Brief Reportback Wednesday Zoom Gathering 10/21/2020 “What Will White Womyn Do To End Racism?

We spoke about the difficulties in addressing racism with white people especially among old friends, neighbors, family. Some white womyn found the conversation “intense & sensitive” while others felt “uncomfortable” with confrontation, fear of anger and/or ostrasization; placing oneself on the ‘other side’ of the fence.

And of course, the several methods of confronting racism were again discussed – not what is the ‘right’ way but what are the most ‘effective’ ways. Included in this part of the conversation we spoke of goals, what we want to accomplish, as well as what we’re willing to risk to accomplish our goal: shut it down while shutting that person up, at least in our presence; remove the ‘I’m right and ur wrong’ from the conversation; change behavior, influence feelings; get the message across loud and clear, or chip quietly away.

Sharing the journey to the beginning of “woke” in our lives with other white people, personalizing and sharing our process of recognizing racism not just the blatant ‘over-there’ kind but within ourselves, our families, the history we’ve swallowed – as a means of connecting with other white people.

Framing anti-racism as “inclusivity” or as identifying “exclusivity”: is our goal to ‘include’ Black people, or is this tokenism, and for what purpose do we want to ‘include’ Black people? The ‘advantages’ for ourselves, or what will ‘inclusivity’ offer for Black people?

Or framing anti-racism as the work to identify the ways in which white-only exclusivity – i.e. racism – reigns? How not just to ‘uncover’ those barriers but to smash them.

Being “polite”, “nice” and other behaviors we as womyn have had hammered into us. How much of our internalized sexism impedes our anti-racism work and abilities to empower ourselves to speak up and act.

Inexperience as a big factor undermining our ability to engage other white people in conversation, in getting ‘buy-in’ to prioritizing racism, and into actions. Focusing consciously on our white privilege while also seeking out information and experiences of Black and brown people through reading, documentaries, other zooms.

We didn’t have time to role play the different strategies to impacting white people displaying racist attitudes and behaviors in our presence but intend to begin here next week!