Becoming Woke

I've been sitting on this blog for a couple of weeks now because I wanted to listen, learn, and not contribute noise from yet another white person on the matter of racial inequalities in our country. After further reflection and deliberation, I felt is was important to write a blog that was specifically geared towards white folks, like myself, who need to learn more about what is going on and why we need to be a part of the solution to change systemic racism that has been taking place in our country for years and has disenfranchised countless people in the process.

To be very clear, I am NOT an expert and I do not have an answer to all of the lingering questions that many may pose. What I am is a white, middle-aged male, who is learning about my implicit bias and racist tendencies that hold up a system that favors people who look like me. In good conscious, I cannot sit idly by and perpetuate this racist and discriminatory system that has been put in place any longer. I need to come forward and announce that my privilege was given to me simply because I was born white. I need to acknowledge the fact that I am afforded opportunities that others are not, simply because I was born into a system that was designed for white males to excel in. Keeping this in mind, I also have a responsibility to use my leverage to change this system. 

As an educator, we are all on a journey of cultural competence. I've been struck by two recent blog posts from friends and colleagues Dr. Heather Phipps and Dr. Donald Gately who eloquently speak about racism and are vulnerable enough to admit they have to grow. Dr. Phipps writes in her blog Six Degrees of Separation about her own self-reflection when she states, "But I know that I have to start with myself. I know that I have to listen more, read more. I know that I have to be willing to confront my white privilege, my white fragility, my own racism. It is time to look inward." By comparison, Dr. Gately speaks to the comparison of racism to cancer in his blog What We Won't Admit About Racism. Both provide some amazing conversation starters for white people to begin the process of becoming woke.

Now, I feel it is important to provide details of my own journey in the hopes that others will begin wading in their own discomfort of the topic so they can begin to change the system that was designed for them. The system is broke and needs to be fixed immediately because the system was designed for white people and they hold the power within the system, it is incumbent upon us to change it. We (white people) need to get uncomfortable and do a close examination of ourselves at the individual level. We need to be woke to the fact that we all carry implicit bias and we are negligent and complicit in the system if we don't figure out what those biases are. This may cause a little apprehension for you, but as one person told me, "Don't feel guilty, just do better." To get started, we can do the following:

DISCOVER OUR BIASES

We can all start the process by taking the Project Implicit Test by Harvard University. This is a great place to start to uncover your blind spots and make your unconscious/implicit bias conscious/explicit. 

BECOME A STUDENT

The first step in our journey is to realize that the history we have learned in school is biased. It is a based on Euro-Centric principles and only paints one side of history that typically celebrates white culture. The history that we have learned does cover other cultures, however, it often paints it in broad strokes. If we really want to change the system, we need to be cognizant of the historical and cultural contributions of all people. By becoming a student of history, we need to face the uncomfortable aspects of our white privilege and accept the fact that we have created a system of power that truly only benefits one group of people. I would suggest the following books as a starting point and would certainly hope that my friends and colleagues would send me others to help me on my journey.

LISTEN

In the world of social media, we are all too quick to want to offer our two cents without truly listening to the issues, processing them, and determining if we can contribute to the conversation in a meaningful way. Additionally, we often want to politicize issues or cast blame on certain people rather than truly listening and learning from those that are truly being impacted negatively by the system that white people created. I stumbled upon the cartoon below that explains this perfectly. The lesson learned in this is that we as white people need to LISTEN to our brothers and sisters of color. We don't need to speak for them, but we do need to be actionable on their behalf. We don't need to get into nonsensical conversations about how white people are disenfranchised also and that their lives matter. This is an apples and oranges comparison that isn't going to get us anywhere.

LOVE THY NEIGHBOR

In Matthew 22 Verses 34-40, we are told, "But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

I am a man of faith and I seek the Lord on a daily basis even though I am with sin and am an imperfect being. Keeping this in mind, I seek to love those that don't believe, who don't agree with me, who hate me, and who don't look like me. I do this because the Lord has instructed me to do so. Because of this, I cannot sit idly by as neighbors of mine are hurting and outraged for treatment that has been going on for far too long. While I am not a person of color and cannot relate to their daily experience, I can be a change agent and work on their behalf. I can love my brothers and sisters and realize they were created in the image of the Lord and advocate for the cause because it is the right thing to do and because we will ultimately be judged on our transgressions.