I came across this article by Annalisa Padilla recently and found it helpful. Maybe you will think it’s useful, too? “White People, Stop Centering Yourself”!
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De-Centering
Category: accountability
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How to Continue
A few people have asked me how we can keep people focused on antiracism and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work when they’re worried about their lives and livelihoods. This work can often feel like an add-on at the best of times, so what do we do now? My answer to this question is to […]
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Giving without Strings
A current experiment involving universal basic income in California and a recent large study using cash transfers in Kenya show that giving people money without conditions on how they spend it often contributes to a better quality of life for those people. It turns out that trusting people to do what’s best for themselves in their specific situation results […]
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Distancing & Derailment
I was speaking with an acquaintance recently, and he shared with me that he has discovered the beauty of small talk. He had been talking about how much he hates small talk when someone had pointed out to him that small talk fosters social cohesion; it is a way for us to find commonality and […]
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Underpinnings
I was facilitating a caucus the other day, and the topic of discussion was apologizing: the pieces that need to be in place for us to make a sincere apology and how we can quell our natural instinct to defensiveness. About half way through the session, one of the participants turned to me and said, […]
Equity Matters, a Seattle-based consulting firm, has a set of ground rules they use for workshops and discussions. One of those ground rules is, “Put relationships first — Work to build community and trust with an awareness of power dynamics.” I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently and what it means to put relationships […]
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Taking Negative Feedback
If being wrong is a learning opportunity, then taking negative feedback gracefully and apologizing for our mistakes also gives us an opportunity to learn and grow. With their infographics, artist and activist Lukayo Estrella has made collective wisdom around taking negative feedback available to all of us. They have also given us a roadmap of […]
What does it mean to be white and to be paid to do racial justice work? What are the ethics of me, a white person, making money off racial oppression? I struggled with these questions a lot once I decided to try to make antiracism facilitation my career. I had been doing this work as […]
Judy Blair 