; our sense of entitlement; how oblivious we can be.

“It isn’t my problem”

Obliviousness, an attitude of “It isn’t my problem” is what Peggy McIntosh saw at the core of male privilege and at the core of white privilege. I believe this attitude of “it isn’t my problem” is what lies at the heart of what we, the privileged, must take ownership of and take responsibility to see that things change.

Seeing our role in the world

How do we change the attitudes and actions that impact others? First step is an attitude shift or consciousness-raising – conscientização as Paulo Freire called it: recognizing our role in the world around us, and then changing things both little and large.

Ernst Owens in his article in Philadelphia Magazine, “White People, Please Stop Declaring Yourself Allies,” clearly nailed whites’ role: “Racism is a white person’s problem to solve….While racism harms Black and brown people directly, it is caused solely by white people’s actions and cultural influence. These routine abuses, which have been instituted and normalized by white people over hundreds of years, have produced slavery, Jim Crow laws, mass incarceration, redlining, voter suppression, police brutality, gaps in education and wealth, and numerous other human rights violations.”

“White silence is violence”

Owens continues, “If we are to seriously combat racism, we need to be brutally honest about how white people should conduct themselves in this fight. For starters, we need to do away with the expected pats on the back, fancy labels and symbolic gestures. Too many Black lives have been lost by the silence and complicity of “well-meaning white people” who …are guilty of looking the other way. You don’t get credit for showing up 400 years late and now suddenly giving a damn because you’re finally fed up. The option to care or not is the very definition of white privilege.”

Ernst Owens is making the same point as Peggy McIntosh but even more strongly: that privilege is this dismissive attitude of “It isn’t my problem”.
So first step is a shift in attitude. Watch for blogs and articles outlining action steps.

Continue Reading AnnMcL to white America: racial justice and racism is OURS to solve