• 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

What I’ve Learned in the Week Since Charlottesville: Five Lessons for White Folks Who Care about Racism and Racial Justice

Filed Under: Everyday Feminism, Racial Justice By Beth Godbee August 21, 2017 Leave a Comment

This week has been INTENSE. As a writer, educator, and person committed to racial justice and the work of healing internalized white supremacy, I’ve been following and affected by the dysfunction, injury, and trauma on display. I’ve been confronting my own shadow, while watching collective shadows in the United States come into light.

And these shadows ask us to reckon with legacies of colonialism and slavery, institutionalized racism, and deep dehumanization. These shadows ask no less than for us to answer: Who are we as a people?

With this question in mind, I share five lessons I’ve been learning (and re-learning) this week. I share these in hopes that they may be of help to others, especially other white folks, as the work for racial justice is ongoing far, far beyond this week.

1. To make a commitment is to make a long-term investment.

Yes, tactical, improvisational, and immediate responses are needed when intense events/emotions erupt, but these must be paired with strategic, sustainable, and long-term plans to make commitments actionable for the long haul.

I think I know and will remember the importance of pairing tactics with strategies, but then a major event arises, emotions take over, and I get pulled into the moment, burning myself out through the immediate response. So, I’m learning again that a commitment to justice is a commitment to long-term investment.

Commitments ask us to put in the work regularly and not only when there’s a crisis.
Commitments ask us to look within, recognize what’s hard, and engage in healing work.
Commitments ask us to ready ourselves with response-ability (the ability to respond).
Commitments ask us to look to the future, readying ourselves with the willingness to act.

2. Self-care really, really matters.

It’s a tough time to talk about self-care because it can be used as the exit line to disengage from racial justice work. Still, I’ve been reminded this week that if I’m getting depleted and not refueling, then I’m no any good to myself or anyone else. I need to practice self-love in order to write, speak, and act with love.

What I’m re-learning is that while I can skimp on sleep for a night or two, by day three or four, I’m a crying, complaining wreck. If I sugar binge for more than a few days, my body rebels, and I truly don’t want to be doubled over in the bathroom or aching all over! And if prioritize play/pool time and meditation/movement, I actually come to more creative solutions and more compassionate stances sooner.

The more that I ride the roller coaster of emotions, the more I need self-care to support critical self-work that’s required for unlearning conditioned racist crap.

3. It’s important to name lies and look at my own complicity.

I’ve been living with so many lies (many I’ve internalized), and the more I identify them and call them lies, the more they lose their power. Countering the BIG lie of “I’m not enough” feels especially important for building the courage, resilience, “willingness to be disturbed,” and other attributes needed at this time and going forward.

When I see myself as “not enough,” then I need to be sure of my goodness (that I’m a “good person”). And that need to be “good” keeps me from recognizing, much less befriending, the “bad” within. To confront my shadow, I need the certainty that I’m already enough, worthy, valuable, divine. From this certainty, I find the courage to visit my inner dungeon, looking where I’ve actively and passively participated in white supremacy. I see that racism is here, at home, and within me. It’s not just out there, with them, with “THOSE racists.”

This blog post that’s been circulating—“How America Spreads the Disease that Is Racism by Not Confronting Racist Family Members and Friends”—includes a racism scale for plotting attitudes and internalized beliefs. In the past week, I’ve had several conversations about this scale, and I believe it’s helpful for digging into internalized lies that need to be named and reckoned with. To name racism only as covert, explicit, hateful acts—as only Nazis marching—is to perpetuate another damaging lie. And I’m invested in naming and owning my own lies, my own complicity, and my own responsibilities.

4. I keep learning from feminists and womanists of color.

This week I’ve been especially inspired and challenged by Adrienne Maree Brown, A. Breeze Harper, Sagashus Levingston, Vanessa Mártir, Mia Mingus, Docta E Richardson, and Loretta J. Ross, among other colleagues and friends and scholars. (Deep, deep gratitude!)

So, when I’ve been asked by white people this week what I believe are authentic questions—like “How can I learn about racism?” and “I know what I’m seeing wrong, but what can I do?”—I’m clear that the answer must involve reading and learning from feminists and womanists of color. If you’re white and reading only white authors, changing this is one good place to start. Check out these blogs by feminists and womanists of color, and please add other resources/links to this post’s comments.

I’m learning again that sharing resources can help with building community and capacity. And it’s clear that we need each other—we need community—for the long-term investment.

5. Truth-telling can feel shaming when the truth if shameful.

So much is written about white fragility and emotional resilience, I believe, because of lies associating whiteness with “goodness” (that I am good, that the United States is good, that our neighborhoods are good, and so on). And when goodness needs to be complicated (because, really, how could there be a single, flat narrative?), realizations about dirty, ugly histories and ongoing, violent injustice raise intense emotions of betrayal, hurt, anger, guilt, and shame.

This week I’ve had some tough interactions in which I’ve blushed red. I’ve felt anger and heat rush through my body. I’ve felt both defensive and like a guard or bully on the offensive team. And what I’ve realized from these interactions is that truth-telling can feel like shaming when there’s deep shame around internalized white supremacy. Unpacking this shame is important healing work.

Like naming lies lies, it’s important to name shameful histories and realities as shameful.

It’s important to engage in truth-telling work that is sure to be messy and involve messing up. I write in other posts about countering perfectionism, in part, because perfectionism is a construct of whiteness. Letting go of being “good” or “right” (much less “perfect”) is central to racial justice work, and I can’t help but notice it’s central to my own healing work as well.

This is to say that I’m learning yet again that it’s important to say something, even when saying it awkwardly. And to do something, even when doing it wrong. And to show up, even when showing up incomplete, imperfect, and truly as “a mess.”

Quote "It’s important to say something, even when saying it awkwardly. And to do something, even when doing it wrong. And to show up, even when showing up incomplete, imperfect, and truly as 'a mess.'' appears against a background that fades yellow to orange.

May we keep learning together.
May we keep speaking, writing, and standing up.
May we listen more openly than ever before.
May we keep committing to racial justice.
May we resolve to the work that lies ahead.
May we ready ourselves and be ever-ready.

In solidarity! ~ Beth

—
This post is written by Beth Godbee for Heart-Head-Hands.com. For more posts like this one, you might try “For White Friends Using Social Media and Not Responding to Charlottesville,” “Trusting the Alarm Behind Supposedly ‘Alarmist Rhetoric,’” and “Microaggressions Matter.” Please also consider following the blog via email. Thanks!

 

Share this:

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

Tagged with: #52essays2017, activism, antiracism, commitments, countering perfectionism, emotional literacies, interaction, language, learning, love, mantras, meditation, racial justice, resilience, resistance, self-care, shadow, social justice, systemic oppression, understanding injustice, white fragility, whiteness

Support the Work

subscribe to posts:

Previous Post: « For White Friends Using Social Media and Not Responding to Charlottesville
Next Post: When Times Get Tough: Simple Sautéed Spinach and Tempeh »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Sue Godbee

    August 21, 2017 at 9:14 pm

    ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ you and Cedric teach for free. Boy, are we lucky… Sharing far and wide. I love you
    Sent from my iPad
    >

    Reply
    • Beth Godbee

      August 22, 2017 at 12:03 am

      Thanks for supporting me, Mom! 💙

      Reply
  2. timetowrite458

    August 21, 2017 at 11:56 pm

    Thank you – again, as always – Beth!

    Reply
    • Beth Godbee

      August 22, 2017 at 12:03 am

      With love. 💙

      Reply
  3. Cecilia Ford

    August 25, 2017 at 10:09 pm

    deep breath. thank you.

    Reply
    • Beth Godbee

      August 26, 2017 at 12:03 am

      Sending love, Ceci. 💙

      Reply

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

courses, webinars, and writing groups

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 and Friday mornings 10am EST | 9am CST | 8am MST | 7am PST. 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 (59)
  • Emotional Literacies (81)
  • Everyday Feminism (100)
  • Higher Education (49)
  • Interviews (9)
  • Racial Justice (61)
  • Recipes (22)
  • Why Vegan? (12)

Footer

bethgodbee

I've been reflecting a lot on trails this winter a I've been reflecting a lot on trails this winter and feeling how grateful I am that my work, especially coaching, is rooted in relationships.
 
One-with-one coaching can mean many different things, but it always involves connecting, listening, question-asking, and co-learning. At its best, it highlights what’s possible—possible in writing, relations, and life.
 
If you're interested in learning more or want to try a session, reach out. I'm here.
 
*This photo shows me standing next to a carved statue of two bears (adult and cub). Bears remind me of the importance of introspection and self-work, especially during the winter hibernation season. What are you reflecting on these days?

#coaching #learning #writing #reflecting #reflection #reflectivepractice #winter
#Repost @cl_collaboratory with @use.repost
・・・
We would like to formally announce the opening of applications for our Spring 2023 Possibilities Hub Seminar, titled "Coalitional Literacies: Strategies for Building Social Justice Initiatives Across Institutions," hosted by Drs. Jones, Gonzales, and Del Hierro. 

Applications close February 17! You can scan the QR code on the flyer below or visit the Programs page on our website to do so.

#literacy #literacyseminar #freeseminar #socialjustice #socialjusticeeducation #seminar
I keep six writing retreat dates open at a time an I keep six writing retreat dates open at a time and schedule retreats on different days of the week, hoping this supports access.
 
Is there an upcoming date you’d like to join?
 
Share, register, and sign up here: https://heart-head-hands.com/product/writing-retreats/ —> link in bio. ✏️
 
Image shows lined notebook paper; a yellow pencil; and pink, green, and yellow text that reads: “writing retreats upcoming dates: Wed, Feb 8 / Thurs, Feb 16 / Sat, Feb 25 (next Saturday) / Mon, Mar 6 / Thurs, Mar 16 / Wed, Mar 22nd. Heart-Head-Hands.com.”

#writing #writinginspiration #writingcommunity #writer #writersofinstagram #WritingResources #WritingSupport #WritingLife #WritingCenterLife #WritingTime #writinggoals #writersblock #writingmotivation #writerscommunity #writers #WritingCoach #WritingGroup #WritingRetreat #WritingFeedback #HigherEd #HigherEducation #Dissertation #Book #GrantWriting #CreativeWriting #TenureTrack #CommunityWriting #PublicWriting #UpcomingDates
Happy Saturday! Here are some photos from a winte Happy Saturday!

Here are some photos from a winter break last week -- time at the beach and in the marshes. Hoping the nature connection may bring a boost this weekend. 

Photo descriptions:
1. The beach at sunset.
2. Cypress knees in a swampy area.
3. Me and Jonathan in the swamp at sunset.
4. Marshlands with blue water and sky.
5. Tendrils / winding lines in the sand.
6. Awesome branching tree.
7. A final ocean sunset pic.
#Repost @mvmnt4blklives with @use.repost ・・・ #Repost @mvmnt4blklives with @use.repost
・・・
PASS IT ON, COPY/PASTE:

From Jenin to Memphis to Atlanta, the wave of grief from losing our people to cops & soldiers must end. Defund them:

1. Abolish the police and #StopCopCity. #DefundThePolice
2. Stop funding Israel's massacres of the Palestinian people. #StopArmingIsrael

Repost this image and pass it on.
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