“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi
Created by Dr. Eddie Moore, Jr., Debby Irving, and Dr. Marguerite Penick-Parks
Have you ever made a successful change in your life? Perhaps you wanted to exercise more, eat less, or change jobs? Think about the time and attention you dedicated to the process. A lot, right? Change is hard. Creating effective social justice habits, particularly those dealing with issues of power, privilege and leadership is like any lifestyle change. Setting our intentions and adjusting what we spend our time doing is essential. It’s all about building new habits. Sometimes the hardest part it just getting started. The good news is, there’s an abundance of resources just waiting to empower you to be a more effective player in the quest for justice.
About the 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge
Here are just a few ideas to get you started.
Check out debbyirving.com/recommended-resources/ for more ideas.
READ
10 Ways Well-Meaning White Teachers Bring Racism Into Our Schools, by Jamie Utt
21 Racial Microagressions You Hear on a Daily Basis, by Heben Nigatu
A Letter to My Son, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Climbing the White Escalator, by Betsy Leondar-Wright
Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person, by Gina Crosley-Corcoran
Making America White Again, by Toni Morrison
Racism Against Native Americans Must Be Addressed, by Tim Giago
Understanding the Racial Wealth Gap, by Amy Traub, Laura Sullivan, Tatjana Mescheded, & Tom Shapiro
What White Children Need to Know About Race, by Ali Michael and Elenora Bartoli
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack and other essays, by Peggy McIntosh
LISTEN
Breakdances with Wolves Podcast
Scene on Radio (Seeing White Series, starts Episode 31)
Teaching While White (TWW)
This Week in Blackness (TWIB)
You could also choose a song from the Soundtrack4Justice playlist below.
WATCH
The Angry Heart explores the impact of racism on health and longevity. (57 minutes)
Birth of a White Nation, a keynote speech by legal scholar Jacqueline Battalora, offers a blow-by-blow description of the moment the idea of, and word for, “white” people entered U.S. legal code. (36 minutes)
The Clark Experiment explores how early in life ideas of racial inferiority and superiority are internalized. (9 minutes)
The danger of a single story, a TED Talk by Chimamanda Adiche, offers insight to the phenomenon of using small bits of information to imagine who a person is.
How to overcome our biases? Walk boldly toward them, a TED Talk by Verna Myers, encourages work vigorously to counter balance bias by connecting with and learning about and from the groups we fear.
I Didn’t Tell You. (7 minutes)Poems for My White Friends Ever wonder what a day in the life of a person of color is like? Listen to this poem, written and spoken by Norma Johnson. From a collection she’s developing titled,
In The White Man’s Image PBS documentary about the Indian boarding school movement designed to “kill the Indian and save the man.” (56 minutes)
Race: The Power of an Illusion, a powerful three-part, three-hour film exploring the biology of skin color, the concept of assimilation, and the history of institutional racism. (Three 1 hour episodes)
Racism is Real, a split-screen video depictiing the differential in the white/black lived experience. (3 minutes)
True Colors, episode depicting daily life for a black American in contrast to a white American. (7 minutes)PrimeTime LiveDiane Sawyer’s 1991
What Kind of Asian Are You? Humorous two minute youtube video that illustrates the utter silliness of the way many white Americans interact with Asian Americans.
What Would You Do: Bicycle Thief Episode? ABC’s popular show explores the impact of racial and gender bias and prejudice at a family friendly park. Before this video, would you have anticipated this differential treatment?
White Bred excellent quick intro to how white supremacy shapes white lives and perception. (5 minutes)
NOTICE
Once people start to learn about white privilege and America’s systems of oppression through history, often they ask, “Why didn’t I see this sooner?” It’s easy to overlook what we’re not looking for. Once you understand the phenomenon of selective noticing, take yourself on a noticing adventure.
1) Start by watching the Test Your Awareness: Do The Test.
2) Then…go out in the world and change up what you notice. Here’s some of what you might look for:
CONNECT
Follow Racial Jusitce activists, educators, and organizations on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and other social media. Here are some ideas to get you started:
Amer F. Ahmed
Black Girl In Maine
Black Lives Matter
Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni
Maria Hinojosa
Debby Irving
Dr. Eddie Moore, Jr.
Verna Myers
Gyasi Ross
Rinku Sen
Teaching Tolerance
Tim Wise
Jasiri X
Google who’s who in your area by typing in ‘Racial Justice (name of city/town).’ A few emails and phone calls later, you’ll likely have an idea of how to get on the mailing of one or more organizations in your area who are addressing issues of power and privilege. Once you connect to one, it’s easy to connect to many!
Join your Showing Up For Racial Justice (SURJ) organization if there’s one in your area.
Research racial justice speakers and see who might be coming to your area. Here are some places to start:
Speak Out Now
APB Speakers
Blue Flower Arts
Take a course or workshop. Community Colleges and Adult Education Centers are a great place to find a course about social justice issues.
ENGAGE
This can be the hardest part for white people new to racial justice work. Engaging in racially mixed settings can trigger age-old power and privilege dynamics. The goal is to be a learner more than a knower, exactly the opposite of what dominant U.S. culture teaches us to be.
Here are some Engagement Tips to guide you:
ACT
Though many white people want to jump to action sooner instead of later, action without a vigorous self-education and self-reflection practice can unexpectedly reproduce the very power and privilege dynamics we seek to interrupt in this work. Here are a few actions that you might consider:
REFLECT
Reflecting and Journaling is a crucial piece of the challenge. Plan to take time everyday to reflect on what you choose to do, what you’re learning, and how you are feeling. Difficult emotions such as shame and anger, though uncomfortable to feel, can guide you to deeper self-awareness about how power and privilege impacts you and the people in your life. At the very least, use the “Reflect” space on the below tracking tool.
STAY INSPIRED!
Create a Soundtrack4Justice playlist that fuels you and/or can serve as a conversation starter with people of all ages.
Here’s ours:
Give Your Hands to Struggle / Sweet Honey in the Rock
We The People / Tribe Called Quest
Where Is The Love / Black Eyed Peas
White Privilege II / Macklemore
White Privilege 3 / Gyasi Ross
Strength, Courage & Wisdom / India Arie
Whitey on the Moon / Gil Scott-Heron
The 10 Stop and Frisk Commandments / Jasiri X
Alexander Hamilton (sountrack) / Various Artists (sample here)
Same Love / Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Living for the City / Stevie Wonder
Fight the Power / Public Enemy
People Get Ready / Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions
USE THE PLANNING TOOL BELOW TO STAY ON TRACK
21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge
Tip: diversify your habits by doing some of each.
21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge (sample)
Where Did the Images On This Page Come From?
Click on the below to find out.
Challenge
Article Coming Out of Phone
Ear
Fred Flinstone watching TV
Figure with Magnifying Glass
Connected Hands
People and Talk Bubbles
Action
Figure on Question Mark
Musical Note
Pencil