“[…] the heartbeat of anti-racism is confession, is admission, is acknowledgement, is the willingness to be vulnerable, is the willingness to identify the times in which we are being racist, is to be willing to diagnose ourselves and our country and our ideas and our policies.” -Ibram X. Kendi
Recognition of my white privilege and socioeconomic advantages are mere first steps in a lifelong journey of actively working towards anti-racism, accessibility, and inclusivity in the classroom and beyond. Creating and maintaining a safe space for all students to engage begins with me.
Walking with students from different cultures, backgrounds, and identities of all sorts requires a wholehearted commitment to seeking understanding and adjusting accordingly to meet students where they are at. As a white individual, I will never understand the unrelenting fear and grave injustices faced by people of color and other disenfranchised groups.
However, in order to access those muscles of empathy, I must also consider times in which I have felt like an outsider myself, such as living alone in a foreign country and being a second language learner. While my experiences by no means compare to those who have encountered racial or ethnic discrimination, they at least give me a point of connection to this concept of otherness and feeling misunderstood.
On a personal level, in practice this has looked like entering into social justice exercises in new environments on service-learning trips (like a privilege walk) and staying in the discomfort, educating myself through the vast literature on disparities within our country, and genuinely reflecting on my inherent biases. I cannot just say I want to show up for marginalized communities; I have to actually follow through in my thoughts and actions. As someone who navigates surroundings having been born into the “majority culture” in the U.S., defensiveness is a strongly harmful attitude. A hardened or ignorant heart towards race relations only perpetuates white fragility (DiAngelo, 2011). Instead, I choose to be a woman and professional who understands the great unfortune that is these existing realities and fights against them.
There is great value in discovering we are wrong about a preconception or have made a mistake and need to express enough humility, maturity, and integrity to confess and move forward. I have come to learn that much of diversity, equity, and inclusion is centered on this acknowledgment, as Ibram X. Kendi teaches us in the quote above. It is not the job of those who are displaced within society to teach us; rather, we must be proactive in our own learning processes.
As a nonprofit professional in mission-driven work environments surrounded by passionate coworkers, I anticipate and expect DEI to be the source of our work. Particularly in my field of refugee resettlement and humanitarian work, I must always keep in mind how my own privilege has benefited me in systemic ways that have overlooked and harmed those of minority groups.
5 areas I see fit to sustain myself in this work include:
Accountability
With friends, family members, and colleagues; ultimately, taking ownership myself of the responsibility to engage meaningfully in the DEI journeying process on a consistent basis in my own life, rather than expecting or burdening those who have themselves suffered from these inequities to lead me in the work
Education
Reading books, attending professional development workshops, listening to podcasts; going beyond the bare minimum to ensure educating myself is woven into my daily routines
Writing
Journaling and reflection through guided questions to better understand myself and how my own identity informs my work
Imperfection
As a perfectionist, this is a challenging but necessary reminder; I must allow myself to feel uncomfortable, to make mistakes, to share openly, and to “pass the mic” so that people who have had their voices diminished by our society may be seen and heard
Advocacy
Fighting alongside people of color and marginalized groups; using my own power in society to raise up those who have been cast down; supporting nonprofit organizations—financially and through volunteering—with missions of service towards empowerment and justice