27 Jan
2016
Posted in: Groups, Racism
By    Comments Off on What Love’s Got to Do with It

What Love’s Got to Do with It

I'm_not_listeningTonight I meet (by Skype) with my White Awake study group. It’s a very thoughtful and surprisingly non-confrontational course of study that looks at Whiteness and Racism and while it covers pretty much what you’d expect, it’s unlike any “diversity training” I’ve ever done before. It’s hard to explain what’s so different about it. Let me just say that it feels like this time the subject is being looked at with love. And it’s having a profound impact on my ease and openness in looking at — and talking about — the many habitual ways that people in a dominant culture tend to ignore/discount/not-see/not-include whatever doesn’t fit into the narrative of that culture.

So in honor of this process of waking up, I offer this quote from Maya Angelou:

“I don’t trust people who don’t love themselves and tell me, ‘I love you.’… There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt.”

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