Swirling in Whiteness

Without an understanding of the history involved, it's difficult to understand the reality of systemic racism. I have to keep reminding myself of this. I didn't learn the full history of indigenous-settler relations in school. I learned what the dominant group wanted me to learn. So I had no idea until adulthood about the horrific acts committed by settlers against indigenous people in North America (and around the colonized nations of the world).  I grew up with police officers around me, and I was never taught about the connection between slavery and policing. Or indigenous people and policing for that matter. Without an awareness of the history there, it made it difficult for me to process the reasons why people connect colonization with policing. But police were first employed to keep runaway slaves in check. And to control the indigenous people.  Here's a quote from Desmond Cole's book The Skin We're In :  "But Abdirahman tried to run, and at that moment t...

My job is to learn, with great depth and breadth, about examples of systemic racism. I know what many of them are, and I'm learning new things all the time. I need to be able to see it -- to recognize it. As a white person who has benefited from these systems for 45 years, I need to be able to call it out and explain it to others.  I started reading a book called The Skin We're In by Desmond Cole (cited in my Reading List page). I am drawn to a quote that made me do a double take. Cole said:  "White supremacy keeps stepping on your toes while insisting it was an accident" (p.9).  Ouch, right? But I think I get it. The dominant culture has always done no wrong and has never needed to defend its actions.  A prominent topic in this book is police brutality against Black people. Cole tells the story of a time when he was walking at night and was stopped by police and carded. He was terrified of what might happen. It breaks my heart over and over again to realize that po...

I wake up every day during the school year looking for ways I can serve others. That's when I feel most alive--when I'm helping others. This is why changed careers and became a teacher. This is why I raised my hand to teach summer school. This is why I stepped up to be the union steward representing the staff I work with at school. I'm so happy to help.  I'm not particularly passionate about any of those things I mentioned above. There's not a raging fire in my belly over any of that. I do love being a teacher. I do love helping kids learn to read and write. I do love helping my colleagues navigate our collective agreement. But if I found something that I love even more I would leave it all behind in a heartbeat.  It wasn't until I started feeling called to dig deeper about privilege and whiteness and anti-racism that I felt the pull of something that I care so deeply about. The fire is raging and I'm forced at the moment to keep it at bay because I'm wo...

I just listened to a great episode of Jay Shetty's podcast -- On Purpose -- called The 1 Habit All Highly Effective People Live By & How to Implement it in Your Life . It's all about cultivating your own curiosity as a way to find creativity and success in our life. If you've never listened to his podcast, it's worth every second just to experience his flair for uplifting and motivating people.  In the podcast he provides five reasons to cultivate curiosity and then four things to do in your life to put this into practice. There's so much I could talk about, but the biggest takeaway for me is the idea that being curious helps us to stay open-minded and helps us get past our biases, or our belief that we already know what's going on.  This is precisely why I am trying so hard to approach my learning about whiteness and privilege with an open mind and heart. I am realizing how much there is to learn. There's a depth and breadth to this learning that goes ...

I thought about creating a section within this blog to cover terminology -- like a glossary of terms page or something along those lines. I've decided instead to just use labels to keep track of terminology. This is mainly because different people explain terms in different ways, and the beauty of all this learning is that I'm experiencing many different slants. I've heard several people talk about allies, and I've posted about that topic previously, but I don't know that there is one solid definition that I could provide that would not generate debate. There's no right or wrong here. Just perspectives that I find fascinating to explore.  The other day I suggested that a marginalized group naming someone as an ally to their community sounds like the highest honour that could possibly be bestowed upon an ally. I still agree with this. I was listening to a podcast yesterday (and again today) that made me think differently though.  Nita Mosby Tyler suggested (in he...