BLACK LIVES MATTER
If you are neutral on situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. ~ Desmond Tutu
August 27, 2020
Even before I became an educator I was dedicated to unraveling what James Baldwin referred to as "The paradox of education ~ as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated".
After graduating with my masters of education I realized my degrees, accessibility, and my white privilege were inexplicably tied together and it would take daily work to acknowledge my own racism and implicit biases.
I REALLY wanted to believe I didn't have a racist bone in my body and that I could carry on as an educator without diving in, but since I identify as white I automatically have ties to generational trauma that was inflicted by my less melanated brothers and sisters to my melanated brothers and sisters. Within our current (educational/housing/health/financial, etc.) systems built on institutional racism my white skin also benefits from these centuries of unspeakable traumas.
We are not going to "love and light, good vibes only" our way out of the 400 plus years of genocide and colonization that the United States was built on and obviously persists today, emboldened by the current trump administration.
Don't get me wrong, "love and light" are specifically where this work RESIDES, the unconditional foundation for going deeper and deeper into our own shadows, our ancestors shadows and flushing out the demons. Once we give these demons names, THEN we are able to heal them with love and light to access greater versions of ourselves and work to end generational trauma white privilege has and still is inflicting upon others.
I look toTupac Shakur who so eloquently stated "I have not brought Thug Life to America. I didn't create Thug Life. I diagnosed it.”
'Obvious' racism is tangible to tackle and confront (I will say kudos for doing this work, but this just means we are being decent humans). We need to diagnose 'covert' racism that exists within to obtain those "good vibrations" which will be a product of this intentional, constant, honest work. Understanding ourselves on this level opens us up to humility, greater empathy, and less judgment on others.
The Implicit Association Test (IAT) measures attitudes and beliefs that people may be unwilling or unable to report, and may give you insights to implicit biases: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html
Through thoughtful reflection, the Implicit Bias Workbook is a tangible resource that helps us to recognize our stereotypical thinking, as well as to train one’s mind to notice exemptions to the categorized thoughts that the mind has learned to believe.