How to celebrate the powerful gifts we already have

In my experience, this time of year celebrates abundance and gratitude.

And here’s a challenge: if you experience abundance and privilege, how are you going to use it to move our world towards justice?

Carol (not her real name), a white member of a networking group I’m in, asked a question recently that got me thinking about this: Now that Carol has a successful consulting practice, she receives many requests from people who want to build their consulting work and hear how she has achieved success. Does she have an obligation to meet with these people?

As I read Carol’s question, I couldn’t help think back to a “White Caucus” conversation I led this year. This was space for white board members from an organization to work through potential resistance, defensiveness, or anger about change, with the purpose of deepening white board members’ ability to be anti-racist and be allies to colleagues who are Black, Indigenous or People of Color (BIPOC).

We talked about how we experience white privilege.

Drawing on the work on Kathy Obear and others, we reviewed ways in which white privilege might show up in our lives.

I shared a list of 40+ different ways that we may have benefited from white privilege.

But group members only needed to get to the first example of white privilege to find an example that resonated with them:

Some/Many Whites Tend to (consciously or unconsciously) believe they have “earned” what they have, rather than acknowledge the extensive white privilege and unearned advantages they receive; believe that if People of Color just worked harder…

Several board members, who are successful professionals, reflected on how they have always been proud of their achievements. They had attributed their achievements to their individual hard work and competence.

Only recently, after they reflected on the dynamics of racism and unconscious bias, did they realize that their success was a result of their hard work but that it also stemmed from white privilege.

Since other white people were willing to mentor them and they weren’t automatically judged by the color of their skin, they had an easier path to success.

When we deepen our awareness of all privilege and power, we can think about the opportunities we have to use that privilege and power for good.

In the conversation, board members started to appreciate how much they had each benefitted from white privilege. And how this is fundamentally unjust. The next question was, what did they want to do about it?

For the board members, our conversations about their understanding of racial dynamics deepened their commitment to building a greater sense of belonging and increasing equity.

So going back to Carol’s question – do we have a responsibility to meet with people seeking support or guidance in their consulting work?

In the context of the networking group, my short answer was that many people have mentored and supported me in my work, so I do generally agree to these meetings, in a way that also honors my boundaries. (It could take a month or so to get on my calendar!)

This post is a longer answer.

If I have benefited from a system that is unjust towards People of Color, I have some responsibility to tip the scales of that system towards justice.

That includes opening my time and my calendar to mentor junior colleagues, some of whom are Black, indigenous, or other People of Color (BIPOC).

That includes hiring many BIPOC faculty for the Cal State East Bay Nonprofit Management Program – each of whom is an accomplished professional, inspiring individual, dynamic instructor, and represents a possible future path for our students, who come from diverse racial backgrounds.

This includes making #GoodTrouble speaking up as courageously as possible about racial injustice, which is evidenced by the stories that I share in this newsletter, in addition to the work that I do regularly. These are ways that I try to do my part in sharing the abundance and privilege throughout my life and career and help take a stand for a greater sense of justice.

However, the challenge for each of us is ever present: how can we each use our abundance, privilege, and power to move the world towards justice? Hit reply to share some of the things you do in this space – and/or your intentions moving forward.

With that, I close my final post of 2021. What a year it has been! I am excited about the future, even during these uncertain moments as the pandemic seems to continue. Still, I will be back sharing more insights in the New Year. I wish you each well and am here for you.