Day 1

Dear White Family, Friends and Neighbors, 


If we are a stone cast in the center of a lake of unchanging waters, what effect will the ripples have? We invite you to cast a stone every day for 30 days and watch the ripples affect change.  Imagine how much change we can start when all our ripples combine.  Then we will be a wave.


We are horrified by the continued murder of black and brown people by police and the racism this exposes, that perpetuates, the very systems that are designed to keep ALL of us safe.  Many of you have asked, “What can I do?”.  We’ve been asking ourselves the same question over the past several months/years, and we don’t totally know the answer.  We are over here living our lives in awareness of our white privilege and doing our best to not be racist every day, but that is not enough.  This keeps happening, it’s not getting better.  We have decided we have to do more.  We’re not exactly sure what the right thing to do is, but we are sure we have to get started,  we know we can no longer be paralyzed by the fear of doing the wrong thing.  We can’t just think and love and hope; we need to take action.  So we have an idea to get us started: 


It takes 21 days to form a habit.  Let’s make it 30 just to make sure it sticks.  We’re inviting you to join us on a month-long journey - a commitment to doing something every day in order to make anti-racism a habit for the rest of our lives. If we take an action everyday (even if only one person joins us that’s 90 actions) that seems meaningful, but we think what will be even more lasting is that we will have formed a habit of being actively anti-racist.  Even with our mixed-race family, in these moments of upheaval, we find ourselves angry and sad and hyper focused on anti-racism.  At some point, however,  we will once again get distracted by life and go weeks without asking ourselves how I can be a part of the solution.  Our black and brown sisters and brothers don’t have the luxury of getting distracted.  What if these 30 days raised our consciousness, changing the very shape of our stone while sending meaningful ripples out into the world.  


Our idea is to find an actionable item for each day for 30 days and to actually do it.  In the attached document Camerin has described what we see as the ripples of white ally-ship.  We can engage in at least one action from each ripple each week as part of our daily action steps.   We will share the actionable item that we are doing each day, and we can support each other in putting in the work.  By doing this as a group, we can encourage each other, share ideas, successes, and challenges and ultimately have a greater impact.  This has to stop.  We must be “the change that we want to see in the world.”   



Peace and love,  

Camerin and Beth


Day 1: Today we are re-reading The Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh.  Reinvestigating white privilege in our own lives and adding to the list from the article.  We are using today to reflect and prepare for this 30 day commitment.  


Additionally I (Camerin) have put White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by DiAngelo, Robin J. on hold at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library (which reopens to pick up on hold items today). 

 

Join us in this action or do something that better suits you and your needs today (resources below).  Then let’s talk about it.  How did it go?  How did you feel? What challenges did you face?  What did you learn? 


Want to read a different article or book, here are some good lists: 


If you choose to purchase a book, consider ordering it from a black owned bookstore.  Here are two: 

Turning Page Bookshop: 843-501-7223 (in South Carolina)

Black Dot Cultural Center: 404-519-8107 (in Atlanta) 



A great resource for actionable items: https://medium.com/equality-includes-you/what-white-people-can-do-for-racial-justice-f2d18b0e0234

A great resource on how to talk and not to talk about these issues on social media and with black associates, friends and family: 

https://www.katykatikate.com/the-blog/2020/5/26/5-racist-anti-racism-responses-good-white-women-give-to-viral-posts?fbclid=IwAR2871sqMFz5ELJ-pFutVYSaIC06Alt6Gl8HIzueAJYGscDGhUWmo2A0Kj4 


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