Movement work: starting from the ground up.
A lot of white folks are ready to do some work. If you’re here I hope you’re one of them.
First things first: I am a white person speaking to white people (although everyone is, of course, welcome to listen).
picture of a white person with curly hair wearing glasses and a mask
We have work to do and it is not the job of people of the global majority to teach us how to do that (unless it actually is their job, and then you better be paying them well).
But we don’t have to reinvent the wheel because non white folks have been doing this work as long as they’ve been around. So most of the resources I reference will be from them and other marginalized groups. This not only gives you the best info, it gives you folks to follow and support going forward.
If you find yourself struggling with something a person of the global majority says in one of these resources, please use your journal (see below) to work that out or bring it back to any of my spaces to work out with me.
Today we are going to focus on 2 things you will need to complete in order to move forward. If you already do/have done these things, awesome, we’ll pick back up with you on the next lesson. If you think these things aren’t that big of a deal or don’t help that much, please stay and sit with that. Thinking that you need to do something big, flashy & fast is a part of the problem. The need for urgency and ego boosts are both things that have brought us to this point.
Your first homework assignment is to get a journal and commit to using it before taking your thoughts and actions public.
It can be a physical, digital, audio journal, whatever kind works best for you. But you need a place to express and process your feelings with yourself first. Please don’t proceed until you have it.
Illustration of dirt with hand lettering reading, “Liberation work for white folks from the ground up”
We are going to do this from the ground up because that’s where us white folks need to start.
That doesn’t make us bad people, it just makes us socialized under white supremacy.
Ope…did that make you feel uncomfy to read? Sit with it. Use your journal if you have a lot of feelings to process.
We exist in white supremacy. That means that if you are white, you have been socialized to (subconsciously for the most part) make whiteness the most important thing about you. It gives you privilege, informs your world view, and affects the way you are treated and treat others.
It is what gave us Donald Trump and what we must always be aware of if we want to do liberation work.*
That understanding informs everything we will talk about and do moving forwards because it is the foundation of the world we live in.
If that’s really tough for you to accept, maybe take a few days with it and journal, process your emotions and see if you can get there. If you can’t, you aren’t ready to do liberation work (this includes organizing, calling yourself an ally, protesting, etc…) because you will make that work more dangerous for others.
“If you are not interested in sitting with yourself, I’m not interested in sitting with you.”
If you can work with that, let’s move forward.
Illustration of dirt with one clover in it and hand lettering that reads, "step one: get a journal & commit to using it, perhaps to process your feelings about living under white supremacy"
The second thing is: Get vaccinated and wear a mask in public spaces.
This is as basic as it gets. If you can’t handle this level of commitment and inconvenience, you have no place in movement work
Masks keep you safe, they keep other people safe, they prevent surveillance, and they make a loud statement to others about who you are and what you stand for (and don’t). When you are wearing a mask, you may be treated differently by those in your environment, especially if you live in a conservative area. Sit with that feeling, journal about it, and understand that it is far less than Black, brown & non passing trans folks experience every single moment of every single day.
It’s been said a lot of places by now, but don’t bother with a blue bracelet if you aren’t wearing a mask.
Make masks part of your outfit and your public identity. Wear them in photos. Keep them stocked in your bag, car & home for others. If you are holding an event, make sure you require and provide masks. Stop going to indoor restaurants as there is no way to properly mask and eat. Use a properly fitting N95 for the best protection.**
Illustration of dirt and two clovers with hand letterign that reads, "Step two: get vaccinated and wear a mask in public places."
I’ll be back soon with our next steps. In the meantime, feel free to message me on any of my platforms or comment here if you have questions or need help with these first two steps.
*When I say “liberation work” I am referring to a set of beliefs that says all humans deserve freedom and human rights and the practices (community care, mutual aid, decolonizing, etc…) that inform that belief system.
**Resources for more mask info:
