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Work 4 Peace,Hold All Life Sacred,Eliminate Violence! I am on my mobile version of the door-to-door, going town-to-town holding readings/gatherings/discussions of my book "But What Can I Do?" This is my often neglected blog mostly about my travels since 9/11 as I engage in dialogue and actions. It is steaming with my opinions, insights, analyses toward that end of holding all life sacred, dismantling the empire and eliminating violence while creating the society we want ALL to thrive in

Wednesday, November 04, 2020

Brief Report Back Atlanta NextDoor 11/3/2020 "What Will White Womyn Do To End Racism?" Zoom gathering


After sharing our current challenges and successes confronting racism and/or on our journey to increasing our anti-racism effectiveness – which were thin due to our focus on tomorrow’s stress-inducing election – we began discussing evidence of current voter suppression.

As for long lines at polling places, we discussed how white privilege inserts itself: how easy it is for white people to come up with the "should do's" saying “just go to another precinct". As for confronting white poll worker’s dismissing concerns or questions of Black voters, again we discussed how white people think nothing of standing up to white authority when such action by a Black voter would most likely be deemed ‘disruptive', 'uncooperative' at best if not an opportunity to call police or security at worst.

We discussed yet again, and will keep discussing, making our actions more effective and the frustration of not knowing what those actions are/should be - and what we are willing to risk as well as the privilege of deciding what we're willing to risk. Above and beyond increasing our individual knowledge, facts, and skills understanding racism and being able to identify it when it raises its ugly head roaring inside us or in others. Practicing responses and analyzing effectiveness of those responses.

Identifying our goals when we confront racism in our personal, professional, daily sphere, our goal in addition to educating white people, holding them accountable, capitalizing on our white skin camaraderie to let white people know we will not tolerate racism in our presence – we want especially to be a strong shield against harm to Black and brown people while changing the behavior of white people.

Our goals when we work to use our white privilege as a bat dismantling racism including waking up every morning, recognize we are white and privileged, and be on the alert/hunt for systemic racism; we need to stand in the street every day, being visible anti-racists, challenge more white people to open up and join; support the actions of Black womyn especially, do the share resources kind of support without strings attached as well, confront police and other white men threatening harm; be visible and vocal on social media and especially Next Door; organize neighbors who are living above the poverty line to reach out and find out what kind of support homeless people and people living below the poverty line need.

Resources for continuing racism and anti-racism education: "Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America's Prison Nation by Beth E. Richie; 

Eyes on Whiteness podcast www.eyesonwhiteness.com 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmm4c6nlVH6hZkd_Xk88qeA

Next week … well we’ll see