On this day... I have to read and write. Still.

This is more of a memo to myself and for reference later... but if you're so inclined, you may read it for yourself.

If you're familiar with the idea of an invisible backpack of "privilege"... this piece by Hannah Adair Bonner, posted at Ministry Matters, "From White Guilt to White Responsibility," carries it further to how to remedy the resulting injustice that stem from privilege in our world, if you're willing.

That is deep work for the individual and I'm gonna tell ya - conscious folks - that's work you gotta do on your own before you try to engage with POC because it does me no good to answer your questions, absolve your guilt, even walk in your spaces sometimes and be the spokesperson for all things different than you and your normal. [And yes, I know, intersectionality is a thing.]

I have been contemplating what a community-based truth and reconciliation process might look like... and this could be the start of understanding because I know the backpack has become heavy for some while others don't even have a clue....

"Until we dismantle systems of injustice and white supremacy, the backpack will be ours to carry; attached to us regardless of how we feel about it, because it clings to us as tightly as the skin we are in. Yet, it will become increasingly more heavy as we come to a deeper understanding of why it contains what it contains. Once you realize and accept that what is in your backpack was acquired through blood and death and rape and cruelty; through slavery and the massacre of indigenous peoples; through the theft of bodies and the theft of land; what we were once told was an inheritance we will come to know as an inheritance of others, stolen through the blood of their ancestors." [I contemplated this history, my ancestry just this Monday on FB.]

But VERY FEW know what to do next, and the writer here proposes:

• "...we need to pick up white responsibility and white action, rather than white guilt and white helplessness."
• "We need to understand why privilege exists not just that it exists." [Ethnic studies.]
• "We need to feel outraged not just guilty." [Social justice studies.]
• "...social change will come through the acceptance of responsibility and the resulting action that seeks to alleviate the pain of others, rather than remaining focused on our own." [Difficult and personal commitment to use shared spaces to understand 'the other'... and finding your OWN spaces to analyze, apply critical thinking, and unpack new knowledge and different perspectives.]
• "If my privilege was taken at the expense of the community then the only viable option is to restore my privilege to the community. To make it, as far as possible, communal property." [Could look like the 'natural' talker, leader, person of authority speaking loudly and boldly at the front of the room to get everyone's attention... and then handing the mic over to someone NOT seen, typically unseen as any of the above. (One example that occurred to me.)]
• "It means that my role is to listen before I speak. My voice and opinions must be in sync with the voices of those most impacted by injustice. If they are not, there is clearly something wrong and I need to keep my mouth shut and do a lot more listening."
• "It means that I do not get to be a hero. We do not get to pat ourselves on the back for dispensing a little bit of the overflow or our privilege. We do not get to “save” anyone." [This reminds me of why I like the intention of organizing versus being thought of as an advocate for someone else. Powerful words of personal experience are much more impactful from the person themselves then some half-realized caricature of the hardships people face.]

There's more...but I am going to let it percolate... ‪#‎sometimesIwrite‬‪#‎sometimesIread‬ ‪#‎sometimesithelps‬ ‪#‎worktodo‬