Holding steady and centering on the most marginalized in times of crisis

As COVID-19 advances ever more rapidly across the country and in ever closer circles, a word that is coming to the forefront of my mind is STEADY.

White supremacy (and by that I don't mean the KKK, I mean the system designed to favor those who are deemed white and oppress those who are not) wants us to panic, white supremacy wants us to hoard, white supremacy wants us to default to protecting power off the backs of the most marginalized, white supremacy wants us to bury our heads in the sand, white supremacy wants us not to disrupt the status quo even as the status quo is quite clearly being disrupted.

White supremacy’s obsession with individualism, "pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps" and a long standing tradition of blaming individuals for bringing their situation on themselves rather than taking collective responsibility and action means that as a culture, we would rather die than look after our most vulnerable.

Particularly white (and many non-Black) folks have shown over and over that they would rather die than share with or protect Black folks.

(See: not willing to give up guns even at the expense of the lives of young white children in school shootings because the second amendment is rooted in plantation owner rights to protect their property.)

(See: Democrats who I suspect would prefer Trump to a progressive candidate who would more equitably distribute wealth and resources.)

(See: Black folks voting for Biden because they don’t trust white folks to vote for a progressive candidate who would more equitably distribute wealth and resources.)

In the US at least, we can’t see the collective good - not one that includes ALL of us.

It’s a tragic and deeply embedded blindspot, "blindspot" being a bit of an euphemism for principles of genocide and slavery that this country was quite specifically and deliberately constructed on.

It’s the system working exactly as designed.

So what does STEADY mean in the midst of a pandemic?

I think it means holding steady to our values and principles.

For me that means using the same tools for confronting the truth and working towards equity and healing.

It means speaking for my own healing while centering on the most marginalized.

It means recognizing all four levels of oppression including institutional and systemic.

It means leveraging my privilege and paying some of the costs that others might not be able to (for example doing what I can to "flatten the curve" even though I'm not particularly vulnerable if I get it).

It means pivoting in my work to think about... where can I be of the best use right now? Where can I make the most impact? What does DEI consulting even look like in a pandemic or other crisis? What does anti-oppression and anti-racism work look like in a pandemic or other crisis?

I'll be honest, I'm not really sure right now. I mean, it's not like the need for the work goes away just because we're in a crisis. In some ways, it's more important than ever as what I believe we're seeing is the real time consequences of our systems of oppression that ultimately hurt us all (although not equally).

Where do we go forward from here?

I believe the answer is, as always, to build trust and collaborative relationships across power differentials, not by being a savior but by LISTENING.

And once again, the Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture framework from Kenneth Jones and Tema Okun via Dismantling Racism is a GREAT one to reference as we think about our response to COVID-19 at cultural, community and individual levels.

Here is our "cheat sheet" - we use it in almost every workshop we facilitate:

How can we hold a growth mindset, create realistic plans, and promote transparency and open decision-making? How can we share rather than hoard power? How can we hold space for complexity? How can we collaborate?

It strikes me that the most vulnerable are always the most vulnerable. Many organizations are stuck between a rock and a hard place in their decisions, for example, the NYC Public School system that has said it will only close as a last resort because of the impact on the most vulnerable students, including 100,000 unhoused students.

I think it's time for both/and rather than either/or thinking. It's time for creativity and innovation. It's time to hold steady and try, as much as we can, to make decisions from a position of strength and not fear.

I hope you and yours can stay safe and healthy, and that we can all pull together collectively as well.

For my personal reflections on confronting the truth about white supremacy, sign up for 30 Days of Courage, a series of 30 daily emails followed by weekly reflections.

Banner photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash. Originally published on LinkedIn.