April 2018 Inclusivity Team Order of Service Insert.

Download the PDF of this insert. (full text below)

Forging an Anti-racist Identity: Staying the Course

“In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist—we must be anti-racist.” –Angela Davis

“There’s a big difference between the passive work of simply not being racist and the active work of dismantling systems of oppression that is being anti-racist.” – Jenn Jackson

DESPAIR AND FATIGUE

“White people can take a break from the frustration and despair of anti?racism work. Such retreat will result in no significant consequences for us. Racism doesn’t allow such a respite for people of color. One of the elemental privileges of being white is our freedom to retreat from the issue of racism. And our work against racism doesn’t get done.” –Joan Olsson “I want my friends to understand that “staying out of politics” or being “sick of politics” is privilege in action. Your privilege allows you to live a non-political existence. Your wealth, your race, your abilities, or your gender allows you to live a life in which you likely will not be a target of bigotry, attacks, deportation, or genocide. You don’t want to get political, you don’t want to fight because your life and safety are not at stake. It is hard and exhausting to bring up issues of oppression (aka “get political”). The fighting is tiring. I get it. Self-care is essential. But if you find politics annoying and you just want everyone to be nice, please know that people are literally fighting for their lives and safety. You might not see it, but that’s what privilege does.” –Kristen Tea

COMFORT AND SAFE SPACES

“By creating bubbles within white supremacy where it’s “safe” to practice anti-racism, we’re implying there are places where racism can remain unchallenged. If there’s one thing white people DON’T need, it’s more spaces reserved for their comfort at the expense and exclusion of People of Color.” –DiDi Delgado “Whites often confuse comfort with safety, and state that we don’t feel safe when what we really mean is that we don’t feel comfortable. This trivializes our history of brutality towards People of Color and perverts the reality of that history. Because we don’t think complexly about racism, we don’t ask ourselves what safety means from a position of societal dominance, or the impact on people of color, given our history, for whites to complain about our safety when we are merely talking about racism. In the dominant position, whites are almost always racially comfortable and thus have developed unchallenged expectations to remain so.” –Robin DiAngelo

TOLERANCE FOR RACIAL DISCOMFORT

“White people in North America live in a social environment that protects and insulates them from race-based stress. This insulated environment of racial protection builds white expectations for racial comfort while at the same time lowering the ability to tolerate racial stress, leading to what I refer to as White Fragility. White Fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium. Racial stress results from an interruption to what is racially familiar.” –Robin DiAngelo

TOOLS FOR YOUR ANTI-RACIST KITBAG:
https://www.racialequitytools.org