How do we respond to microaggressions, or those everyday and commonplace actions that convey bias, invalidate people, and reinforce structural oppression? We know from research and personal accounts that microaggressions occur all-too-frequently across contexts—workplaces, family gatherings, and community settings. From hurtful words to dismissive gestures, microaggressions do more than communicate harm. They have wide-reaching impact, for they deny access, constrain ... Read more ...
power
Responding to White Supremacist Terror, This Time in El Paso
I woke this morning in Ireland to news of the El Paso shooting: the latest act of white supremacist terror in the United States. My body was already aching (today’s a rest day after some seriously long walks), but the news ramped up the ache and lodged itself in my chest. I recognized the familiar heartache that comes with shootings and acts of violence, particularly against Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC)—in this case, against Latinx folks in Texas. Along ... Read more ...
Toward Public Outcry: Why I’ll Keep Repeating #AbolishICE and #CloseTheCamps
Outcry: a strong expression of public anger and disapproval This week I dreamed about being detained when traveling, taken aside in an airport and made to wait and wait and wait … It became clear that I was being monitored and considered dangerous and essentially arrested. What started in the airport turned into a full detention / internment / concentration camp experience. The dream’s details are sketchy, but I remember feeling powerless. I couldn’t call for help. I ... Read more ...
My Heart Hurts on Election Day
Election day morning: I join a line that snakes around my new polling place. Like others, I pull my raincoat tighter against the cold and damp morning air, as kids squirm, jump, and cry around us. After 40+ minutes and only few feet of movement, I step out of line, knowing that if I stay, I’ll miss a hard-to-reschedule doctor’s appointment. I feel frustrated, disappointed, and angry. Election day evening: I re-join the line and, again, wait outdoors in the rain. ... Read more ...
“Pedagogical Too-Muchness,” Or a Call for Shaking up Schooling
This year I turned 39, and it’s my first in which I won’t be returning to school. I’ve spent my life in academic settings—as a child and adult, as a student and teacher, as a researcher and writer. Many of my friends are teachers, too, so I understand how August brings both angst and anticipation for the upcoming school year. Recently, I’ve been having conversations with friends about syllabi and course designs. I’ve been reading social media posts about the start of ... Read more ...
A Barrage of Microaggressions
Some years ago I began recording everyday microaggressions toward learning to recognize racism, which is so often coded and which whiteness has taught me not to see. This recording project aimed at building a repository of common microaggressions to teach with and practice interventions using Augusto Boal’s theatre of the oppressed. The project emerged from conversations with colleagues of color, who shared how often white colleagues failed to believe their experiences. ... Read more ...
Reading Martin Luther King, Jr. as a White Woman in the Work for Racial Justice
Each year, celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) Day in the United States brings new opportunities for mis-appropriating, mis-remembering, and mythologizing Dr. King’s legacy and the broader Civil Rights Movement. White people get the history wrong in many ways. Each year, celebrating MLK Day also brings new opportunities for re-reading Dr. King’s words and re-seeing the work that he—and so many people working for racial justice—have envisioned. MLK offers visions ... Read more ...
Me Too: Standing Against Sexual Violence
I didn’t learn to drive in drivers ed. In fact, I never drove the car that whole semester because the teacher was a creep. When girls would drive, he’d start off complimenting perfume or jewelry or clothing. Then he’d lean into the driver to observe them better (the perfume or jewelry or clothing). From there, he’d put his hand on the girl’s leg, sometimes leaving it there and sometimes moving it higher along the thigh. All of this with two additional students in the ... Read more ...
Reclaiming Childhood Power with Coloring Books
There’s a story that I’ve told for years, a story that represents my early disappointment and dislike of school. In kindergarten, I was assigned to color a bird brown, but I thought brown was too typical. I’d been reading Zoo Books and learning about parakeets, toucans, and other birds at home. I knew birds could be practically any color or any combination of colors. I decided, therefore, to use my creativity, knowledge, and the tools (crayons) available to me to create ... Read more ...
Trusting the Alarm Behind Supposedly “Alarmist Rhetoric”
There are numerous alarms about how far off the tracks we’ve gotten as a people. While many people are facing insurmountable odds, injury, and even death, many are also desensitized to violence and going about business as usual. Against a background of ever-increasing injustice, I’m still hearing people caution against “alarmist rhetoric,” and I’m wondering: If we’re not alarmed now, then when? I don’t believe the alarm is coming at the wrong time, with the wrong ... Read more ...
![*Save the Date and Pre-Order Now*
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One month from today (starting Nov. 22nd), I’ll be offering another “40-Day Practice: Strengthening Emotional Literacies to Counter White Fragility.”
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This practice provides:
— support for what comes up during the holiday season
— a transformative learning experience
— the opportunity to set intentions and increase readiness for showing up for racial justice in 2020 and beyond.
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Learn more about the practice, and pre-order now: link in bio.
.
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And what a day to be sharing this announcement -- a day pointing to such ongoing and deep work needed by white folks to address whiteness, white fragility, and white supremacy ...
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Committed to staying in this work with and alongside you,
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Beth
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[GIF Description: Four emoticons change facial expressions and represent emotional range, while sharing: “Save the Date! *40-Day Practice* Strengthening Emotional Literacies to Counter White Fragility. Nov. 22 – Dec. 31.”]
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#Emotions #Emotional #EmotionalLiteracies #EmotionalIntelligence #40DayPractice #ContemplativePractice #WhiteFragility #WhiteSupremacy #Antiraciam #Antioppression #RacialJustice #SaveTheDate #ComingSoon #EBook #ECourse #LearnMore #Leadership #SaveTheDate #HolidaySeason #LeadershipDevelopment #ProfessionalDevelopment #OngoingEducation #SocialJusticeEducation #wednesdayvibes #wednesdaymotivation](http://scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/e26d257828bc0655937da49faff42442/5DB3519A/t51.2885-15/sh0.08/e35/s640x640/73512623_557325338142913_3768349608661120543_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=101 "*Save the Date and Pre-Order Now*
.
One month from today (starting Nov. 22nd), I’ll be offering another “40-Day Practice: Strengthening Emotional Literacies to Counter White Fragility.”
.
This practice provides:
— support for what comes up during the holiday season
— a transformative learning experience
— the opportunity to set intentions and increase readiness for showing up for racial justice in 2020 and beyond.
.
Learn more about the practice, and pre-order now: link in bio.
.
.
And what a day to be sharing this announcement -- a day pointing to such ongoing and deep work needed by white folks to address whiteness, white fragility, and white supremacy ...
.
Committed to staying in this work with and alongside you,
.
Beth
.
.
[GIF Description: Four emoticons change facial expressions and represent emotional range, while sharing: “Save the Date! *40-Day Practice* Strengthening Emotional Literacies to Counter White Fragility. Nov. 22 – Dec. 31.”]
.
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#Emotions #Emotional #EmotionalLiteracies #EmotionalIntelligence #40DayPractice #ContemplativePractice #WhiteFragility #WhiteSupremacy #Antiraciam #Antioppression #RacialJustice #SaveTheDate #ComingSoon #EBook #ECourse #LearnMore #Leadership #SaveTheDate #HolidaySeason #LeadershipDevelopment #ProfessionalDevelopment #OngoingEducation #SocialJusticeEducation #wednesdayvibes #wednesdaymotivation")
![Then-and-now hiking photos (taken 3 years apart) remind me to embrace “all the ages I’ve ever been,” including the “childlike” qualities of curiosity and playfulness: https://bit.ly/35G8Dqv ...
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I often write about hard emotional stuff—from fear, regret, and grief to burning-hot rage over injustice. But life includes such joy as well.
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May the joy of single moments become joyful commitments to justice: to staying in the work with deep passion and dedication. <3
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[Two photos of Beth in plank pose below the same overhanging rock in the Appalachian Mountains, taken 3 years apart—in 2016 and 2019.]
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#Emotions #Emotional #EmotionalLiteracy #EmotionalIntelligence #Joy #JoyfulCommitment #Committed #CommittedToJustice #Everyday #EverydayJustice #EverydayFeminism #AntiOpression #SocialJustice #Hiking #AppalachianMountains #Yoga #Outdoors #Nature #Inspiration #attrail #yogaposes #yogainspiration #play #yogaplay #thenandnow #throwbackthursday #throwback](http://scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/5849e752998df7706a0b1e17f45d4301/5E624956/t51.2885-15/sh0.08/e35/s640x640/73053828_1007895446230192_946596583059840186_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=104 "Then-and-now hiking photos (taken 3 years apart) remind me to embrace “all the ages I’ve ever been,” including the “childlike” qualities of curiosity and playfulness: https://bit.ly/35G8Dqv ...
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I often write about hard emotional stuff—from fear, regret, and grief to burning-hot rage over injustice. But life includes such joy as well.
.
May the joy of single moments become joyful commitments to justice: to staying in the work with deep passion and dedication. <3
.
.
[Two photos of Beth in plank pose below the same overhanging rock in the Appalachian Mountains, taken 3 years apart—in 2016 and 2019.]
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#Emotions #Emotional #EmotionalLiteracy #EmotionalIntelligence #Joy #JoyfulCommitment #Committed #CommittedToJustice #Everyday #EverydayJustice #EverydayFeminism #AntiOpression #SocialJustice #Hiking #AppalachianMountains #Yoga #Outdoors #Nature #Inspiration #attrail #yogaposes #yogainspiration #play #yogaplay #thenandnow #throwbackthursday #throwback")
![This week’s blog post asks which bucket we’re drawing from: fear or love?
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“What does fear feel like to me?
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Among other things, fear shows up as anxiety, worry, defensiveness, disconnection, and visceral unease.
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In contrast, what does love feel like to me?
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Believing, trusting, being patient, holding space, healing, releasing, expanding, committing, connecting, grounding, and visioning. Love feels mobilizing.”
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While fear leads me to nouns, love leads to verbs.
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Fear keeps me frozen in place. Love enables being and acting, creating and imagining.”
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Read more of this piece focused on emotional literacies: link in bio.
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And speaking of emotional literacies, save the date for another 40-day practice on “Strengthening Emotional Literacies to Counter White Fragility” for the last 40 days of 2019, stretching over the highly emotional holiday season. <3
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[This image shows two buckets: one labeled “fear,” the other “love.”]
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#SundayRead #Blog #BlogPost #Emotions #Emotional #EmotionalLiteracy #EmotionalIntelligence #EmotionalVocabulary #Fear #Overwhelm #Vulnerability #Crying #Transformation #Transformative #Love #Motivation #LoveAsMotivation #Contemplation #SocialJusticeEducation #Learning #Unlearning #Writing #Storytelling #Writer #Educator #Learner](http://scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/94dc79fd21922f333b076b36ac73c3e4/5E4CCFEB/t51.2885-15/sh0.08/e35/c76.0.787.787a/s640x640/70418810_142222413725285_2587514143239127622_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=105 "This week’s blog post asks which bucket we’re drawing from: fear or love?
.
“What does fear feel like to me?
.
Among other things, fear shows up as anxiety, worry, defensiveness, disconnection, and visceral unease.
.
In contrast, what does love feel like to me?
.
Believing, trusting, being patient, holding space, healing, releasing, expanding, committing, connecting, grounding, and visioning. Love feels mobilizing.”
.
While fear leads me to nouns, love leads to verbs.
.
Fear keeps me frozen in place. Love enables being and acting, creating and imagining.”
.
Read more of this piece focused on emotional literacies: link in bio.
.
And speaking of emotional literacies, save the date for another 40-day practice on “Strengthening Emotional Literacies to Counter White Fragility” for the last 40 days of 2019, stretching over the highly emotional holiday season. <3
.
[This image shows two buckets: one labeled “fear,” the other “love.”]
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#SundayRead #Blog #BlogPost #Emotions #Emotional #EmotionalLiteracy #EmotionalIntelligence #EmotionalVocabulary #Fear #Overwhelm #Vulnerability #Crying #Transformation #Transformative #Love #Motivation #LoveAsMotivation #Contemplation #SocialJusticeEducation #Learning #Unlearning #Writing #Storytelling #Writer #Educator #Learner")
