A friendly reminder that:
The work is structural AND spiritual
The work is political AND personal
The work is holy AND hard
I’m a big believer in being a BOTH/AND kinda person. Sometimes people respond to racism by saying “the only answer is God,” which I find partially true. But by saying that, we run the risk of forgetting that God does work THROUGH us. Go ahead and start with prayer, then ask yourself the tough questions.
Here are some questions I think are worth asking ourselves:
ABOUT OUR COMMUNITIES
🤲🏽 What can you do to support BIPOC in your community?
🚔 What are your local leaders’ policies regarding police brutality?
ABOUT OUR LEARNING
👩🏾🏫 When were you first taught about race and culture? What about racism?
📚 What do you want to learn more about?
ABOUT OUR ACTIONS
✊🏾 What role do you have to play? How do you plan to help end systematic oppression?
🗣 Who in your life do you need to have a difficult conversation with? Who has reasons to listen to you in a way they wouldn’t listen to activist leaders?
I don’t want to just make this an abstract idea but a tangible exercise, so please, I’d love to hear your actual answers! I have some places to respond in my stories today. I have my own answers up there too.
Ijeoma Oluo says, “when we identify where our privilege intersects with somebody else’s oppression, we’ll find opportunities to make real change.”
