Day 20 Final Reflections

 REFLECTION QUESTIONS: 

1. What is my race and how has it impacted my life? How does my race allow me to have higher social capital or privilege in certain environments, or vice versa? 

2. What were some of my assumptions about race and racial inequity before I started this 21-day challenge? In what ways have these assumptions been challenged? In what ways have they been reinforced? 

3. Where have I seen evidence of inequities and systemic and structural racism in my community? 

4. What two to three shifts, changes or actions, can I take to create a more inclusive and equitable environment in my home, workplace, and community? 

1. I've always considered my race White or Caucasian, European American ethnicity. My place of privilege has meant I have not had to consider my race on a daily basis, have not been discriminated against because of it, and been privy to walking through any doors I have chosen to, without a thought.

However, I have never done a DNA test, but am curious to know if there are some other races mixed in. I would be delighted to find African, Asian or Indigenous bloodlines in my DNA.

2. I've had moments of awakening in the past: attending my first Juneteenth celebration in Denver, CO in 1986 and being in the minority for the first time in my life; taking a gay male colleague to a local diner, and suddenly wondering if he felt uncomfortable. The challenge definitely got me thinking about how ubiquitous racial inequality is. I realized that it's something some people don't have the luxury of ignoring.

3. Everywhere: I see people of color working mainly low wage jobs in food service. Mostly white county board, police force, fire department.

4. Bring up the conversation. Challenge what I disagree with. Call out wrongness.

Day 18 and 19

 You are an ally if you seek to understand what it feels like for another person or group to be oppressed, and despite knowing you will never fully understand how it feels, you are committed to valuing and supporting people who are marginalized. 

 2020 has been a very divisive year, one reason for the formation of the local One Human Family chapter, the sponsor of this 21 day racial equity challenge. 

A new term to me, "asset-framing" uses narratives to change the unconscious associations ingrained in our society. The opposite practice of deficit-framing, or defining people by their challenges, encourages continued stigmatization of groups of individuals. 

The above are some quotes from the material provided on the topics of allyship and the racial equity change process. Fancy ways of saying, I support my fellow humans who have been marginalized, and I will work for change out in the world.

I have already failed. An opportunity for me to speak up at a staff meeting when a weakness was identified as lack of diversity amongst us. The leader and others concluded aloud there is nothing we can do about this, I think implying we don't get diverse applicants to apply. Everything in me wanted to cry out, that's not the answer. I don't have the answer/s but that's not good enough. But my little mind didn't let me speak up. My fear held me back. Would they argue, demand I give the answers I'm not sure of? I had nothing to lose, and yet I was silent. How many times has a person who has been marginalized been silent or silenced, when I of privilege am afraid to speak up?

I don't like confronting this reality, but this is where I am at.

DAY 17: Building a Race Equity Culture

 One Human Family, who has sponsored and organized this racial equity challenge, sure has pulled together a lot of resources. Today's challenge is about making the workplace more inclusive. I didn't think I had much influence on hiring practices, but I can make sure all feel welcomed- parents who need time off for their kids, people with disabilities, black and brown co-workers and clients. 

DAY 16: Equity & The LGBTQI+ Community

 Another topic I know something about. Intersectionality is a term used when a person has more than one identity that is subject to discrimination. For example, Black trans female, or a person who is disabled and also happens to be Latinx. 

One interesting question I got from the following video about how to be an ally was to examine what your intention is in being an ally.

I really have to put on my thinking cap for this one. I have been drawn to the LGBTQ community for a long time. I have been eager to attend trainings, educate myself, work, and befriend persons from this particular minority group. Maybe it's my love of the underdog. Maybe it's because of my own internal struggles that I can relate. 

This video explains why pronouns are important. 

This has come into focus in my personal life as a close family member has come out as non-binary. I get frustrated with arguments against using the pronouns "they, them, theirs." Just do it. The more you do it, the easier it gets. If we are uncomfortable, imagine what it's like to be the person who doesn't fit the stereotypical mold of society. 

DAY 15: Adverse Childhood Experiences

 Finally, I know something about: ACES. And I am caught up on my challenges. 

Adverse Childhood Experiences are measured by how many of 10 factors you experienced as a child. The more you have, the worse physical and mental health outcomes you will experience over your lifetime. The interesting thing is, the original study was done on college educated persons who had health insurance. You can find your ACES score here: https://www.acesconnection.com/blog/got-your-ace-resilience-scores. Things like parent separation or divorce, parent in prison, parent alcoholic or mentally ill, physical abuse, and witness to domestic violence are some of the questions. 

I have read Nadine Burke Harris' book The Deepest Well and watched her Ted Talks. I highly recommend them if you want to understand how impactful trauma is on humans. 

I also love the idea of resilience:

Building Resilience

 
The habits, practices, and cognitive strategies featured above are key to building resilience.
[View a larger version of the Resilience Pyramid]
 

Everyone faces challenges and hardship at times.

Resilience is your ability to cope with and bounce back from stress and adversity, and hopefully even grow through the experience. It is sometimes referred to as “thriving” … and not just surviving.

Resilient people are more likely to ...

• meet the demands of their academic/work and personal lives successfully
• take action to deal with challenges, problems, and setbacks
• seek support and assistance when they need it
• know when to stop, rest, and replenish inner resources
• have a sense of independence, self-efficacy, and self-worth
• form and maintain positive, mutually-respectful relationships with others
• have a sense of purpose and goals for the future

Resilience is not a fixed state. You may be more resilient at different times in your life than others. Most importantly, resilience can be learned, practiced, developed, and strengthened.

DAY 14: Education & School-Aged Children

 Did you have teachers who looked like you? Did you have toys and books that looked like you? What messages were you taught about race? How did those messages compare to what you saw around you?

I'm not really into reading a bunch of statistics, so for today's challenge I will just journal on the prompts above that were given.

Scratch that. I looked at the stats for my local school district and the surrounding schools, and see that only my area had enough (more than 10) Black students to report on. That was kind of shocking in 2021. Only one district (not mine) had enough Hispanic students to report on. Both groups performed less well on state testing. No percent of the Black or Hispanic students exceeded standards on English or math. There's obviously a lot of work to do here.

Anecdotally, my son reports that his primarily Black students perform better in math than English.

DAY 13: Behind the Starting Line — Racialized Outcomes in Early Childhood

 Have you heard the brew-ha about Illinois' new culturally responsive teaching standards? OMG, another example of backlash against the BLM movement, in my humble opinion. Why are all these White people getting their pants in a bunch over teacher education programs opening eyes to differences they are going to encounter in their teaching career? If a White student was in a predominantly Black school with all Black teachers, wouldn't you want them to have an understanding of your child's background? 

Quality early childhood education is known to increase future school success, and you're probably not surprised to hear that more Black pre-schoolers are suspended from school than their White counterparts. And over-identified for special education. 

DAY 12: The Racial Wealth Gap

Doing this racial equity work is exhausting. It makes me wonder how BIPOC (Black and Indigenous People of Color) feel and how they become successful with the odds stacked against them. There are many who do, so why do we stereotype them as people who are not successful. 

There are both gaps in income and wealth. Some explanations have been previously mentioned such as home ownership. Whites own more stocks, other real estate and businesses, which are riskier but have higher average returns over time. Whites have better jobs that offer pensions and long term saving and investing opportunities. 

Here's another factor I had not thought about:

The magnitudes of differences in inheritances have been found to be large. Avery and Rendall (2002) use the 1989 SCF to document that far fewer black households reported receiving an inheritance than whites and that, of those who did, the average value was about five times smaller than that of their white counterparts.