Humainologie creative dialogue For the Love of Creation this Wednesday May 19

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” — Winston Churchill

“Optimism doesn’t wait on facts. It deals with prospects. Pessimism is a waste of time.” - Norman Cousins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Cousins

Ijeoma Oluo’s book So You Want to Talk about Race was transformative for me personally. My synopsis of the book is appended below. Joy, Joyia, and Rachel, who helped facilitate our April 28 dialogue, have their own dialogue initiative called “For the Love of Equality.” They have offered to host a book circle about Ijeoma Oluo’s book, and now that I’ve read it, I can say enthusiastically: Count me in! I hope each of you will consider participating. If you accept the invitation, I can help you obtain a copy of the book. Here is the proposed schedule of sessions:

For the Love of Equality

Transforming Racism One Conversation at a Time

Pre-Read

So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo

**Come to Week 1 having completed the reading**

Week1: Preface up to and including Chapter 2.

Week 2: Chapter 3 up to and including Chapter 6.

Week 3: Chapter 7 up to and including Chapter 10.

Week 4: Chapter 11 up to and including Chapter 13.

Week 5: Chapter 14 up to and including Chapter 17.

Shape your weekly discussions around what have you learned, what stood out to you, how did it make you feel?

Our topic for this Wednesday May 19 is For the Love of Creation Helen Ostrowski organized the event and arranged for Beth Lorimer to facilitate. Beth is the Ecological Justice Program Coordinator for Kairos www.kairoscanada.org Beth will talk from 6:30pm - 7:00pm MST, followed by Q&A and discussion from 7:00pm - 7:30pm MST.

Here is the zoom link provided by Shinobu:

Topic: Humainologie creative dialogue Time: May 19, 2021 06:30 PM Mountain Time (US and Canada) Every week on Wed, until Jun 30, 2021, 9 occurrence(s) Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86972034113?pwd=M2g3MzEvMWs5dXhHcFVCbVNkVG1idz09 Meeting ID: 869 7203 4113 Passcode: 12345

Until we meet again,

Arthur

Book: (Ijeoma Oluo) So You Want to Talk about Race (2019)

I cannot recall any book I have ever read that has enhanced my capacity for empathy as much as this book. Almost every chapter includes a personal experience so effectively narrated that the story itself transforms my awareness. Even her advice (Chapter 15) “Be aware of the limits of your empathy” is essential. I will never be able to fully understand the difficulties and the pain the other person has had to bear. “I wanted people to understand race better, and how to talk about race more effectively, and with more kindness,” the author writes in her Preface to this New York Times bestseller.

Her Introduction describes some of what it’s meant to be a black woman in a white supremacist country, like “the jobs that were hiring until I walked in the door and then they were not.” Having grown up in Seattle with mostly white friends in her high school years, she found that people did not want to talk about race, and many of her former friendships became difficult or impossible as she began writing about it.

She moved from trying to be the best she could be at everything she did - and trying to be conspicuously polite and respectful to white people - to being a highly influential writer on the issues that had so impacted her life. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Elle, the Guardian and other publications. She received the 2018 Feminist Humanist Award from the American Humanist Society.

Parts of her book may make the reader uncomfortable and if so, she expresses the hope that “you can sit with that discomfort for a while, to see if it has anything else to offer you.” For example, in Chapter 16, she tells me (the white person reading her book) that I am racist: “You are racist because you were born and bred in a racist, white supremacist society.” I agree with her, and her point makes me more alert.

In Chapter 1, “Is it really about race?” she reminds us of the other issues such as poverty that intersect with racism, and which people can bring up to displace a focus on race. “While just about everything can be about race, almost nothing is completely about race.” What determines whether it’s about race? “1. It is about race if a person of color thinks it is about race. 2. It is about race if it disproportionately or differently affects people of color. 3. It is about race if it fits into a broader pattern of events that disproportionately or differently affect people of color.”

In Chapter2, “What is racism?” she provides the definition of racism she will use for purposes of this book: “a prejudice against someone based on race, when those prejudices are reinforced by systems of power.” In essence, we must understand that it is the system that generates racism, not the hearts of individual people. In accord with Ibram Kendi’s calling racism and capitalism “conjoined twins,” Oluo writes: “The ultimate goal of racism was the profit and comfort of the white race, specifically of rich white men.” It is counterproductive to focus simply on this or that person expressing racist emotions or ideas. “We cannot fix these systemic issues on a purely emotional basis. We must see the whole picture.” Addressing specific changes that must be made, she points us toward addressing the root cause even as we address the specific issues. And she reminds us to listen respectfully to the white person feeling distressed at their own grievances, and to acknowledge their issue must also be addressed, but should be distinguished from racism.

Each of the seventeen chapters has a good question as its title, such as: “Is police brutality really about race?” “What is the school-to-prison pipeline?” or “Why can’t I say the “N” word?” In Chapter 3, “What if I talk about race wrong?” Oluo provides a set of basic tips to increase your chances of avoiding disaster in conversations about race. They begin with these two: 1) State your intentions in having this conversation. 2) Don’t let your emotions override your top priority for having the conversation in the first place. For example, if you want to learn the other person’s perspective on a recent incident involving race, “don’t let the top priority suddenly become avenging your wounded pride if the conversation has you feeling defensive.” The tips she offers can be starting points for building a skill set. Simply reading her book will not be enough.

In Chapter 4, “Why am I always being told to ‘check my privilege’?” the author emphasizes the value of reminding yourself of where you have advantages compared to others (and consequently their disadvantages relative to you and how this may have made their life difficult). If you are not disabled, or a person of color; if you were raised by supportive parents – these are a few of many advantages you may have had that the other person did not have. By staying aware of your privileges, you can gradually become far more skillful at difficult conversations.

Very much aware that society and culture are in constant flux, the author writes that she wants to give “a platform, a foundation for our young people to build upon and then smash to bits when it is no longer needed.” This appears in Chapter 13 (“Why are our students so angry?”) in which she describes why her eight-year-old son refused to say the pledge of allegiance at school. Among other reasons, he felt that the “liberty and justice for all” part was a lie, and he didn’t want to join his classmates in lying. Her son at eight was already waking up.

In Chapter 17, “Talking Is Great, but What Else Can I Do?” Oluo suggests about a dozen actions, including: Vote local because that’s where your vote has most power. Let the school system know that “an inclusive education that meets the needs of all students is a top priority for you.” If you are a white person and you see a person of color being stopped by police or harassed, pay attention; even your watchful presence may improve outcomes. “Give money to organizations working to fight racial oppression and support communities of color.”

Martin Luther King Jr. became a legend, Malcolm X became a pariah. In Chapter 15, “But what if I hate Al Sharpton?” I receive another wake-up call. Both Martin and Malcolm were fighting white supremacist racist oppression. And “here’s the thing. Martin Luther King was not the …’MLK’ of legend.” “Martin Luther King was public enemy number 1.” He and Malcolm used different words and tactics but they both fought for freedom from oppression. “And for all of Martin’s actions of peace and love, he was targeted with violence, harassed, arrested, blackmailed, followed by the FBI, and eventually murdered.” Then Oluo writes of herself: “Yes, I am a Malcolm. And Martin, and Angela, Marcus, Rosa…. I’m fighting for liberation. I’m filled with righteous anger and love, I’m shouting, as all before me have in their way. And I’m a human being who was born deserving justice and equality, and that is all you should need to know in order to stand by my side.”

Each of us is responsible for the predictable consequences of our words and actions, but also for our silence and inaction. We cannot do everything and there may be only a little we can do, at least initially. Start with that. Persist, and you may find you are doing far more than you thought possible. If optimism can enable you to turn difficulty into opportunity, then pessimism really is a waste of time. Ijeoma Oluo concludes her book with this: “We can do this, together.”