Pause and Take a Breath in the Time of Racial Crisis

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The universal response to recent events involving George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement has been one of urgent action. And that has taken a variety of shapes from protests, rioting, and looting in the streets of major cities, to celebrities and politicians going head to head across social media to organizations declaring their solidarity and self-promoting their lists of empty promises. And there are those who are in absolute denial that racism or white supremacy exists.

I’ve put it out there for people to take a long pause. To take a breath; to be in this moment of yet another racial uprising — especially as newcomers recently awakened to the idea that in North America there’s such a thing as racism and white supremacy.

Please, pause and take a breath.

This is a strange time not only in North America but in the world as a whole. We’re in the midst of a pandemic crisis, and a myriad of national and international challenges from political corruption, trade disputes, land claims, human rights violations, climate change, and war to name a few. With the addition of police violence and killings in both the U.S. and Canada, people’s emotions are on full tilt. When we’re in this place we are often reactive versus creative — eager to fix without knowing the nature of the problem.

And here we are again with our attention on racism in North America as a response to recent police on Black violence in the U.S. As much as our attention is on the U.S., racism is very much alive in Canada. It has this evasive or passive-aggressive feel in Canada. Which is nothing to be proud of. As Canadians, we have done a grave disservice to our Indigenous peoples, Blacks, and immigrants.

We’ve inherited this culture. Many of us were born into it, with no choice. And many have chosen to live here because it offers privileges people don’t have elsewhere. But to live here requires us to assimilate into the systems of the dominant culture. A white-centric culture. A culture that from day one assigned power and control to a few white men. Everything and everyone is expected to surrender toward building the dream, including sacrificing lives, families, cultures, and land.

Yes, we’ve inherited this culture, with all of its systems and structures that continue to oppress many facets of our population, and wilfully appropriates people’s cultures for its own purposes. And it is racist not necessarily by design or intent but rather as a consequence.

What does that even mean? What’s so racist about our culture? It’s working, isn’t it? People have jobs. We have homes and cars. We have freedoms and privileges and security. We have health-care and education. We have great places to visit on family vacations. Well, that’s how it appears to be.

For some, in our sense of privilege and entitlement, life is good. Or we’ve gone on long enough accepting things just the way they are; rarely questioning in public if we got this whole thing wrong. And on schedule, every four years, we vote under the same rules that insist these systems remain firmly in place.

It’s unfortunate that social progress comes only after a critical mass of people are willing to burn the place down in protest. Like it or not, we’re all responsible for it now. There’s no place to run.

What I’m drawing caution to is the knee-jerk approach to fixing the symptoms versus dealing with the disease. Habits of our Western culture include the need to comfort, maintain peace (even superficial peace) at all costs and look good doing it. We are proficient at avoiding uncomfortable and challenging conversations and situations. If we can’t throw money at the problem, we’ll hire experts or create a task force or sign a petition of sorts. We’ve been there and have done that. But we won’t see the real permanent change until the powers that be decide something must be done.

Racism or any flavour of discrimination is a social and cultural disease with a heavy dose of post-traumatic stress, depression, and anxiety. And it’s so embedded in our way of life, we can’t see the tumour from the body.

It’s in our education and academics. It’s in our democracy, political and judicial systems, from the high courts to the police on the streets and in our prison systems too. It’s in how we relate to money and how we consume. It’s in our choice of home, fashion, and food. It’s in our health-care and social services. It’s in our workplaces and communities. It’s even in our closest relationships. It’s in our music, sports, and entertainment. It’s in our choice of faith and religion. It’s in how we relate to the planet. It’s in our technology and sciences. And most of all it’s in our language. We can’t talk about racism without talking in black and white. The very labels and all their meanings and stories we’re trying to unlearn.

I know there’s a sense of urgency to deal with police brutality and the killing of Black people. But dealing with the system of racism doesn’t end there and will require a lot of time, patience, and courage to challenge the status quo.

I have a great deal of compassion for white people who are becoming awake to systemic racism. Please, pause and take a breath. This is a marathon, not a sprint. The world is throwing a lot at you, such as allyship, woke, privilege, entitlements, diversity, inclusion, to be called out or called in, unconscious bias, cultural proficiency, evasive racism, cultural appropriation, and more. There’s so much to learn.

So get educated. Learn to unlearn. Commit to doing the inner work. Have the courage to ask the hard questions and lead the tough conversations. Challenge your leaders, influencers, politicians. Practice rigour, discernment, skepticism when it comes to what you watch and who you listen to. And this isn’t up to white people alone. We all have work to do, to heal, grow, and create change.

The thing this movement lacks is vision. I’ve been in numerous conversations about racism over the years and have shared this question, “what should our culture look like?” only to witness silence, defensiveness, or denial of anything wrong with the way things are.

With all of our efforts to join the cause and be a voice for change, we don’t have the slightest idea of how it should look. A lack of vision would be considered foolish when it comes to running a business or leading any project — personal or professional. But when it comes to our society at large — we lack vision. Particularly a vision of what we, collectively, inclusively of all diversity should be together, truly equal.

So, our best efforts to end racism may be solving one problem at a time with short-term fixes. And that’s the best we can do for now. But if we truly want to make lasting change, the kind of change our great-grandchildren would be proud of, it’s going to require time.

What we can’t afford is no action.

So be persistent and patient.

As posted on The Star June 10th, 2020