• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Heart - Head - Hands logo

  • About
    • Beth Godbee
    • Commitments
    • Offerings
    • Publications
  • Blog
    • Contemplative Practices
    • Emotional Literacies
    • Everyday Feminism
    • Higher Education
    • Interviews
    • Racial Justice
    • Recipes
    • Why Vegan?
  • Coaching
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Navigation Menu: Social Icons

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter

Choosing to Tread Another Path

Filed Under: Everyday Feminism, Racial Justice By Beth Godbee June 5, 2017 Leave a Comment

I’ve been spending a lot of time recently on paths. Established hiking trails and sidewalks, escalators and even rock crawls marked by arrows.

2017-05-07 14.09.32
2017-05-31 12.06.42
2017-05-28 11.21.57
2017-05-29 12.48.38

And I’ve been especially appreciative for the healing that comes from this time walking—not only hiking, but standing, marching, experiencing the mobility associated with movement, strengthening and using my body, contemplating my embodied existence, and examining the various privileges and positionings associated with this embodiment.

While walking these varied paths, I’ve also been thinking about how much needs to change about our current world. Making change isn’t as simple as swapping out elected officials or taking part in the political process. Rather, I think we’re at a critical point of needing to re-rethink everyday and taken-for-granted ways of being. To de-routinize the routine. To let go of what’s become normalized.

Because oppression is everyday. Marginalization is routine. Violence is normalized.

Choosing Alternate Paths

Thinking about paths—and the ways that we’re conditioned to follow established ones—I’m wondering, as Sara Ahmed does, whether we might need to stop treading on familiar paths and instead create some new ones. Ahmed observes the possibility that when we abandon well-trodden paths, their lines fade:

“We can see the path as a trace of past journeys. The path is made out of footprints—traces of feet that ‘tread’ and that in ‘treading’ create a line on the ground. When people stop treading the path may disappear. And when we see the line of the path before us, we tend to walk upon it, as a path ‘clears’ the way. So we walk on the path as it is before us, but it is only before us as an effect of being walked upon … Lines are both created by being followed and are followed by being created.” (Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology, p. 16)

There are important functions to paths, such as making the world easier to navigate. Yet, “going along with” the established path is the sort of “going along with” that prevents questioning, much less interruption, of the everyday route and routine. And questioning seems important to noticing, imagining, rethinking, and healing. When I walk down a different sidewalk, I certainly see different bits of the world. How might I see the world differently—and change it—just by choosing alternate paths?

Walking Backward on Moving Walkways

Paths offer a useful way to imagine resistance. Beverly Tatum describes systemic racism as the airport’s moving walkway, using the metaphor to help us see the different consequences of actively pursuing/doing harm, remaining still/complacent within an existing system, and intentionally taking action (like turning around and walking backward) to resist:

“I sometimes visualize the ongoing cycle of racism as a moving walkway at the airport. Active racist behavior is equivalent to walking fast on the conveyor belt. The person engaged in active racist behavior has identified with the ideology of White supremacy and is moving with it. Passive racist behavior is equivalent to standing still on the walkway. No overt effort is being made, but the conveyor belt moves the bystanders along to the same destination as those who are actively walking. Some of the bystanders may feel the motion of the conveyor belt, see the active racists ahead of them, and choose to turn around, unwilling to go in the same destination as the White supremacists. But unless they are walking actively in the opposite direction at a speed faster than the conveyor belt—unless they are actively antiracist—they will find themselves carried along with the others.” (Beverly Daniel Tatum, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? and Other Conversations About Race, p. 11-12)

Like following the established path, standing still on the moving walkway perpetuates systemic oppression that is already part of everyday life. Such metaphors help us think about how everyday and familiar actions—like walking—can do harm, even when the intention isn’t to harm. And this distinction between intention and outcome is important for understanding how we all do harm. Microaggressions happen many times throughout the day, often without the intention to harm, but are harmful nonetheless.

From my recent experiences hiking, I think about how trails cause erosion. When the land becomes too hurt, signs are put up asking hikers to stay off fragile areas and to use bypass routes toward helping with restoration. Like recognizing that erosion comes from simply walking on established trails, I hope to explain that harm can be done by simply “going along with” what’s familiar, what’s already established, what’s already moving forward.

Erosion.
Erosion.
Sign re-routing hikers onto an alternate path.
Sign re-routing hikers onto an alternate path.

Certainly, walking off trail or turning around to walk against the moving walkway requires many kinds of strength. And I believe the emotional strength for de-routinization and de-normalization requires courage, self-love, and willingness to see one’s self doing harm. Rather than denying that my hiking causes damage to the earth, I recognize that I contribute to erosion, and I try to figure out how to hike with lower impact. Similarly, in recognizing my own contribution to systemic –isms (racism, sexism, classism, etc.), I commit to ongoing and necessary steps.

Together, may we let go of the established paths and work to build new, more equitable, more just walkways. In other words, may we choose to tread another path.
 
—
This post is written by Beth Godbee for Heart-Head-Hands.com. Please consider liking this blog on FB and following the blog via email. Thanks!

Share this:

  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Pocket

Tagged with: #52essays2017, antiracism, embodiment, environmental justice, healing, hiking, learning, microaggressions, racial justice, resistance, social justice, systemic oppression

Support the Work

subscribe to posts:

Previous Post: « Appreciating Rahawa Haile’s “Going It Alone” for the Hiking-Justice Connection
Next Post: Three Chocolate Smoothies for Fueling the Road Ahead »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

About This Site

Embodied knowledge matters. So do commitments. And especially acting on commitments as part of everyday life, BIG and small. This website—a mix of blog posts and research writing, courses and offerings—shares ongoing efforts toward everyday living (feeling, thinking, and doing) for justice.

Subscribe via Patreon

This button from Patreon says “Become a Patron” in white font against a bright orange background.

Subscribe to Newsletter

featured offerings

This e-course announcement shows a yellow sunflower and blue sky. It includes a textbox with the following information: “E-COURSE AVAILABLE NOW! Career Discernment for Academics: Aligning Career with Commitments. Self-paced study, exercises, coaching, and more ...”

This ad reads: “Time to write! Writing Retreats. Learn more @ Heart-Head-Hands.com.” A white coffee mug and table appear in the foreground, with golden chairs and walls in the background.

This image shows writing tools (phone, keyboard, journal, pencil, and pen) along with the event information: “Online Writing Groups. Tuesday afternoons & Friday mornings. Come Write Together: Heart-Head-Hands.com.”

This image shows a scene of wrapped packages, a pine cone, and evergreen branches. A white text box shares the circular logo for Heart-Head-Hands: Everyday Living for Justice, and another text box reads: “gift cards available.”

Categories

  • Contemplative Practices (60)
  • Emotional Literacies (83)
  • Everyday Feminism (103)
  • Higher Education (50)
  • Interviews (9)
  • Racial Justice (62)
  • Recipes (22)
  • Why Vegan? (12)

Footer

bethgodbee

Writing retreats offer fuel for creative fires. If Writing retreats offer fuel for creative fires. If you'd like to feed your flames, consider an upcoming retreat.

Registration is open for the following dates:
Monday, June 5th
Thursday, June 29th
Monday, July 10th
Thursday, July 20th
Wednesday, July 26th
Monday, August 14th

Learn more and sign up here: https://heart-head-hands.com/product/writing-retreats/
--> link in bio

[Photo shows my first campfire of the summer with yellow-orange-red flames inside a fire pit -- against a dark blue-purple background.]

#writing #creative #fire #creativefire #writingretreats #writingretreat #writingcommunity #writingcoach
Last call for tomorrow's workshop on planning summ Last call for tomorrow's workshop on planning summer writing projects:
https://heart-head-hands.com/product/planning-summer-writing-projects-prioritizing-purpose-over-productivity/ —> link in bio. ✏️

I'm here if you'd like support with prioritizing writing this summer and releasing those habits (from self-doubt to overwhelm) that derail us as writers. Good #writing wishes! 💛

[Image shares this same “last call” text with a link to the registration page.]
Final call for summer writing groups! We (@cusew Final call for summer writing groups!
 
We (@cusewinters and I) are trying out a new time on Tuesdays 2-5pm. Hoping this group reaches those of you who’ve asked for later times.
 
For more information and to sign up: https://heart-head-hands.com/product/online-writing-group/ --> link in bio.

There’s still a little time to join before Tuesday. :-)

[This image shows writing tools (phone, keyboard, journal, pencil, and pen) along with the event information: “Join one or both days: Tues. @ 2pm ET or Fri. @ 10am ET. Come Write Together: Heart-Head-Hands.com.”]

#writing #writinginspiration #writingcommunity #writer #writersofinstagram #WritingResources #WritingSupport #WritingLife #WritingCenterLife #WritingTime #TimeToWrite #writinggoals #writersblock #writingmotivation #writerscommunity #writers #WritingCoach #WritingGroup #communitywriting #WritingTogether
#Repost @charisbooksandmore with @use.repost
・・・
Celebrate AAPI Heritage Month with a new book! Need some guidance on where to start or what to read next? We have three separate booklists for you to look through: AAPI Fiction (and a little poetry!), Non-Fiction, and Children’s/YA! ⁠
⁠
You can find the complete lists at the link in our bio!⁠
⁠
FICTION AND POETRY:⁠
· All This Could Be Different: A Novel by Sarah Thankam Mathews (@smathewss)⁠
· Bitter Medicine by Mia Tsai (@mia.tsai.books) (@tachyonpub)⁠
· The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On by Franny Choi (@fancyrhino)⁠
· Togetherness by Wo Chan (@theillustriouspearl)⁠
· Hula: A Novel by Jasmin Iolani Hakes (@jasminiolani)⁠
· Late Bloomers: A Novel by Deepa Varadarajan (@deepavaradara)⁠
⁠
NON-FICTION:⁠
· A Living Remedy: A Memoir By Nicole Chung (@nicolesjchung)⁠
· The Trauma of Caste: A Dalit Feminist Meditation on Survivorship, Healing, and Abolition By Thenmozhi Soundararajan (@dalitdiva)⁠
· Asian American Histories of the United States By Catherine Ceniza Choy (@catherinecenizachoy)⁠
· Year of the Tiger: An Activist's Life By Alice Wong (@disability_visability)⁠
· I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki: A Memoir By Baek Sehee⁠
· Biting the Hand: Growing Up Asian in Black and White America By Julia Lee (@profjulialee)⁠
⁠
CHILDREN’S AND YOUNG ADULT:⁠
· An Asian American A to Z: A Children's Guide to Our History By Cathy Linh Che (@cathylinhche), Kyle Lucia Wu (@kylelucia), & Kavita Ramchandran (@kavitaramchandran) (@haymarketbooks)⁠
· Milloo's Mind: The Story of Maryam Faruqi, Trailblazer for Women's Education By · Reem Faruqi (@reemfaruqi) & Hoda Hadadi (@hodahadadi_artpage)⁠
· Maizy Chen's Last Chance By Lisa Yee (@lisayee1)⁠
· You Are Here: Connecting Flights edited by Ellen Oh (@elloecho) (@tracicheeauthor) (@allidabooks)⁠
· She Is a Haunting By Trang Thanh Tran (@nvtran_)⁠
· A Scatter of Light By Malinda Lo (@malindalo)⁠
⁠
#AAPIHeritageMonth⁠
We’re a week away from the final workshop on pla We’re a week away from the final workshop on planning summer writing projects. It’s next Wednesday, May 24th 1-3pm ET (starting at 12pm CT, 11am MT, 10am PT).

These workshops are interactive and responsive to what emerges, much like small-group coaching. One participant shared this reflection from last week’s workshop:

“Thank you for the lovely session today. It really made me reevaluate the way that I schedule my day and how I am (or at the moment, how I am not) prioritizing the writing I want to be doing.”

Registration is on a sliding scale and includes a one-day writing retreat. Learn more and sign up here: https://heart-head-hands.com/product/planning-summer-writing-projects-prioritizing-purpose-over-productivity/ —> link in bio 💛

[Image shows a row of colored pencils, fading in color from green to brown, against a teal background. The top half shares the workshop’s title: “Planning Summer Writing Projects: Prioritizing Purpose over Productivity” and the URL: Heart-Head-Hands.com …]

#writing #coaching #priorities #prioritizing #productivity #planning #projects #summerwriting #writingplans #writingoals #writingcommunity #writers #writinggroup #writingretreat #writingretreats #summerretreats #writingworkshop #workshop #smallgroupcoaching #learning #unlearning #summer #academia #highered #writingchallenges #reflection #purpose #purposedriven #commitment
Load More... Follow on Instagram

About Beth Godbee

I'm an educator and former writing studies professor who believes our fully embodied selves matter in the world. We can’t just think our way out of the incredible injustices, dehumanization, violence, and wrongdoing that characterize everyday life. We must feel and act, too. [Pronouns: she/her.] Read more ...

This image shows books alongside the words: courses, coaching, consulting. learning + unlearning.

Copyright © 2023