In a dangerous moment, take strong action (Part 4 of 5)

Over the past seven days, since the treasonous attack on the U.S. Capitol by an angry mob of right-wing militants, I have been thinking a lot about leadership at this moment:
Leadership is using our power to move the world towards justice.
We can only move the world towards justice when we acknowledge injustice.
The events of last week were not the actions of a few outsiders. They were coordinated and encouraged at the highest levels of power: the current president, Republican politicians and community leaders from around the country.
Leadership starts with a vision that that all are safe and can flourish: in meetings, conversations, our organizations, our homes, our neighborhoods and yes, in the U.S. Capitol.
I know that many of you are feeling the danger we’re in. I wish I could send you safety over this e-mail; I can’t do that. But I can encourage each of us to notice the power we each have and use our power to speak up against injustice, hold those who spread hate accountable, and take action to build a more racially equitable society.

I wrote most of the post below early last week, before January 6. In reading it again, it feels more needed than before.

This is what we each must do now: Be less afraid of uncomfortable conversations and more oriented toward courageously moving the world toward justice.

How do we solve racism?

A challenge in writing about action is that no action seems big enough.

This series started with the cyclical idea of Liberatory Consciousness. The first step in this process is noticing. The next step is analysis.

And, as I discussed in my previous post, we get to a point where we need to move to taking action.

When we think about action, it is easy to become overwhelmed. We live in a racist system. Our country was built on racism. The venom of racism and of diminishing people because they are different, is everywhere.

Last week, we saw police fail to stop or at worst assist an armed mob of White vigilantes. These images are especially painful compared to the violent response from law enforcement to Black Lives Matter protests earlier this year.

We don’t have to go the media to know this stuff is “true.” We can reflect on students, clients, colleagues, and neighbors who have shared their experiences of racism, overt and covert, in organizations, businesses, and schools. Times when, again and again, people of Black, Latinx, Indigenous or Asian-American backgrounds did not feel safe, were not protected from harm or deliberately intimidated or harmed, and were not able to flourish as whole beings.

I am naturally an empathic person, a skill upon which I rely for much of my work. To take all of this in – the often blatant and unhiding discrimination – leaves me dumbfounded and stunned. I admit that some part of me feels like curling up in a ball and just giving up.

But when I start to think like this, I draw on a teaching from Jewish tradition, which says, “You are not obligated complete the work. But neither are you free to desist from it.”

Where do we start?

Action Step #1: Make sure that those closest to the problems are building the solutions.

I keep saying this because it is so critical. This is a central principle of racial equity. As a White person in this work, I use my power and White privilege to deepen awareness among other White people. I amplify and curate what I’ve learned from brilliant Black, Latinx, Indigenous and Asian-American activists and scholars. I lead conversations that support groups to move towards change.

People who have lived experience with inequality need to be the people leading organizations who are working on these challenges. In many cases, White leaders need to step aside.

In order to believe this, we White people need to have a sense of abundance – that there is enough for everyone.

Action Step #2: Be concrete.

In this video, Let’s stop talking about diversity and start working towards equity. Paloma Medina proposes the need for concrete actions to work on racial equity by using the analogy of landing on the moon: Medina describes what research says about how we accomplish audacious goals: a) Verbalize the goal, b) Make it measurable, c) Make it time bound. She then shares the example of how, in 1962, President John F Kennedy said, “We choose to go to the moon in this decade.”  Medina points out humorously that Kennedy did not say, “we care about going to the moon” or “we’re going to form a committee to go to the moon”!

Organizational leaders can express measurable, time-bound goals for embracing racial equity within so many dimensions of any organization: organizational culture, staff and board recruitment, governance processes, and fundraising are just a few.

Going back to Action Step #1, these measurable, time-bound goals need to be built drawing on the leadership of those who are closest to the problems.

Action Step #3: Keep working on this: Be less afraid of uncomfortable conversations and more oriented toward continually moving the world toward justice.

In this interview, On Being host Krista Tippett spoke with children’s book writer Jason Reynolds, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, who recently collaborated with Ibram X. Kendi on Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You.

Towards the end of the interview, Tippett asks Reynolds how humanity and anti-racism connect. Reynolds responds:

…there’s no finish line, is what I’m saying. … There’s this idea that people are gonna read this book, or they’re gonna read all the books, and then, all of a sudden, they’re going to “be” anti-racist. And what I’m saying is — and that’s also a very American thing, this idea that there are winners and losers, that there’s a binary that we live in, a bifurcation when it comes to that which is a failure and that which is victorious. The truth of the matter is, this is about journeymen, journeyfolk. Our job is to constantly be pressing toward a thing. But that thing is ever elusive…. And so we have to be vigilant, to continue to figure out what the new versions of these ailments are so that we can continue to tear down that house. But there’s no end goal...

There is no end goal. This work is about being in the process and continuing to apply a racial equity lens to everything we’re learning and observing, and to make changes based on our deepened understanding.

I believe that this cause is important enough to apply this advice and share my personal experiences with all of you. With no end goal, I feel obliged to not just speak up and show solidarity, but to also provide solutions to make a more profound impact. I believe that we in the nonprofit world can influence the system and continue this ever-important mission. After all, the advice regarding Liberatory Consciousness is to help you to take action personally and professionally. I hope that you’ll also take on this open-ended work to make our organizations, nation, and world a more equitable place for everyone.

TRY THIS:

• Which one of these Action Steps comes most easily to you? Which one is most challenging?

• Which one is your organization ready to do now? Which one will take more groundwork?

• In this moment of danger, what are some first steps you can commit to?

Note: this is Part 4 of a 5 part series.

Part 1 here: Whenever given the choice, choose love

Part 2 here: The powerful and heart-centered act of noticing

Part 3 here: Confronting resistance with love

Part 5 here: For a more compassionate world, we need accountability