I Still Don't Have the Words
Recently my Flip Flop Friday post indicated that I had no words. Fortunately, people far more thoughtful and articulate than I have shared their words and in that way STOOD UP to make a difference.
Talking with those of us who are of a certain age, I've heard and shared the refrain: "I thought we did this work in the '60s. The Civil Rights Act. The Equal Rights Amendment. We thought we made the world a better place for the generations to come."
Wrong.
I still don't have the words.
I've gone back and read the words of those who made an indelible mark on my mind, heart and soul during the '60s. What I've discovered is they are probably a little too comfortable since those were the words that initially motivated me to do social justice work. And what I've also discovered over these past few weeks is that I am, indeed, a little too comfortable with my self-assigned place in the social justice movement. In other words, I've done what feels to me like a fair amount of work along those lines since the '60s. That's the foundation of Community Education: to make a difference in the lives of those the programs serve. I thought I had done a significant amount of listening over the years. I believed I had led others to ask about why we were doing what we were doing and where were the demonstrable differences of that work.
In other words, I thought I had put myself into the "right" lane. My personal truth of white privilege informed me that I truly can never understand being black. As a human being, I saw the death of George Floyd as horrific. As a white woman of privilege, I could not see the death through the lenses brought to the death by the black community. My personal truth of white privilege tells me to put myself on mute and listen with the intention to understand, not to interject myself into what I'm hearing black people say. One of the biggest struggles I still have with my truth of white privilege is what to do. I know it stems from the place of problem solving which informs each aspect of my life. Is there something wrong? I can, I want, I need to do something to make it better. Here, I can't. I guess I've tried and the inadequacy of what I've done has really come back to whack me in the face.
I still don't have the words. I'm searching.
Talking with those of us who are of a certain age, I've heard and shared the refrain: "I thought we did this work in the '60s. The Civil Rights Act. The Equal Rights Amendment. We thought we made the world a better place for the generations to come."
Wrong.
I still don't have the words.
I've gone back and read the words of those who made an indelible mark on my mind, heart and soul during the '60s. What I've discovered is they are probably a little too comfortable since those were the words that initially motivated me to do social justice work. And what I've also discovered over these past few weeks is that I am, indeed, a little too comfortable with my self-assigned place in the social justice movement. In other words, I've done what feels to me like a fair amount of work along those lines since the '60s. That's the foundation of Community Education: to make a difference in the lives of those the programs serve. I thought I had done a significant amount of listening over the years. I believed I had led others to ask about why we were doing what we were doing and where were the demonstrable differences of that work.
In other words, I thought I had put myself into the "right" lane. My personal truth of white privilege informed me that I truly can never understand being black. As a human being, I saw the death of George Floyd as horrific. As a white woman of privilege, I could not see the death through the lenses brought to the death by the black community. My personal truth of white privilege tells me to put myself on mute and listen with the intention to understand, not to interject myself into what I'm hearing black people say. One of the biggest struggles I still have with my truth of white privilege is what to do. I know it stems from the place of problem solving which informs each aspect of my life. Is there something wrong? I can, I want, I need to do something to make it better. Here, I can't. I guess I've tried and the inadequacy of what I've done has really come back to whack me in the face.
I still don't have the words. I'm searching.
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