Brief Report Back Wednesday 1/6/2021 “What Will White Womyn Do To End Racism?”

After checking in and sharing our recent personal challenges and successes addressing racism/anti-racism, we spoke in depth about white womyn’s various roles in relationship with Black and brown womyn. 

We began by bringing up the intent of this zoom gathering: because it is specifically about what white womyn are going to do to end racism, is it then excluding Black and brown womyn; or is it about white womyn taking responsibility for learning about and addressing racism? 

How/if we intentionally make the much avoided-by-any-means-necessary the conversation of ‘racism’ a regular, 'normal' part of our relationships with white people? 

If/when white people respond with racism, how do we take responsibility for addressing their racism, or do we look to Black womyn to address it? 

Where some of us have personal relationships with Black and brown womyn, others only have personal relationships with white people, and are wanting to have develop relationships with Black and brown womyn. How do white womyn do that from an anti-racist stance, or do we?'

Similarly, some white womyn belong to all white organizations, groups, facebook pages and are seeking 'diversity'. and not focusing on identifying and dismantling the 'normal' barriers of racism operating in every all white group, etc. 

We discussed first of all, recognizing that racism has to be happening if we are surrounded by white people, have only whites in our circle of friends, and have an all white or predominantly white organization. 

“All white people” is the ‘natural’, ‘normal’ way of existence in a racist society thatdesigns and promotes segregation so when white people look at their friendship circles, or walk into a room, a meeting, any place and there’s all white people, we need to feel very uncomfortable and recognize racism is happening here. 

As white people, we need to identify the barriers that are keeping Black and brown people out of our lives, our communities, our organizations. 

We recognize the onus cannot be on Black and brown people to provide ‘diversity’ for whites but whites need to examine ourselves first and remove those barriers. 

One of the biggest barriers are white people ourselves: we know white people are going to be racist, we bring racism with us into any and all situations so our first (among many first steps) step is to recognize and increase our understanding of what racism is, the many levels it operates on, and how we consciously or unconsciously perpetuate racism. 

The next first step is to take responsibility for eradicating racism: to not wait for Black or brown people to confront racism but to make a commitment to increasing awareness and effectiveness in combating racism. 

The other first step that goes along with previous steps is the commitment to amplify willingness to hear Black and brown womyn not just when we are being called on our racism, but on everything, ensuring that white people step away from our white prescribed role of telling Black people what to do, what to talk about, how to formulate and express themselves, etc. 

Whites learning how to say “I hear you”, "I'm sorry" and "I'll never do it again": and REALLY listen, think, and IF your buttons are pushed, talk with other white womyn about why. 

Other barriers that ensure segregation include location – where you decide to live, hold a meeting, accessibility, etc.; cost – again putting the onus on the wealthy and not the poor: do a sliding scale according to income, have a more-if-you-can, less-if-you-can’t policy; participation demands – recognizing time, energy, other constraints that limit participation.

But overall, even after barriers are identified and removed, Black or brown womyn may not even want to 'join' 'our' organizations. We should be busy putting more energy and resources into supporting the organizations Black and brown womyn have built or want to build.

Also the “vinegar vs honey” strategies were discussed again. 

The discussion around the racism/sexism in “ma’am” arose briefly at the end, as did the challenge of addressing white friends who respond to police brutality with “you don’t know what he (George Floyd in this case) did to make police act that way.” 

So next week on the screen we will begin with role playing both approaches to this white friend’s justification of police brutality.