Monday's Opening Thought: February 7, 2022

Image Description: The image is the Joe Rogan Experience podcast logo. In the center of a black circle is a picture of the face of Joe Rogan, bathed in a red-orange tone. Rogan is smiling maniacally behind a microphone. He has a third eye in the center of his forehead, with energy lines emanating from it.

This week's opening thought: the Joe Rogans of the world exist and will continue to exist because they are a part of the fabric of white supremacy. White people and too many people of color with power, privilege, and positionality will always give the Joe Rogans of the world more grace and chances to continue harming others over and over again than anyone deserves. The Joe Rogans of the world will always show you exactly who they are loudly and openly, then "apologize if they did something that harmed you." They do this because they know that the tenets of whiteness and a subset of people of color with power, privilege, and positionality will never hold them accountable or responsible for their dangerous views, actions, and rhetoric. Joe Rogan isn't just a Spotify thing.

Joe Rogan is rinse-and-repeat white supremacy.

And like most of the tenets of white supremacy, most white folx and many people of color with power, privilege, and positionality don't want to deal with holding people accountable, even if it's right at their front door knocking. He's your co-worker, neighbor, supervisor, the senior leadership team at your job, and family member.

Joe Rogan is white U.S. America.

And there are a lot of us who don't need a "controversial" podcaster (read: racist, far-right cis hetero white man) or a music streaming service to hear from Joe Rogan every day or to stand up against white supremacy.

You don't need Air Pods to mentally and emotionally see the world around you, be present in that world in an intentional way, and be about something other than upholding whiteness and lies.

Monday's Opening Thought: January 31, 2022

Image Description: A cyborg can be seen stalking around an office area. The cyborg is reminiscent of one from the Terminator film franchise. He is wielding a sci-fi-inspired laser gun. Above him is a caption that reads, "Black History Month content that isn't fluffy, "feel good," or Martin Luther King Jr.". A little white girl is hiding under a desk. There are tears in her eyes. Above her head is the caption "Most white people."

This week's opening thought, expressly for white folx: tomorrow is the first day of Black History Month. I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that your workplace, community group, church, "professional" organization, or social organization is all ready to go with their MLK quotes and Rosa Parks pictures. They've probably got the white choir practicing a few negro spirituals. I'm sure someone in your company who runs the social media wing of things has the nice appropriative Black History Month image with the hollow copy ready to post first thing in the morning. You know the image, the one with its African flag colors (because evidently, the whole damn continent of Africa only has one flag) and silhouette of a Black woman with an afro. You know the kind of copy I'm talking about, too, the kind that is somehow 250 words long but says absolutely nothing of substance.

Did I nail it? Thought I did.

I went out on a limb because I knew that limb was actually a whole damn tree and would support my weight.

It's white U.S. America's turn to go out on a limb and learn more about Black history in this country than the 10 people y'all have been learning about since elementary school.

Black history ain't fluffy. It ain't supposed to be "feel good" fodder for white consumption. Black History Month is a month for MY people to celebrate our achievements in the face of whiteness and its ongoing compulsion to oppress black bodies. For YOUR people? It's a month for learning, unlearning, reflection, and atonement around why whiteness has an ongoing compulsion to oppress Black bodies. Your performative gestures need to be replaced with an understanding that Black folx weren't slaves; we were ENSLAVED. Your MLK quotes need to be replaced with the knowledge that he was the most hated man in the United States during his lifetime and that all of your misquotes of his words were aimed at y'all. Your need to talk about George Washington Carver every year needs to be replaced with a deeper exploration into not only Carver but the millions of Black folx who have created and innovated processes and products that have made your life easier.

Black history is United States history. I know y'all wanna ban critical race theory because then you'd have to acknowledge this, but banning is denial through bureaucracy. It doesn't change the truth. Speaking of Truth, what do you really know about Sojourner?

Looks like you've got some learning to do that goes way beyond 28 days.

Monday's Opening Thought: January 24, 2022

This week’s opening thought, for Black folx and folx of color leading active anti-racism and equity work in organizations: for the sake of your mental, emotional, and physical health, you must fight the nagging internal and external pushes for urgency placed upon you.

Fight the calls for urgency from your white-centered senior leadership teams who want you to “quick fix” racism, exclusion, and inequity. Fight the calls for urgency in yourself as those around you and the society we live in make you feel like you are failing or not working hard enough because dismantling white supremacy “isn’t happening quick enough.” You are one person. Give yourself some grace. It’s going to take centuries to dismantle the centuries of oppressive mindsets and oppressive systems with foundations built on the original sins of whiteness on unceded land. It’s taken at least two centuries to get us to where we are now, where we have rights and opportunities that we have to fight to keep constantly. Just because whiteness wants their systems of racism and white supremacy (and the benefits said systems provide) to exist but for you to not “force” them to change themselves or sit with discomfort doesn’t mean it’s your job to give them that.

Our ancestors fought for us to get to this moment. We owe it to them, ourselves, and future generations to not carry the weight of dismantling white people’s ideology of classification and oppression by ourselves. We owe it to our ancestors, ourselves, and future generations to lead by example, establishing boundaries to ensure that this heavy work does not overtake our hearts, minds, and souls and sap us of joy. We owe it to our ancestors, ourselves, and future generations to not allow sink into the frantic urgency of white U.S. Americans who expect the people their systems have oppressed to alleviate their discomfort and “fix the problem.”

Breathe. You have time. It may not always feel like you do, but you have time. Our ancestors understood the urgency of the moment they were in yet realized change would not happen overnight or even in their lifetimes. So they took time to live and thrive as they could in the face of hate. You deserve that same time. You deserve mental and emotional peace. You deserve the time to live, to love, to embrace joy. We all do. Do not let these white systems and fearful white supremacists deprive you of this.

Breathe. You have time.