Learning from others’ history, and our own…or not
Back in early 1980s England the coal industry was fundamental. And if you lived rurally and got a job in a coal mine, you were pretty much set for life. Of course, the dangers of that job could’ve meant for a very short life, but the job paid well and the unions looked out for you. Naturally, the conservative government hated that and tried to take power away from the unions. The unions hated that and so they went on strike. For a year. Basically, the unions were like, “You want to reduce our power? OK. How about we shut down the entire bloody industry?”
But then
Margaret Thatcher, prime minister at the time, was like, “Oh, you want to shut
down the entire British coal industry? Fine. Fuck you forever.” She then
proceeded to let the entire industry die. And just like that all of those economically
secure jobs for life were gone.
As time
passed those high-paying, secure jobs were replaced with low-paying bullshit
jobs without any security at all. And of course, as is traditional in western
societies, a fair amount of those jobs ended up being done by immigrants. Rural
England felt tossed to the side, but they also gained something from that
struggle: a hatred of conservatives.
Three-and-a-half
decades later, along comes conservative dumb-shit Boris Johnson. He’s running
to continue his career as prime minister, campaigning primarily on the
racist-ass Brexit ticket. At the time, most people thought it’d either be close
or he’d get stomped. But it went the other way and the world was shocked. How’d
that doofy motherfucker flip all those rural, conservative-hating districts?
Pretty easily, as it turned out.
All
those open-minded, liberal areas? Well, you never would’ve guessed it, but
there’s something they hated more than conservatives: immigrants. That’s right!
All lil’ Boris had to do was walk into those towns, point at the immigrants
doing those low-paying bullshit jobs and say, “Look! Someone stole your jobs!”
and open his arms to widely embrace the landslide that was his victory.
Speaking
of places that suffer on a molecular level from xenophobia/racism while ignoring
it deliberately and completely, we’ve got an election coming up right here in
the good ol’ US of A and we sure could learn a lot from the UK’s current
predicament.
To be
perfectly honest, I’m not confident we will, though. The Republicans are all in
lock-step and every time I turn around I seem to hear Democrats talking themselves
into another four years of 45. Last week I got into an argument with someone
who said “I gotta hand it to him, he’s good at marketing!”
I turned
to this person and said in a voice that was just a little too loud to be
backstage at the show we were at, “No he’s not. Do you think he’s running
around a room full of executives manically scribbling on a white board,
expounding on constituent analytics? He doesn’t know a fucking thing about
marketing. Or anything else. You’ve never met anyone as stupid as that guy. He
thinks windmills cause cancer, ffs.”
Rightfully,
a little shocked at my tone, they responded, “I just mean he’s persuasive.”
Unintentionally
upping my volume, I continued, “No he’s not! He couldn’t convince shit to
stink! What, do you think there were just a bunch of voters marching up to the
voting booth thinking, ‘You know, I never hated Black or brown people before,
but listening to that tiny-handed, piss-skinned imbecile from that dumb-ass
reality show lie about Obama’s birth certificate for five years really brought
me around!’? Fuck no! There’s just a whole lot of racists who’d felt shamed
into silence right up until a Black president got elected. Then it was time to
take a stand!”
That’s
when I noticed that everyone else backstage had been shushing me for a while,
so I stopped. But had I continued I would’ve made the point that the systems
that are America are now and have always been dependent on racism. And I mean
since the beginning. For example, did you know that just prior to the
Revolutionary War, the colonists didn’t really care whose flag they were under?
It’s true and one of the ways the founding fathers convinced the population to
get behind the war was to start a false rumor
that England was planning to enslave the colonists. “Enslavement” was the word
they used and you bet your contemporary ass that every single person moved to
action by that word said, “I ain’t no nigger!” as they loaded up their rifles.
I always
feel like this American apple hasn’t fallen very far from that English tree. I
hope November proves me wrong, but either way, you know what to do.
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Let’s go deeper: How to work with me
Just my semi-annual PSA that my anti-racism work extends far
beyond this site. In addition to serving as the executive director of one of
the longest continuously running anti-racism organizations in the country, I
also offer other services for deepening your anti-racism praxis.
This past fall, I started offering anti-racism coaching sessions.
This is a one-hour Zoom session or call where we discuss current issues that
you may be facing in your personal or professional anti-racism work. My work is
to serve as a sounding board and resource to help you both deepen your work and
navigate the thorny and messy issues that often arise in our practices. I work
with clients on both an as-needed and ongoing basis. The cost per session is
$125. Email blackgirlinmaine@gmail.com to book a session.
If you want to bring me to your group or organization, consider
the following options:
Authentic Dialogues: Talking About
Racism and Moving to Action
This interactive session is designed to look critically at racism
in our communities and our nation by examining the roots of white supremacy and
how the past impacts our present. A key goal will be teaching, sharing, and
learning practical tools for working in our own communities to combat racism
and to start conversations on addressing racism and difference in predominantly
white spaces. This session is a mixture of lecture and small-group work, which
will allow participants to deepen their knowledge of racism, examine their own
biases, and learn techniques for starting conversations on racism and how to be
an effective ally. Prices vary based on location and organizational budget. Email
blackgirlinmaine@gmail.com to book a session
________________________________________________________
Tell Me the Truth: Exploring the Heart of
Cross-Racial Conversations
How can we speak openly and honestly in
cross-racial conversations? What would such a conversation even look like? Shay
Stewart-Bouley (Black) and Debby Irving (white) show us as they share racism’s
impact on their lives and how cross-racial conversation has been instrumental
in their own understanding of 21st century racial dynamics. Shay and Debby will
explore the common fears and pitfalls of cross-racial conversation that keep
people isolated in their own racial groups, at the expense of personal,
professional, and societal growth. They’ll also help audience members
understand how interpersonal social patterns hinder organizations from living
up to their own ideals for diversity. No two conversations are alike as they
step on stage with no agenda. Finally, Shay and Debby will offer suggestions to
create racial justice habits that can move us from isolated events to
sustainable connections.
Remaining Winter 2020 Dates for Tell Me the Truth
- Monday ~ February 3 ~ anytime
- Tuesday ~ February 4 ~ anytime
- Sunday ~ February 23 ~ anytime
Cost: $2,500*
Previous Hosts
- Black Heritage Trail ~ Portsmouth, NH
- Harvard University Health Services ~ Cambridge, MA
- Colby College ~ Waterville, Maine
- Central Square Theater ~ Cambridge, MA
- Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry ~ Roxbury, MA
- Marblehead Racial Justice Committee ~ Marblehead, MA
- SURJ Southern Maine/Seacoast ~ Kittery, ME
- University of Maine ~Orono, ME
- University of Maine ~ Bangor, ME
- University of Maine ~ Augusta, ME
- Nevins Library ~ Methuen, MA
- Natick Coalition for Change ~ Natick, MA
- American Civil Liberties Union ~ Portland, ME
- Bar Harbor Maine YWCA ~ Bar Harbor, ME
- Families Organizing for Racial Justice ~ Newton, MA
- Seattle Equity Summit ~ Seattle, WA
- Friends School of Portland ~ Portland, ME
- Highline Public Schools ~ Seattle, WA
Contact cynthia@debbyirving.com for more information or to book a date
* travel may be extra if location greater than 80
miles from Boston or Portland, ME
If this piece or this blog resonates with you, please consider a one-time “tip” or become a monthly “patron”…this space runs on love and reader support. Want more BGIM? Consider booking me to speak with your group or organization.
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I’m tired of white women writing about racism
The research has been done. We know the
facts. We know that the social construct called “whiteness” was created to make
sure that the richest white men stayed rich and got richer and the rest of us
would be beat down by their greed. We know that living in a brown-skinned body
in the United States means you are in danger of violence on personal, emotional
and state-sanctioned levels every single day.
We also know that we white people will
come to some new awarenesses about structural racism, and then we will rename
it and it will morph into something we can tolerate and nothing will really
change. That is the history we have repeated since the first white
abolitionists did the good work of helping slaves get some semblance of
freedom. Periods of “ah-ha!” for some white people that fades away as soon as
we can find a way to make ourselves feel better.
We don’t need more research. What we
need is change; not only “difficult conversations” or book clubs. (We white
people educating ourselves is good and important, but it is not enough.) We don’t
need to find new language for the same discussions (see white privilege morph
into white fragility, etc.).
I’ll be honest. Writing for this blog
has been a challenge. I believe strongly in the idea that we white people
should take up less space when it comes to racial justice work, including
sharing information on the Internet. I’m annoyed by and tired of white women
like me publishing essays and posts about our experiences related to racism.
How can I write about racism without
centering on whiteness? What does that even mean? How can I be white and not
center on whiteness? How can I write in public about racism without asking for
the spotlight (the spotlight I don’t want, and think white people shouldn’t
have)? There must be some use for my words on this blog, or I wouldn’t be asked
to write here.
Changing the systems. What does that mean? I return again and again to this document Tema Okun’s “White Supremacy Culture.” Not only did it help me recognize how much of everything around us and within us—my culture, my family’s culture, my family history, the institutions we participate in—are ruled by white supremacy culture, but it also has “antidotes” under each description. This document is one of my touchstones. When I feel helpless to change the behemoth systems, I remember that on a personal level and within the organizations where I work and worship we are changing. Without a road map, we are trying to break out of and destroy whiteness. [BGIM note: At this time, Rhea Boyd, M.D.’s tweets are in protected mode so there’s a good chance you probably won’t be able to use the link immediately to the left effectively except to locate Dr. Boyd’s account and perhaps request access so that you can read the very excellent thread Heather links to. In the meantime, you could also read The Social Construction of Whiteness: Racism by Intent,Racism by Consequence or Abolish the White Race for some related thoughts]
Changing the systems also means building
a caring society instead of a society built on greed. Healthcare, housing,
education and employment for all; workplace regulations that provide sufficient
wages and family leave policies; protection and expansion of voting rights;
abolishing all prisons and police; moving from a me/them to an “us” way of
life; saving the Earth from the environmental crisis (I suspect a sufficient “Green
New Deal” could address all of these issues).
But I’m still stuck, writing this blog
post. I’m still writing about me and my experience. And, yes, offline I think
it’s fine that I do that when I’m with other white people. But online? How can
I be useful in our shared struggle for liberation? How can I not be just another
white woman who thinks she’s got something to say about racism? As I said to
Shay (using the most popular metaphor in white women writing about racism
circles these days), I feel like a kindergartner trying to write about
calculus. I’m tired of listening to (people like me) try to tell us what to do,
taking up space. Black and Indigenous people of color are the experts, and I’d
rather listen to them.
If this piece or this blog resonates with you, please consider a one-time “tip” or become a monthly “patron”…this space runs on love and reader support. Want more BGIM? Consider booking me to speak with your group or organization.
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Photo by Dustin Lee on Unsplash
Standing in solidarity globally
As a Black woman and anti-racist, the news of the
assassination, murder, killing or whatever we are calling it of Iranian Major
General Qasem Soleimani at the behest of our very own Donald Trump has landed
rather harshly with me.
By no accounts was Soleimani a good guy. From everything
that I have read, an untimely death was almost certainly in his cards at some
point. However, as an American, I know all too well that our nation has a rocky
history with the truth as it relates to people that we deem as “other.”
American truth is precarious at best.
We have made it our business for hundreds of years to
traffic in truth that is convenient to our side, specifically the side of white
folks and truth be damned! Given that our current commander-in-chief is a known
liar, and apparently the majority of people who serve him also are
truth-deficient, we may never know if there was actually an imminent threat
being posed by Soleimani.
What we do know, though, is that the United States has a
long history of mucking around in primarily non-white countries and that there
is a long line of “invasions … bombings … overthrowing governments …
occupations … suppressing movements for social change … assassinating political
leaders … perverting elections … manipulating labor unions … manufacturing
“news” … death squads … torture … biological warfare … depleted uranium … drug
trafficking … mercenaries …” (Killing Hope 2008).
We also know that the average American is often clueless
about our reality abroad and that too often we accept the “truth” as it is
spoon-fed to us. Weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, anyone? Oops, our bad!
I am nowhere near qualified to provide a global geopolitical
analysis on Western imperialism. As an anti-racist writer and speaker, I will
say though that if events in recent years in the United States brought you into
racial justice and anti-racism spaces, then you need to be equally as concerned
about events abroad. The same white supremacy that undergirds much of American
racism can also be seen abroad. The same lack of truth that is a hallmark of
American history can also be seen anywhere we have left a footprint.
In the end, we cannot claim to be in solidarity with Black
and Brown people in our country without standing in solidarity with oppressed
Black, Brown and working-class people globally.
Wherever this latest conflict takes us, it won’t be the
powerful, rich, white men who feel the pain. It will be the everyday person in
Iran, struggling to survive. It will be others across the region as well. It
will be American troops who are disproportionately Black, Brown and white
working-class people and their families who are directly affected. Once again,
victims of a system that too many refuse to dismantle.
If this piece or this blog resonates with you, please consider a one-time “tip” or become a monthly “patron”…this space runs on love and reader support. Want more BGIM? Consider booking me to speak with your group or organization.
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Be we resolved for 2021…looking beyond the new year
Let’s
start with a pretty uncomfortable likelihood: 2021 will likely be a complete
catastrophe. No matter the outcome of the impeachment trial or the election, the
president won’t step down. This is true, obviously if he wins, but also if he
loses. He’ll never accept the results. He’s said as much from the beginning. Honestly, just try to imagine him
saying, “Well, we did our best, but the country chose a different leader
tonight and I wish them all the luck in the world! We know they’ll do their
best for the country because after all, that’s the only thing that matters!”
Does the idea of him saying that make you laugh or cry? At this point I’m not
even sure I can do one without the other.
Anyway, the
whole thing will probably go to the very same courts that he’s spent his entire
term stacking. At some point people will take to the streets in protest and in
all likelihood be met with the same level of violence the protestors in India and Hong Kong are facing right now. Which, in case you forgot,
is the very same violence protesters have historically
faced in this country.
And that’s
just what happens if the president survives—and let’s all hope and pray that he
does! Seriously, because if he’s struck down by the stress of the job or his
own decades-long diet of fast food and diet soda, all of those mass shooters, mail bombers, conspiracy theorists, members of various hate groups who are inspired by the president would cry
foul and escalate their violence in the name of their new martyr.
And that’s
not even touching on what a terrifying monstrosity a Pence presidency would be.
So,
yeah, 2021 is probably going to be horrifying in unimaginable ways, but there’s
good news: 2021 is a whole year away. That may not sound like good news, but
what it means is, Lord willing and the nukes don’t fly, you can make 2020 a
good one.
You and
I don’t know each other well enough for me to give you advice. And while the
timing is right for New Year’s resolutions, it feels a little corny to call it
that. That said, here’s a number of things I’ve done that have helped me deal
with crises, improved my overall experience of the world and hopefully prepared
me in some way for what promises to be the most obnoxious of all possible
apocalypses.
Learn to shoot a gun
I’m
gonna be straight with you. I hate guns. I always have. I love them in my
entertainment, but in real life I just can’t stand them.
So, a
few years ago I was visiting a friend in the Mojave Desert. Like a lot of folks
out there, my friend has survivalist tendencies and he loves guns. He also
knows I don’t. Half-jokingly, he offered to take me shooting and I accepted his
offer.
For
real, it sucked. I hated every second of it. It felt like way too much
responsibility, but I learned. And I’m glad I did because even though I
continue to hate guns, that knowledge is better had and not needed than needed
and not had.
Eat healthier
Ugh. I
know. It’s such a cliché. And annoying, but it’s real. I used to eat, um,
presidentially, but after a bit of a health scare a while back I decided to
start eating healthier. Something that helped me a lot was striking the word “diet”
from my vocabulary. That word sounded like I was keeping things from myself,
restricting my own behavior. Thinking of it as just eating healthier felt like
I was doing something good for myself and it didn’t take long to make it
routine. Of course, eating healthier is naturally paired with…
Exercise
Oof.
More with the clichés, I know. I worked at a gym for years and I really grew to
loathe them. Everyone eventually seemed like vain hamsters all running the same
wheels at the same time never breaking from a constant stare at their own
reflections. And spending money to do that? Luckily, you can get weights and a
bench for pennies on the dollar on craigslist. Plus, you know, push-ups, crunches,
squats, running and even pull-ups on a tree branch are all free.
Also, exercise
doesn’t have to be “exercise.” It can be a recreational sport or a dance class
or you could…
Learn a martial art
I’ve
studied martial arts for more than 20 years. As an adult, I’ve only been in a
handful of situations in which fighting was necessary. I can tell you without a
doubt that the key to success in those moments was not martial arts. It was situational awareness, but having the
tools of martial arts in my belt gave me the confidence to act and the
appropriate response. If you are new to martial arts, jiu-jitsu
is a great place to start because it is practiced how it is used and doesn’t
require a lot of physical strength to be successful.
Take a first aid class
It was
required back when I worked in that gym. It was the best thing I ever did even
though I’ve been fortunate enough to never have to use it. You can get that
training at a Red Cross near you.
Learn a musical instrument
As a
musician, I’m obviously biased here, but hey, you’re gonna need to entertain
yourself somehow post-cataclysm, right?
Gardening
This is
something I’ve actually never done. I don’t have much of a yard, but there’re
community gardens. Maybe I’ll start with something potted on a window sill.
Learning to grow things could be just the practical and meditative thing I’ve
been missing.
If you
need it, I hope this list gives you the inspiration to make 2020 the best
pre-annihilation year possible. And on the off-chance I’m wrong, well, you’ll
have had a pretty good year anyway!
If this piece or this blog resonates with you, please consider a one-time “tip” or become a monthly “patron”…this space runs on love and reader support. Want more BGIM? Consider booking me to speak with your group or organization.
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