To my white friends and colleagues part 2

Well hello (aka Great Mind),

There is lots of regret going around regarding peeling back rampant, systemic racism.

Which is good. And bad.  

It’s good because we are finally waking up to people of colour’s horrible realities due to racism. It’s bad if regret only stays there and doesn’t move to taking action.

Last week I wrote the first part of this post: To my white friends. I talked about What do you carry (11 cabbages & a grudge against your father for never coming back?).

We’re carrying around a lot of stuff. Including misplaced beliefs that race is part of culture. Race isn’t part of culture because race is a physical characteristic.

BUT how we respond to race is definitely framed by our culture.

And culture is learned which means we can unlearn damaging lessons about race absorbed over the years.

Here are four ways to unlearn racism:

1. Enhance your perspective, your worldview

I was listening to  "The Frankenstein Factor: Inventors Who Regret Their Inventions," an Under the Influence, CBC Podcast recently and was intrigued to learn that the Wright Brothers used to have a bicycle shop where loud arguing could frequently be heard. Turns out the brothers were arguing the opposite opinion of what they believed. Considering how inventive they were, this is good advice.

Expand and enhance your perspective and worldview by turning things upside down and inside out. Look at things from all angles, even and especially the ones you don’t agree with.

1. Be aware of the invisible lenses we all wear

We all wear invisible lenses that affect what we consider ‘normal, natural and true’... and what we believe is awkward, foreign, unusual or unimportant. The easiest example of these invisible lenses that frame our world is physical space. Have a person stand "too far" from you while speaking, or get "too close" and you immediately know what your normal is.

Check out how I was aware of my lenses and reframed an awful situation; An unusual Happy Valentine’s Day gift for you based on a true story with a twist.

Check out how I was aware of my lenses and reframed an awful situation; An unusual Happy Valentine’s Day gift for you based on a true story with a twist and then practice doing it yourself.

1. Increase your mental flexibility, self-awareness, and open-mindedness

Unlearn, relearn and get creative about it. Use examples like this one, for increasing your ability to be mentally flexible and effect social change; How to get people to stop peeing on your walls…

1. Learning is hard

Lean in and know this is hard. But if we’re motivated, that helps pave the way. Here’s a small example about the role of motivation: Tipsy fridges that tip learning over the top

There you have it. Some grist for going against the grain of systemic racism. Enhance your perspective/ your worldview, be aware of the invisible lenses you wear, increase your mental flexibility so you can effect social change and know it’s gonna be hard.  

And practice practice practice.  

Stand up. Have those hard, cringy conversations. And we can and will find our way through this. We must. It will take soul-baring work and broken hearts, but together we will rise.  Together.

Now go on and learn, laugh and lead.

Learn

• Educate yourself with these scaffolded anti-racist resources
• Be aware of the invisible lenses we all wear. Here’s an example; An unusual Happy Valentine’s Day gift for you based on a true story with a twist
• Increase your mental flexibility, self-awareness, and open-mindedness; How to get people to stop peeing on your walls…
• Learning is hard but being motivated helps: Tipsy fridges that tip learning over the top
• Take the implicit bias test on racism

Laugh

• The struggle is real folks. But with some time and practice and hard work, we’ll get there.

Lead

• Share the resources above with a friend and/or colleague.
• Support incredible work of Abhi Ahluwalia and his excellent Unlearn site, Lama Rod Owen and others
• And next time you hear a racist comment, stand up, take a stand and take action.

Work With Me

You’re ready to start taking that beloved subject matter expertise of yours and start teaching it to others. I’m here to help.

Who I work with

I work with big thinking change makers from all sorts of fields.

Example:

• I work with wildly creative digital content strategists who are itching to help others learn their insider secrets.
• I work with storytellers who are brilliant at bridging divides and who are yearning to get their ideas onto a bigger stage.
• I work with folks like you!

My clients are experts but not teachers. They have big plans for teaching engaging workshops that position them as a leader in their field and generate the change they want to see in the world, but they get stuck with where to start and they’re afraid their lack of training skills will get in the way.

What we do together

I help big thinkers how to design and deliver game changing workshops in their beloved area of expertise.  

I offer 1:1, online training workshops designed to help position yourself as a leader in your field and generate the change you want to see in the world. I offer workshops like Workshops that Work; 4 steps to taking that beloved subject matter expertise of yours and starting to teach it to others.

Ready to get started?

Lee-Anne Ragan, President Rock.Paper.Scissors Inc. Changing the way the world works. e: [email protected]