A Book Study: Not the End, Just the Beginning

Today I am grateful for the grass and soil being revealed by melting snow. It's muddy and messy, but full of promise for what is to come. I also appreciate our first back patio time of the year yesterday. 

My book group at school had our fourth and final small group discussion the other morning. It has been both a heavy lift and a real eye-opener to delve into Book Group: Me and White Supremacy. Once I saw, heard, read, and talked about some of the varied aspects of white privilege and fragility covered in the book, I can't unsee them.

That is the beginning of necessary awareness, but more importantly the motivation to act, to help bring change. My white gaze, white silence, and white apathy hindered me, and will continue to hinder, but hopefully less. I am beginning to understand that all of us who are white have a responsibility to help dismantle systems of inequality and oppression. 

Systems that have been in place long before any of us were alive. We didn't create them, but neither did the people negatively impacted by them. We can ALL help tear them down though. And in doing so, we will ALL benefit. Giving up privilege is more a synergistic transaction, not a loss. By giving up some of my white privilege, calling out racism and racist views when I see and hear them, we all stand to gain.  

It makes simple sense to me now. If everyone has more access to opportunity, fewer obstacles and challenges to contributing fully to our families, workplaces, communities, and the wider world, don't we all stand to reap significant rewards of such a collective, forward-moving energy? 

I have been uncomfortable, felt ignorant, known some guilt in these recent discussions. I have welcomed it all more openly by having these discussions with others. It's what I signed on for, though I didn't fully know what would emerge. 

There is so much more for me to learn. I still feel uncertain about what I can do, but I do know that I have already had several conversations and taken several actions that I wouldn't have before diving into this book. It is a start and that is something. It will build from here, as long as I am willing, open, and seek the necessary courage. 

What I do and don't do, what I say and don't say, what I wear and don't wear; they all matter. Grace and empathy will go a long way in this work. A big thank you to all of my fellow book group participants.

Thank you Layla Saad for your wonderful book, and for these words: