Best of N.A.H. January 2018

February 1, 2018

On the 1st of each month, I share links to some of the best posts from my blog, Notes from an Aspiring Humanitarian.

Here are links to selected notes from January 2018.

Ways to Raise Kind People

“In a broader context, I wonder about how to raise a person that is empathetic, attentive to others, who understands how the ways they are situated and resists both internalizing the self-hatred that the oppression of their marginalized identities is intended to foster, as well as resisting the internalized patterns and expectations of power that the privileging of their dominant identities is intended to foster, among other questions.

Now, in no way is demeanor the thing that is going to solve all the structural concerns I have and answer my questions, but when I honestly shared some of these thoughts (fears really) with other social justice workers at a retreat, I was advised by one parent of color to focus on raising kind people.

“If you focus on raising kind people, some of that stuff tends to work out.”

So I took it to social media to see what folks thought, and I’d like to share some of the responses here.”

White People Need to Be Better People

“There’s a crisis in the white community and white people need to talk to each other about why they continue to make these decisions over and over again.”

“Your Black Friend”: An Animated Short

“Not acting out of fear of making things awkward is but one of the routes white people can take on the path to avoiding responsibility for their participation in racism. At whose expense is this false sense of equilibrium maintained?”

Depth and Breadth of Awareness

“Put another way, one of the things we talked about during my participation in the Social Justice Training Institute was the idea that when thinking in terms of climate and equity, one of the ways institutions can perpetuate systems of oppression is by focusing on demographics but not the dynamics that are taking place within those demographics.

Although conversations about the reality of the shifting demographics as a case for equity can be a common talking point in social justice work is important to acknowledge that institutions as originally designed were set up to exclude those in the “shifting demographics”. What is often lost is the naming of the dynamics that are taking place, and the marginalizing experience those dynamics reproduce. We need to study and recognize those dynamics.”

Read more of Depth and Breadth of Awareness

Check out the January 2018 archives for more notes from that month. Visit The Best Of N.A.H. page to find more of my personal favorites.

Ubuntu,

From Aspiring Humanitarian, Relando Thompkins-Jones