Racism – Insights from My Friend (Part 1)

Annie was in my group at Berkeley last summer, where we participated in an international conference for teachers on social and emotional learning (SEL).  Our close-knit group still meets regularly on Zoom, supporting each other through breakdowns and celebrating breakthroughs. The other day I asked Annie, who lives in the U.S., what it is like being black with so much visible outrage boiling all around us. She gave some food for thought.

Being around people who are into social/emotional learning (SEL) makes me forget about the racism that is so real out there. But with the riots and protests, I am discouraged. Minorities can’t do this by themselves. How do you teach others what it is like? My work in SEL demonstrates an element of safety is necessary to be effective when having these conversations and finding allies, however it takes additional effort for me as a minority to "make" you feel safe during an uncomfortable conversation in order to gain your allyship. Like my ability to navigate your and my discomfort is directly linked to whether or not you will receive the education needed to grow.

Organizations need internal discussion for system change to have hope. These conversations are starting to happen now. They must continue. It is great when an organization wants to have a visual representation of the people they serve i.e., 20% of the population is black so 20% of the staff is black.

True anti-racist work demands we commit to the work and that organizations have the ongoing conversations necessary to deprogram our implicit biases.  We commit to our workforce reflecting the population we serve regardless of obstacles.  If your clientele is 15% Black, 20% Hispanic, and 10% Asian, and 5% Native Americans, your employees need to reflect the demographics as closely as possible.  However, the majority of organizations do not want to engage in this type of recruitment because the inequity caused such a large disparity in access to tools, people, and resources that the available individuals for open positions will be those who had access.  There are numerous individuals with the brain capacity to perform and hold positions without access so those with access end up getting the position.

We tend to gravitate to what feels safe and what feels safe is what is familiar so we end up surrounding ourselves with people who look like us and think like us.  That is another way we hinder anti-racist work.  Our willingness to be uncomfortable is directly connected to how successful our anti-racist journey is.

Access is the main problem. Blacks have a harder time getting a quality education. We also have a harder time getting quality positions professionally. That is partly due to not having a quality education. Access could look like having the opportunity to do executive training on the job. Confidence and a sense of belonging are impacted when access is not made available.

Microaggressions are the worst. E.g. comments like, “You are smart for a black person.” Microaggressions tend to be very detrimental because of how unconscious and often they happen.  They have a psychological impact on all individuals because they reinforce our implicit biases about ourselves and others.

The current atmosphere reminds me that I am around people who are like-minded and as a result, I can often forget that people do not want to do the work it takes to be anti-racist. 

Annie has a high level of social and emotional learning. She is not easily activated but thoughtfully responds instead. I appreciate her reflections here and hope it supports you in your thinking about racism, as it does mine.

Annie Paraison is happy to share her views on this blog and has given permission to share her social media contact. Facebook: aparaison | Instagram: @Raisingsheilab

What is your response to Annie’s comments?