If you are interested to watch the proceedings live today, you can view them here:
Freedom
Holocaust Remembrance Day
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” (– Attributed to Anne Frank)
Stanton’s 10 Stages of Genocide and how the US stacks up:
Reflect on your own values, and see what you may do to “start to improve the world.” ❤
Anti-Semitism Still Active
In 2019 in the United States of America, the Jewish community still experiences life-threatening anti-Semitism:
We don’t want more people to have to die singing.
Antisemitism is real and being stirred.
If the Jewish and Muslim communities can support one another, then others can–and must–also learn to de-escalate.
Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, of Chabad of Poway, who was injured in the shooting today, wrote this post in March:
If you would like to help in a concrete way, donations are being collected:
Be mindful of neighbors and coworkers who may be very affected by these events and check in with them if you can.
Be safe, and help others feel safe, too. ❤
Race Against Racism
Good morning! It’s time to run the Race Against Racism. I’ll be making fellow runners feel better about themselves by being the one everyone can pass!
So far this year I have personally provided 101 cost-discounted sessions to 11 separate clients. This included 15 sessions at an 87% discount and 86 sessions at a 55% discount. Donors have generously covered $670 so far this year–nearly 10%! Thank you!! For the balance of session costs I have donated my time ($6545 so far this year).
Minority statuses occupied by this year’s session discount recipients have included homelessness, disability, LGBTQ identity, immigrant/nationality, religious minority, and racial statuses, as well as low income.
If you would like to sponsor* me by contributing to our Therapy Scholarship, click the paisley icon 👇👇👇👇! (Read more about the scholarship below the link). Any amount helps! If you cannot donate, shares and RTs are also great. Thank you!!
YOUR DONATIONS ARE KEEPING US RUNNING — THANK YOU!
Donate to Therapy Scholarship for Low-Income Marginalized Individuals
Often, members of minority and marginalized groups have the greatest need for therapy to help recover from injurious life experiences and environments. However, for the same reason, they are also the most likely to be unable to afford treatment.
This Therapy Scholarship has been helping to fund discounted, low-cost, and no-cost therapy in 2019 for low-income individuals with a qualified professional therapist. Your donations are helping keep the bills paid at ILC&P while we see clients!
*I plan to run regardless so it may not technically be a “sponsorship” but we do really appreciate any and all donations!
If you are a fellow runner with chronic illness or mental illness, read about my approach to running with PTSD.
YWCA Lancaster Race Against Racism 2019
My injured knee from the fall I took last fall is about as healed as it is going to get! I’ll be participating in this Saturday’s Race Against Racism again though probably at my traditional slow pace. 😁
If you would like to sponsor* me by contributing to our Therapy Scholarship, click the paisley icon 👇👇👇👇! (Read more about the scholarship below the link). Any amount helps! If you cannot donate, shares and RTs are also great. Thank you!!
YOUR DONATIONS ARE KEEPING US RUNNING — THANK YOU!
Donate to Therapy Scholarship for Low-Income Marginalized Individuals
Often, members of minority and marginalized groups have the greatest need for therapy to help recover from injurious life experiences and environments. However, for the same reason, they are also the most likely to be unable to afford treatment.
This Therapy Scholarship has been helping to fund discounted, low-cost, and no-cost therapy in 2019 for low-income individuals with a qualified professional therapist. Your donations are helping keep the bills paid at ILC&P while we see clients!
So far this year I have personally provided 101 cost-discounted sessions to 11 separate clients. This included 15 sessions at an 87% discount and 86 sessions at a 55% discount. Donors have generously covered $670 so far this year–nearly 10%! Thank you!! For the balance of session costs I have donated my time ($6545 so far this year).
Minority statuses occupied by this year’s session discount recipients have included homelessness, disability, LGBTQ identity, immigrant/nationality, religious minority, and racial statuses, as well as low income.
*I plan to run regardless so it may not technically be a “sponsorship” but we do really appreciate any and all donations!
Read about my approach to running with PTSD.
Targeted Violence in New Zealand Shatters the Peace for All
We are saddened and outraged to hear of the deaths of 49 Muslim worshippers at the mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. We extend our condolences to the Muslim community in New Zealand and also our Muslim neighbors locally.
A reminder to all that it is important to avoid sharing harmful imagery and materials that primarily publicize terrorist acts and terrorists. This includes the video livestreamed by the shooter, but also stills from the video. One reason is to avoid giving terrorists the publicity they crave, which can also encourage terrorist acts by others.
Another reason is to minimize traumatizing people by making exposure to images of actual violence and killings practically unavoidable as they go about their everyday lives. Traumatic material can severely affect not only those in the specific target group of the violence, but many others as well.
As the above Twitter user has pointed out, instead of giving terrorists free publicity, find ways to help, locally and internationally. Some ideas from others include: showing support and solidarity online or in person, contacting local Muslim organizations to offer help, or donating to specific victim aid.
For Muslims anywhere,
Be mindful of neighbors and coworkers who may be very affected by these events and check in with them if you can.
Be safe, and help others feel safe, too. ❤
Someone Said I Did A Racism; Now What? A Guide
It’s the final day of Black History Month!
The past month has seen a number of high-profile figures being criticized for saying or doing racist things. In most cases that I saw, those in the spotlight made matters even worse by their responses. Have you wondered how you would respond in the same circumstance?
Nobody wants to think of themselves as racist. But the fact is, being raised in a racist society means that some of the time, we will all do or say some racist things, despite meaning well and often without even realizing it.
So what do you do if someone points out that what you have said or done is racist? Here is a guide.
1. First of all, hold that initial impulse to argue. Before you say anything, take a breath and pause for several seconds. If you must speak, say something like, “Okay. I need to think about this.”
2. On the emotional side, contain your defensiveness: Doing or saying a racist thing doesn’t necessarily mean that you are a bigot or a terrible person. Most people doing racist things are not bigots. It does mean that a piece of (very common!) racist conditioning has come up and it’s an opportunity to work on that and heal. If you are a person with a conscience and a heart, it will probably hurt to hear. That means your conscience and your heart are working! But try not to take this criticism as an attack. (This is hard!)
3. Recognize that your intention doesn’t excuse the outcome: If I run over your foot with my truck, it doesn’t matter whether I mean to or not. Your foot is going to be hurt–possibly broken. The same is true of racist acts and words. The vast majority of racism is unintentional, and it is injurious to others just the same.
So it’s okay if you find yourself saying “I didn’t mean to…” But recognize that is only the beginning, and only a tiny piece of the issue. It’s not an apology.
4. Try simply apologizing unconditionally and without a long explanation. It’s okay to say something like “I’m sorry. I see that was ugly.” If this sounds hard (it is, emotionally speaking), try preparing by reviewing and practicing before this ever comes up, so you won’t be frozen or outraged if it happens. You may also want to review what not to do!
5. Manage your own feelings: This is really the hardest part.
Most of us, if not all, will feel defensive, hurt, attacked, misunderstood, guilty, sad, scared, angry, or some combination of the above. But those feelings are yours to manage, and you are strong enough to hold them.
Remember, the other person is not responsible for making you feel better for having hurt them, or to give you absolution. It’s especially important to let them have their feelings of upsetness without trying to talk them out of it or to burden them with the emotional work of reassuring you about it. That places additional work on them when they are already burdened with the hurt of racism, and it is unfair.
If you need to vent your feelings about this (which is healthy!) find someone else to talk with, preferably a racially conscious White friend or even a counselor. You may also want to journal, cry privately, read, pray, or meditate, just as you would with any other painful or uncomfortable feelings that you are processing.
6. What if they are wrong? Short answer: they’re not. Even though you didn’t mean it that way.
Think about it: if you are a White woman, haven’t you seen men doing sexism even when they didn’t realize it? Or they dismissed it? If you are a White person who is LGBT: haven’t you seen hetero people being homophobic or transphobic and then saying how much they love LGBT folks? Low-income people, haven’t you heard rich people talk about poor people like they really don’t matter at all in the ultimate equation? Yet if you asked them, they would probably say they like people generally, and had nothing against any particular poor person.
The worst judge of an -ism is the person committing it, and racism is no exception.
7. Don’t be discouraged from working on race issues: Pick it back up when you have healed. Think about your motives. Are you working on unlearning racism because it’s the right thing to do, or to get approval and recognition from people in a marginalized group? Work on race issues because you want to improve society, whether or not any specific BIPoC likes you (or you them). Unlearning is a lifelong process.
8. Develop authentic friendships: It is always more emotionally risky for a BIPoC to have a White friend than the other way around. So make yourself available, be friendly and helpful insofar as you are able, but remember that no one owes you friendship, no matter how nice you are to them. To borrow an analogy, friendship is not a vending machine.
For additional thoughts about interracial friendship, visit this thread:
PS: Whatever you do, resist the urge to do a “not all White People,” –no really, do not do a “not all White People.”
Birthday of Rosa Parks
Today is the 106th anniversary of the birth of Rosa Parks.
Dolly Chugh reviews The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks for Forbes. She describes why this should matter to your organization (and everyone’s!)
“So You Want to Talk About Race”
Discussing race: “Be Uncomfortable A Lot!”
In honor of Black History Month, I will begin livetweeting Seattle writer Ijeoma Oluo’s book, “So You Want to Talk About Race.” It will take as long as it takes, but today is a great day to start!
This is an accessible and important read. I hope you will join me in reading or follow along in reading and discussion.
Twitter thread begins here.
For more of Ijeoma Oluo’s writing, see her writing page.
For a bit of background on Ijeoma Oluo’s perspective on race, this KUOW page has a brief archived podcast and transcript.
PHOTO CREDIT: NED AHRENS, KING COUNTY
Honoring Black History Month
Check out upcoming events on the Lancaster Black History Month events calendar!
Support Black Women’s mental health:
And watch some better entertainment!
