Four years ago today George Floyd was brutally murdered on a Minneapolis sidewalk in broad daylight by four police officers. Viral video footage of the incident led to what the NYTimes named the largest protest movement in U.S. history. As the reality of George Floyd’s viral murder sunk in, we began having hard conversations about other unjust police killings such as that of Breonna Taylor and countless others. Our conversations turned to the racial climate that got us to this place.
As an American, I live in a country that was founded on the displacement of Native Americans and the kidnapping and forced enslavement of Africans. Centuries later, racism still permeates the air we breathe. Implicit and explicit racial biases characterize the healthcare people receive, the quality of education people can access, the economic stability opportunities, and the safety of neighborhoods.
2020 was often described as a “racial reckoning” where white people were finally starting to talk about the reality of our racialized history and the far reaching implications that has in the present day.
Unfortunately, almost immediately, white fragility caused intense backlash to this movement. Suddenly the progressive movement that seemed likely to invoke real change for the better in our country was being met by infuriated white folks who pushed back heavily against the progress. While organizations began making institutional changes, then President Trump began banning institutional changes within his jurisdiction and his supporters likewise tried to stop progress.
Rather than being a time of progress forward for a better world, it became a lot of competing steps forward and steps backward in a climate of increasing political tension. Nearly a year after George Floyd’s death, Trump-supporters attacked the capitol – what many believe to be racially motivated and a protest against the racial progress (see here).
Now, four years after George Floyd’s murder, where are we? We’ve seen four years of steps forward and steps backward. We’ve also seen four years of progressive energy start fizzling out. In 2020 we were talking about race everywhere we went. I was receiving emails from every email list I’m on discussing what [fill in the blank organization] was doing to address racism in their organization. I haven’t received any of those emails any time recently and the informal conversations we were having four years ago have largely stalled. We can’t hope for progress if we’re not creating real and meaningful change.
I want to note that some progress has been made since 2020 (see a list here), but there is still a lot to be done, and we can’t be complacent about it. Until we’ve eradicated health disparities and everyone has equal access to positive social determinants of health, we have a lot to do.
Questions to ask yourself:
- How am I promoting anti-racism in my workspace?
- How am I promoting anti-racism in my church community?
- How am I promoting anti-racism in my family life?
- In what ways might I be implicitly biased? How can I change?
- In what ways might I be explicitly biased? How can I change?
- In what ways am I complicit in the racist policies/feelings/organizations I participate in? How can I change?
- How am I teaching others to promote anti-racism?
Need some pointers for getting started? Here are a couple that I like and I welcome you to put more resources in the comments to share with others:
- Don’t be silent. Silence is complicity. Here’s an article I recommend reading: https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/149/2/e2021052115/184392/Your-Silence-Will-Not-Protect-You-Using-Words-and?autologincheck=redirected
- If you have small kids in your home or that you work with, it’s not too early to start talking about race. Sesame Street has some excellent materials to get you started: https://sesameworkshop.org/our-work/impact-areas/race-ethnicity-culture/ and PBS generally: https://www.pbs.org/parents/talking-about-racism
- And here’s a starting guide for talking with older kids about race/racism: https://www.newportacademy.com/resources/empowering-teens/talk-about-race/
- Here’s a list of anti-racism books to get started learning: https://www.powells.com/featured/antiracism
- Make your workplace more inclusive. Here are some tips on how: https://hbr.org/2020/01/5-strategies-for-creating-an-inclusive-workplace
What are you doing to fight racism? What resources can you share with others? How can we make more progress?
Note 5/27/2024: An earlier version of this blogpost implied that Ahmaud Arbery was killed by police. He was actually killed by White vigilantes in a racially motivated hate crime and then law enforcement failed to take action. This false implication has been removed from the blog post.
Thank you for the reminder and the resources, Mimi! ❤️
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Thank you so much for this. I’ll add to the list of resources the First Name Basis podcast, the Our Dirty Laundry podcast, a book for young children called Our Skin: A First Conversation about Race by Jessica Ralli and Megan Madison.
I also wanted to add that Ahmaud Arbery was not killed by police as this post implied but by white vigilantes in a racially motivated hate crime. The failure of law enforcement and the justice system to take action in his case is a perfect example showing how so many of our existing systems and structures protect white supremacy and criminalize and commit violence against Black people.
Thank you, Nicole, for the resources!
And thank you for the correction. I don’t know what I was thinking when I wrote the post. I have removed the false implication and created a note at the end of the correction.
Wow! What a fabulous post, Mimi! I just finished reading Caste by Isabel Wilkerson and am still processing. Thanks for this call and reminder. I am going to use it for our family Memorial Day lesson today.
Awesome! Let me know how the lesson goes!