The recent murders of Ahmaud Arbrey, Breonna Taylor, and especially George Floyd have brought a bright spotlight onto the Black Lives Matter movement and a watershed moment for our country.
I have received countless messages via Instagram, entirely from young white women, about not knowing where to start making changes. I am NO EXPERT on this and am learning along side you. But I did attend a diversity and inclusion conference a few years ago (I paid thousands of dollars to do this because I was interested in bettering myself and wanted to be a resource for others – but if your company you work for is interested in sending you, they will often cover the costs, especially if you work in HR! you can find more info on it here).
It actually made me realize I had WAY MORE WORK TO DO than I had previously thought. But don’t let that intimidate you, because we also learned how to make a start combating our own bias. So based off what I learned, both from the conference and from the past two weeks on social, I created a worksheet for myself. And I wanted to share it with you guys in case it helps you make a start!
Each week, I plan to watch one movie, read some of my book (finishing one book per month), and listen to 3 podcast episodes on the topic of race. The worksheet will help you keep track of not only what you HAVE DONE, but how you’re feeling, what you’re learning, and ideas of actions you can take or behaviors you can change to make the world a better and safer place for black people. I also HIGHLY recommend selecting a buddy YOU TRUST and reviewing your sheets with them either weekly or once a month. I plan to complete my weekly sheets with my husband (we are SUPER focused on getting our household as inclusive as it can be before bringing a baby into it – you have to practice what you preach and that starts at home!!!) and then reviewing them monthly with my sister.
Some other helpful guidelines I learned from the conference were:
- Mix up your content you’re consuming on race to avoid burnout – learn the HISTORY and present day issues. Try fiction, biographies, AND documentaries. Just make sure you’re consuming content CREATED BY BLACK PEOPLE. Not some white person’s interpretation of black experiences.
- Progress over perfection. Doing a little each week for years is better than trying to learn everything overnight and burning yourself out.
- This SHOULD feel sad, uncomfortable, and hard…. You’re looking at yourself and admitting you may have been ignorant or even made someone’s life harder! That’s not easy. It should feel HARD. Do it anyway. It will change the world for the better!!
- We all have something to learn…. This is a lifelong journey.
I put these guidelines at the bottom of the worksheet as reminders. If you have any ideas of what I am add or change here – LET ME KNOW! I am ALWAYS open to feedback and hope this helps some of you make a start that I know you are gearing up for. We can do this together!
Here are some ideas of films, books, and podcasts from a fellow blogger, Brenna Anastasia (here is her INSTAGRAM and YOUTUBE):
BOOKS:
FILM/TV:
PODCASTS:
Click link below to download the worksheet and save it to your computer/ print it out to get started!