Reportback Nextdoor August 18th

After sharing our particular challenges and successes from our recent personal lives' journey to anti-racism, we continued talking about free speech, asking "do we have free speech", how much, when do we fear speaking up, when is it comfortable, when is it dangerous?

We talked a little about the tool of fear those in power use to curtail our free speech and our willingness to speak. How real is that fear? Will we REALLY lose our jobs, our friends, our family if/when we 'speak up'?

And if the fear is real and well founded, what are we willing to risk in decided when/if to speak up?

We discussed the different levels of concern, guilt, blame for not taking enough risk or taking the risks that threaten our life styles, our comfort among family and friends. 

White privilege dominates this conversation, of course, as we recognize the safety, security we have as white womyn, getting to choose if/when/how we act as anti-racists. We recognize that we, as well as probably most white womyn, want to do the right thing, want to be the impetus that smashes racism once and for all - which conflicts greatly with our also wanting safety and security.

The bottom line, a line which is such a personal choice and one we want to examine weekly, if not daily is: what are we willing to risk??

We also spoke once again of honing our responses to be the most effective when someone makes a racist comment in our presence. For example we can ask: "do you think that what you just said is racist?" "why do you think that is or isn't?" Getting people to share the reasoning behind/under their beliefs. 

Being aware of language use - how do we use language to oppress/silence /hurt people (that's gay / you're retarded)

And finally, witnessing opportunities to engage and NOT saying anything is part of our white privilege: we believe we don't have any NEED to say something - unless our goal is to be anti-racist.

For next week, we will be thinking and practicing some aspect of our anti-racism goals that has been/is very difficult.

See you next Tuesday, August 25th 6pm! Same zoom info