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Before I continue blogging my journey toward Speaking Up, I want to share more about where I’m coming from and what I intend to do. I want to share my own past and current successes, mistakes & fails, to help others accept and move on from their own mistakes and missteps; maybe this will provide people with some “Oh, thaaaaat’s why that backfired” moments.
Example: I linked one of my recent blog posts, about racial equity, in a tweet. Right after posting, I noticed my big-ass whitewomanface DOMINATING the screen, achieving the opposite effect I was trying to have in amplifying non-White faces and voices. Mistakes are learning tools! I immediately deleted the tweet, changed the feature photo, and tweeted again. From here on out, I will give conscious consideration to what the feature photo is.
Full disclosure: I am NOT an expert on race relations in America. I just keep researching, following authentic and authoritative voices, and trying different approaches to combat racism. People often see a meme or facebook post and think That doesn’t seem right, but they don’t how to express what about it is off. I’m hoping to help clarify some of those ideas for others as I develop them within my own interactions. I want to apply my educational and professional backgrounds and my experiences speaking up on social media increasingly since 2012 to help explain things that people are having trouble putting into words, in the hopes that they’ll have an easier time speaking up the next time something seems off to them.
I want to ensure that I’m not being a well-meaning, way-off-base, unhelpful White woman; I want to be a well-informed, well-prepared anti-racist ready to help dismantle systemic racism in America and I want to bring as many people along with me as I can.
Teaser of content coming up soon on this blog:
I DO See Color; Identifying My Areas of Influence; My Worst Well-Meaning White Girl Fail; Note to Self: Don’t Virtue Signal; How Close Have My Black Friends and I Really Been?; BuT ObAmA!; How Words Like ‘Tolerance’ & ‘Acceptance’ Can Harm, Not Help.
Black America can’t fix systemic racism.
Only the group that instituted, enforced, and perpetuated a racist system has the real ability to change it. That’s us, White America. It’s our time to shine!
Did you or I build this system? Of course not. The original establishment of this institution is not White-People-This-Day-And-Age’s fault. Have I benefitted from the system, though? Yes. Throughout this journey, I want to share how I have unknowingly benefitted from a system I didn’t even know was in place. I have to be willing to stop benefitting from the system so that I’m not advancing at the expense of non-White Americans. For many years, I had zero clue that I was accommodating systemic racism; there were even times when I thought I was genuinely helping to fix it, but I wasn’t being helpful. I want sharing those experiences to cut people off before they head down the same unhelpful paths.
WHY NOW?
Many Americans are just now embracing this moment–really opening their eyes, ears, and minds–for the first time. I feel I have a responsibility to my community and to the communities hurt by the American system, to SPEAK UP so I can motivate my community to keep up the momentum–particularly when media coverage dies down. Racism won’t disappear just because it’s no longer on the evening news. I don’t want to let this opportunity for real change to slip away and I’m hoping others feel the same.
If you’re on board but unable to take a high level of risk to speak up right now, that’s okay. Do what you’re able to do. Four helpful charts at the bottom of this post might help you avoid common ineffective and harmful actions.
A friend reached out to me the other day to ask a question, and I realized: if my White Woman friend of many years is reaching out so vulnerably, after years of witnessing me present and argue my positions to my Facebook community, I need to level up. She was asking what she called a “stupid white girl question”. For the record: No question in the pursuit of racial equity is a dumb question!
“I’m trying desperately to find a way and a person to ask a REALLY stupid white girl question but I don’t know how. So I’m reaching out to you because… I think and hope that you will still look at me as a good person who is truly trying to understand her world after you read it.”
OMG not only do I still look at her as “a good person who is truly trying to understand,” but I’m so freaking stoked that she is trying to figure out what’s going on around her. As I continue to educate myself in this moment, I have an opportunity to pass on what I learn.
The ultimate goal is to achieve Racial Equity, but the intent of this blog is to share my journey to Speaking Up. Another friend told me how awkward and confusing she finds speaking up: As a White Woman, I just don’t know when it’s appropriate to keep quiet, or speak up.
I was like, boy have I got the blog for you…Here, I’ll share times I have and haven’t spoken up in the past, and how I’m speaking up in the present. I’ll share the arguments I’m making when people push back, to help others stand up and speak up during their interactions.
I might seem to amplify the voice of Black Woman and Professor Dr. Anne H. Charity Hudley disproportionately at first. That’s because I was familiar with her in real life during my time studying undergraduate Linguistics at the College of William & Mary. She’s not just a random profile pic–she has a human face and voice in my mind, so I feel confident when sharing her content. I suggest following her on Twitter so you won’t miss anything good. She has been putting out some STUFF over the past couple of weeks.
I attended a Facebook Live! talk with Q&A that she gave just today. I’m seizing the opportunity when Black America invites White America to ask our White America questions! I’ll be sharing these kinds of opportunities as I encounter them along the way, because hearing marginalized communities’ firsthand experiences and listening to what they’re asking of White America is important; I don’t want to assume I know what’s best–I want to hear what marginalized Americans themselves think.
Underrepresented communities and individuals I’ve started SPEAKING UP for (and not beating around the bush in doing so) have been indicating, both directly and indirectly, that what I’m currently doing has been appreciated or positively received. THAT SAID:
Black America does not owe me validation.
That’s been the hardest thing for me personally to overcome on my journey. I constantly find myself wanting to know if I’m doing the right thing. If I’m paying attention, though, I’ll see indications of whether what I’m doing is right–or wrong. I need to be actively paying attention. I’ve got to put in the work.
Black Lives Matter is suddenly changing the system and drawing wide support, and I’m here for it. Join me!
HOW TO FOLLOW MY JOURNEY
Facebook: Author Kari Ann Martindale https://www.facebook.com/kariannmartindale
Twitter: Karilogue Kari https://twitter.com/kariloguekari
Instagram (Irrelevant? Maybe. But might help you understand who I am as a person, if you follow my road trips and interests; and the easier it could be to find common ground): Karilogue https://www.instagram.com/karilogue/?hl=en
Of course, if you know how to follow blogs directly through WordPress, that’s probably the best way not to miss stuff.
A COUPLE OF RESOURCES TO START WITH
I want to share a series of four charts. I will constantly consider these charts along my own own journey and I encourage you to remember them in yours. They’re in order of goal to starting point. Some of the actions particularly in the bottom two charts might also look helpful, but they don’t help to dismantle a racist system and could even reinforce it. Let’s work together to make sure what we’re doing won’t reinforce systemic racism.
Regarding “Bandwagoning” – My opinion (which my husband helped me form after hearing me rant about bandwagoning during the week BLM support exploded) is to Jump on the wagon anyway. Ignore any criticism or shaming. Please. We need you on the wagon!
I’m going to drop a link here to a webpage I learned about just today: Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has a “Speak Up to Everyday Bigotry” page with suggestions for how to speak up in specific situations.
AND FINALLY…
Motherhood has given me a very strong desire to leave behind for my child–and her generation and future generations–less unlearning and dismantling to do. On Twitter, on YouTube, and in interviews, Black America is urging White America to STEP UP. As I continually take in resources, have conversations, and receive feedback, etc., my approach might evolve. This is a process. It’s not hypocrisy to change opinions, feelings, and approaches as one takes in new information–that’s how we evolve.
“The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.”
-Muhammad Ali
I hope to help people see the world differently at 50 than they did at 20 so we can move America forward.
My Big-Ass White Woman Face:
