Walking with Whiteness Module One: Identity, Power, and Privilege
What do we mean by privilege? Social identity? Systemic inequity? This opening module covers foundational vocabulary that is used in antiracism work in the context of Turtle Island (United States) to make sure that we all have access to shared terms and concepts. For some this will be review. If so, I ask you to stay humble and open to allow us to lay a solid foundation. For others this language might be new, and even overwhelming! Wherever you find yourself is the perfect place to begin. We always need to start with where we are.
I thought this was somatically focused. Why begin with language? Language and semantics carry vibrations, connotations, and the weight of history. These are the main reasons we want to have awareness of the language we are using, and to follow the lead of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) folx and people of the Global Majority to determine appropriate language for discussing white supremacy and racialized systems. Listening to those rendered most vulnerable by inequitable systems interrupts the silencing and harm they cause. Listening to BIPOC voices and perspectives is an important part of unlearning, and decentering, whiteness. Sometimes in social justice circles this language can become weaponized and used to police each other to show how “woke” we are. This can lead to being afraid to ask a question or express ourselves if we do not know the “right” language.
It’s important to realize language is constantly in flux, as culture and consciousness continue to shift. I ask for a generosity of spirit around these issues of semantics, understanding that language is an imperfect tool for this work that brings up so many vibrations in our bodies. It is an act of care and love to stretch ourselves to name with thoughtfulness, intention, and integrity what we aim to express, and to also listen to each other without the intention to police or judge. If you are concerned with how something is expressed, or have a helpful corrective to offer, please address it in an open-hearted way.
Vocabulary: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Social Identity Dominant Groups/Marginalized Groups Privilege Intersectionality Structural and Institutional Inequities Microaggressions Implicit Bias
Somatic Practices: Body Scan for Baseline Vibration. Belly to Chest Breathing for Regulating the Nervous System.
Journaling Personal Self-Reflection Prompts: • Why did you register for this program? • How are you feeling in your body about enrolling in this program? • Do you have any fears about being in this program? If so, what are they? • What goals and intentions are you bringing with you?
• What are some of the social locations that you bring to this program? How do these social locations come to impact how whiteness expresses itself in your life? Journaling on Module One Material: In engaging with these prompts, try to be aware of your somatic responses to the material, not just your intellectual responses: • What becomes activated in you? (i.e. increased body sensation) • What thoughts, judgements, mind stories get stirred up? Act as a witness to yourself. Take inventory of what becomes activated within you. Make space in your body and mind for these thoughts and feelings. They are giving you information—they are not “good” or “bad.” They just are. When we have the data and are brave enough to look at it, we can decide what to do with it. Accountability begins with being radically honest with where we are at. •
How did you feel in your body when reading King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and learning about his “grave disappointment” with the white moderate, who he declares:
“is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action’; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom . . . . Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”
• How does King’s discussion of being an “extremist for love” sit with you?
“But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: ‘Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you’ [. . . .] So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?” • Tema Okun’s “Tenets of White Supremacy Culture” provides an overview of how whiteness can show up in organizations in terms of unspoken logics, values, and principles. o How do these principles sit with your understanding of whiteness? o What growth areas, if any, were you able to identify for yourself? o What challenges you, if anything? o What do you have questions about? • Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “Now Is the Time,” Rajnii Eddins’s “White Is,” and “Charlottesville: Race and Terror” all engage with how whiteness is showing up in our current cultural context, and provide different interpretations and framings of whiteness and what we mean by “white supremacy culture.” o What did these pieces elicit in you? o What are you feeling in your body? o What questions do you have? o What conversations do you want to engage in around them?