What Next?

What To Do Next?

Whether you reviewed each of the modules in this section or skimmed just a few, it is easy to be overwhelmed and unsure about next steps. Even if you are convinced of the need to make changes and "do better," what does that mean? what will it look like in your classes? The goal of any professional development opportunity is to improve your work with students. Being overwhelmed and not sure where to start does not often lead to significant improvements. So, the question about next steps is really important.

Before I even attempt to address the question of "what next?", I wanted to share a discussion on the topic. In the Foreward to Layla F. Saad's book Me and White Supremacy, author Robin Diangelo (author of White Fragility) addresses this key question, and she offers some important context to the question. I encourage you to thoughtfully reflect about your own motivation behind the question. I have included several paragraphs below, and it is well worth the read. 

"'All right!' you say. 'I get it! Now what do I do?'

"I am a white antiracist educator. Invariably, the number one question I am asked by a white participant at the end of a presentation is "What do I do?" It may seem a reasonable thing to ask upon realizing that you are complicit in white supremacy. Yet this question is problematic. First and foremost, it is problematic because I believe it is disingenuous. It has been my consistent experience leading antiracist education over the last twenty-five years that most white people don't really want to know what to do about racism if it will require anything of them that is inconvenient or uncomfortable. 

"Indeed, asking this question is often a way to mitigate or deflect feelings of racial discomfort. While the racist status quo is comfortable for me virtually twenty-four-seven as a white person, challenging the racist status quo is not. Building the racial stamina required to challenge the racist status is thus a critical part of our work as white people. Rushing ahead to solutions - especially when we have barely begun to think critically about the problem - bypasses the necessary personal work and reflection and distances us from understanding our own complicity. In fact, racial discomfort is inherent to an authentic examination of white supremacy. By avoiding this discomfort, the racist status quo is protected. 

"The entitled demand for simple answers also allows us to dismiss the information if those answers are not forthcoming ('She didn't tell us what to do!'). This is especially arrogant when demand is made of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). In essence we are saying, 'You do all the work and take all the risk, then hand me the fruits of your labor. I will sit back and receive them while taking no person risk myself.' And what happens when we don't like the answers because they are not quick, convenient, or comfortable? When the answers challenge our self-image as open-minded progressive individuals, free of all racial conditioning? As BIPOC have experienced again and again, when we don't agree with the answers we have demanded, we all too often feel qualified to dismiss them. 

"White supremacy is arguably the most complex social system of the last several hundred years. If only the answer was to be nice and keep smiling! But, of course, there are no easy answers for ending white supremacy. 

"In my effort to answer the question of what to do next, I have begun to ask a counter question: 'How have you managed not to know?' In the era of Google and social media, the information on what white people can do about racism is everywhere, and BIPOC have been telling us what they need for a very long time. Why haven't we sought out the information on our own up until now? What haven't we looked it up, as we would have done for any other topic that interested us? Asking white people why they don't already know the answer is meant to be a challenge to the apathy about white supremacy that I have come to believe most white people feel. But it is also a sincere question. If we actually made a list of why we don't know what to do, we would have a guide for moving forward. Nothing on that guide would be simple for moving forward. Nothing on that guide would be simply or easy to change, but change would be possible. Your list might look something like this:

    • I wasn't educated about racism.
    • I don't talk about racism with other white people. 
    • I don't talk about racism with the People of Color in my life. 
    • I don't have People of Color in my life.
    • I don't want to feel guilty.
    • I haven't cared enough to find out."

Robin Diangelo, Forward to Layla F. Saad's book Me and White Supremacy

If you decided to take on just one or two of the items on Diangelo's list, you could make significant changes to your own understanding. If you don't often talk about racism, join a conversation with people that you trust to listen and provide authentic feedback. Come to a TLC event on an equity topic. If you often feel you are being asked to feel guilty or ashamed about your own privilege, decide to lean into those feeling and examine their triggers. 

Or, work on negating Diangelo's first item by educating yourself. There are amazing resources that you can access from home with little effort and cost. I can't promise that the suggestions will come up with the easy answers about what YOU should do next, but I can guarantee that they will make you think. I compiled a few lists of resources to help you learn more about the topic.

I can promise one thing: if you don't take a next step, things will never change. 

 

Resources

These suggestions for further reading and research are compiled from several lists, including the Professional and Organizational Developers' (POD) Network “Anitracist Pedagogy Reading List Links to an external site.,” Whitworth’s “Resources to Help End Racial Injustice Links to an external site.,” and The Greater Good in Education’s “Resources to Support Anti-racist Learning Links to an external site..” The list is lengthy - look at it as a buffet of choices! Just choose something that sounds interesting and get started. The TLC has only a few of the books on the list available for loan (including Blindspot and Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?) - contact me for more details. 

 

Books (each title has a link with more information when available - just click!) 

 

Articles (links included when available)

 

Podcasts and YouTube Series(links included with each title)

 

Websites (links included with each title)

 

Films and Television Series (links or location information included with each title)