Ep 23: Flip the Script on Urgent Action

April and Tracie address the impulse to act NOW when (white) people begin their racial justice journey.

Find April and Tracie's full bios and submit topic suggestions for the show at www.JewsTalkRacialJustice.com

Learn more about Joyous Justice where April is the founding and fabulous (!) director and Tracie is a senior partner: https://joyousjustice.com/
Read more of Tracie's thoughts at bmoreincremental.com

Resources and notes:
Beshallach is  Exodus 13:17–17:16. In the midrash Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael (Exodus 13:18) we read:
"And G d led the peoplecircuitously by way of the desert to the RedSea": in order to perform miracles and mightyacts with the manna and the quail and the well.R. Eliezer says: "way" — in order to wearythem, viz. (Psalms 102:24) "He drained mystrength on the way; He shortened my days."

Learn more about Yavilah McCoy's work here.

If you're interested in learning more about the Awareness Accelerator, please let us know with this form. 

Transcript

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- [Tracie] A lot of people approach racial justice work with a sense of urgency, a feeling that they need to fix things now. And we do need you, but we want you to flip the script a little.- [April] This is Jews Talk Racial Justice with April and Tracie, a weekly show hosted by April Baskin and Tracie Guy-Decker.- [Narrator] In a complex world, change takes courage.- [Narrator] Wholehearted relationships can keep us accountable.- Okay, so we wanna start a series. We don't know how long it's gonna be. It might be 1, 2, 3, or 10 or 25 sessions. But we wanna start a series and see how far it takes us, called Flip the Script. So in our work around doing joyous racial justice education within the Jewish community and beyond, it is frequent in either our work as well as just on social media and the circles we operate in to see common statements, concerns, limitations, fears, honest testimonies, around what people are feeling in the moment about challenges they may be facing. And we want to share some of those sentiments and statements and then productively and lovingly flip the script and say, "Here's a different way of looking at this. Here is some fresh thinking and some clarity around this issue." Either in the same vein of where that person or where those people work or headed, or possibly, likely, pivoting and taking a different approach that opens up new possibilities. So, anything else you wanna add?- Yeah, I just wanna kind of further reiterate. Like these are situations where we realize, or one of us will realize that there's actually a limiting belief at play often. Not always, but often.- Limiting belief- It's where, you know the person talking doesn't even realize that this is a limiting belief that is keeping them small or keeping them from taking- From achieving the racial justice greatness they have within them.- Right, exactly. From and from really..- Really though, I'm laughing at my humor, not laughing at the sentiment, that would be weird.- Right, I know it. I'm not laughing at sentiment, I'm laughing at your delivery. The sentiment is right on. That folks are keeping themselves from stepping into the full potential of the role that they can play in bringing our collective liberation. So which, which one do you wanna start with? Where do you wanna start?- I wanna start with one, that's come up recently for me one that has never fully gone away. And with everything that happened with George Floyd's murder or public street-side, curbside execution and then the movement that rose up part of the movement that's always been there and additional people who poured into the streets and/or for the first time really opened up their heart to these issues in a different way. I think in large part, basically in short because there's a lot of numbness around racism but I think most people haven't gotten numb to somebody having a knee on their neck and being choked to death while they're crying for their mother.- Yeah.- And I think that's, I think there's no there's no narrative of white supremacy delusion that explains the inhumanity of that way People because of the pandemic were in their homes. And because of the way I think relatively there are a number of benefits to it but often many dysfunctional elements of capitalism in our society today is that many people frequently have to work around the clock are constantly consumed with fundamental survival and are often living paycheck to paycheck. And because people were in their homes and either figuring out some way to, or not, survive and just weren't in the same type of rush and things that our system was slowed down. More people were able to be present to their emotions in general, which is why many people had all kinds of revelations about their lives and their relationships and also were able to feel the feelings that that injustice and violence brought on our country and on each person individually. Right, and so that just opened up a lot of people. And consequently, in the context of our work with Joyous Justice brought in a whole new wave a large wave of folks coming into the work relatively speaking for the first time. And so this trend now that I deeply buried the lede which is a classic April move, not intentional is that one of the phrases I hear particularly in the Jewish community is "I need to take action to fight racism NOW.""So I wanna go to a training and I want you to tell me how I can take action immediately. And if you do anything other than that this training is a huge disappointment and is inadequate because I still haven't gotten what I need to take immediate action."- Right, right. So there's a Torah portion in Exodus. That actually kind of reminds me of this when after the all of the plagues and the people are leaving God could have taken the people sort of directly to from Egypt to the promised land. But instead goes through the circuitous route. And some of the commentary in fact says that God did that to weary them. So when I was studying this portion with my rabbi and we were talking about like when are cases where sometimes you need to actually like kind of like tamp down someone's enthusiasm curb their enthusiasm from the beginning so that you can do the actual work. And there was a, in my study group, there was a woman who was a physical therapist who works with kids. And she was like, yeah, sometimes kids come in. And what I really need to do is some small muscle movement. Cause that's what they need to get better, but they just have so much energy. And so we do the big muscle groups first to like get out some of that energy so that I can do the actual work. And then there were other examples of that where, you know, folks are raring to go, but need to do some work before they can actually like do what needs to be done. So while we were talking about it, while we were studying this portion Beshallach is the portion that this exact example that you're talking about where folks new to the work, are like, "what can I do now?"I got to fix it, fix it, fix it" is exactly what came to my mind when we were talking about other examples in life where folks are, you know, have a lot of energy around a thing, but not a lot of skill.- Right.- And, and that there needs to be sort of a right sizing of the skill to the energy.- And I just want to invite in magically mystically, just like a court of living and deceased black elders to come in and circle around this white person and sit down with them and say "child," even if they're 80 cause we're talking about elders and ancestors and say"child, let us tell you this ain't gonna get fixed overnight. Ain't gonna get fixed. And you likely in your awakening did not go entirely from unconscious and unaware or in denial about racism and living your whole life from that premise to all the sudden shifting into complete and effective accountability. And that in order for you to be effective in this work you need to do some personal reconciliation and reflection and thinking through some of those pieces because racism doesn't just live in our institutions or in our law enforcement agencies. It lives in each of us in this country" as prominent and amazing educator and social change leader, Yavillah McCoy teaches. And this is my para... This is my old black paraphrasing of it not how she says it."Racism ain't got an address. You can't walk up to racism's house or burn it down. Racism is systemic and it's an all of our homes." And so there is action to be taken but often the first step is learning and engaging in reflection because there is a lot. So maybe I should restate that. There's a lot of unlearning and relearning that needs to happen. Most people in this country have been denied the truth. And honestly, in a number of ways the majesty of this country's history we have been denied the truth of the oppression. We've also been denied the truth of many Americans' brilliance and brilliant contributions to the development of our not-yet-fully-functional multiracial democracy.- I think that the piece of this that I think is actually really positive for those of you who are listening and being like, "yeah I do wanna take action now." And I'm speaking from experience is that as you start to recognize that truth that we've been lied to about, or that we've been denied as you start to really see it it can be really isolating and overwhelming and scary. I remember being like, "Oh, it's so awful. It's so horrible. And I can, I can't do anything. What can I...?" And like just sort of like kind of feeling weighed down in that, because I was focusing just on me and the beauty of the reframe is that I can't do this alone and I'm not supposed to. And there are lots of other people... like this is not work that we do by ourselves. And so I think remembering that, like that, that reframe that it's, it's about community, that it.- Collective action.- that our liberation is gonna come with all of us working and not just like one person who just woke up is essential. I think that the weight of the knowledge, if you're not willing to like realize that you're in it with others can be just absolutely crushing. And a lot of people, a lot of white people who have the privilege of looking away then maybe do. And so I think that message from those that circle of ancestors that you just talked about also is that they're all in it with us, along with lots of living people who we can learn from and follow.- Who have been leading in these movements for decades. Take time to read and learn what they have written. I think another thing that's key here it's really huge that I think I haven't thought a lot about but that's becoming more clear to me in this moment. And I think we might've covered this topic on other episodes you can let me know. Not that you remember everything. My trusty podcast index and friend and colleague is I think part of this urgency and need to take action now, I would ask you, what are you avoiding? What are you, what are you afraid of feeling? What truth through action are you trying to run away from? that actually your action likely isn't going to shift that is maybe potentially going to artificially make you feel better because likely it doesn't have to be in this moment but I am much more interested in giving you space to not paper over or bypass that reflection those feelings that you are trying to do with action. And instead say, let's actually look at this because likely it's both worse and not as bad as you think. It's probably that the history is worse than you think. And your culpability in this maybe more than you realized it was. And it may be less than what you are feeling in this moment that is creating a sense of terror or fear or shame that you are trying to paper over. A number of us inherited an awful legacy. And some of us benefit from that legacy we're all hurt by it. And some of us do get temporary artificial significant benefit from it. And there are healthy ways of metabolizing and realigning around that. And one of those healthy ways is not running into immediate action and skipping over the sense of guilt or shame or horror or sorrow or any number of hard feelings that beginning to become awake to what most black people have lived with, And been very aware of since they were very small, that running from that is gonna likely lead to more dysfunctional or it's going to lead to dysfunctional behavior down the line rather than starting to face and beginning to get some tools around dealing with that. Cause the question is you're so quick to take immediate action when the people who are directly affected by this aren't necessarily, at times. So you might wanna rethink yourself and you wanna rethink your actions or check yourself before you start doing something for another group of people that isn't in alignment with their strategy. And even if they're inviting you to come, if you are new to this, there's probably things you need to learn. Just like if someone just recently learned about the existence of Judaism and they think it's amazing they probably might wanna learn a bit about how about synagogue culture and how Friday night services run and what kinds of restrictions or encouraged behavior is happening in that space. It's best if people practice patience with themselves and humility and take time to learn before coming into another community or movement space.- So for those listening who are like, okay so what does that mean? What does that look like? So for me, I spent a lot of time, I'm still working on it.- Great question.- I spent a lot of time working on it and I'm still working on it, learning and making space to bear witness and and to do it in a way that does not center me. So I do a lot of reading and also I, I look for well COVID is hard, but I look for opportunities where people are being public. So, you know, existing, existing documentation of folks talking about their experiences, whether it's a book or a talk or a play or whatever, so that I'm not reaching out to people like April who happens to be a person of color in my friend group to say, explain your oppression to me. Cause that's not fair. But so it's bearing witness in ways where that has already been offered up- Very well said. And on top of that, I would add Tracie and much love to your puppy who's having some respiratory issues it's all good. We're real people with real lives and real beings in our spaces. And this is also a perfect moment to add that we're going to be coming out soon with a wonderful program to help people in their learning journey, in a safe and proactive and enriching way that Tracie also in partnership with a friend, but that Tracie took a leadership and initiative on developing and piloted it in Baltimore. Do you wanna say a couple things about it? I'm not sure if once we air this if it'll be out quite yet, but there'll be an interest. There is an interest form for folks who are interested in hearing more once we go live. Do you wanna say a little bit more about it, Tracie?- Yeah, so we're calling it The Awareness Accelerator- The Awareness Accelerator- It is loosely based on my 18 days exploring racial justice project which I talked about in a previous episode, but it's a little different, it's a little longer but basically for those of you who are like, "okay, Trace I heard ya gotta learn, where do I start?" This is a place to start. So it will be a six week course. Each week you'll have three or four days of things to think about either listen to, read, whatever and then either discuss with a partner like a havruta is partner. Havruta being a Jewish form of study where you are in pairs or threes or even just in your journal, but just it's a curated list of things in different topics for each of six weeks, for folks who really wanna like fast track that bearing witness learning unlearning piece of their racial justice journey.- Yes, I'm so excited about it. And each week we'll also kick off with a video introducing the theme for that week and particular things that are worthwhile to pay attention to through those readings, to help guide you through your journey. And I am so excited about this. I'm very thrilled that Tracie thought to create this because awareness and knowledge building is so important. And so we've created an opportunity that allows people to relatively efficiently and with some virtual community as well as self-reflection or possible partnership really start to internalize and metabolize new understandings that will position you much better to not only have your full heart engaged. Cause that's the credit that I do wanna give folks who come clamoring to me of wanting to take immediate action. I'm concerned about the urgency, but I also love the sincerity and the desire to make a difference. And what I love about Awareness Accelerator is that it equips people. It puts them on a solid path for them to be a lot more informed and to be ready to take more informed, helpful, productive action. That won't just be action that makes you feel good, but it will also be action. that's in alignment with communities who are most directly affected by race and racism. And- It's also sort of, like a habit kickstart, you know cause as we've talked about before, I really think about racial justice as, yeah, it's an intentional practice. It's a good habit that you're trying to establish as you undo old habits. And so these six weeks I'm hoping will also help people sort of kickstart that as a regular habit of thinking, talking.- And living your best life, living your best. Anti-racist, liberatory, justice filled joyous life hashtag Joyous Justice. So that's that. So "I need to take action now to fight racism." No you don't. You actually shouldn't as Lauryn Hill says"how are you gonna win If you ain't right within?" take some time to get right within. Racism is toxic. It's kind of like running into a burning building or if there was a gas leak, yes the gas leak needs to be fixed but make sure you have a gas mask on first and you learn little bit about how that gas how that poison operates, how you already how it's already been in your home how you can start to rid your home of that toxicity and what are the remedies that help each of us across lines of racial difference begin to heal from the long-term multi-century impact of the poison of white supremacy and racism. It's not gonna happen overnight, but just with six weeks, a couple months of dedicated focus and time and work you will be better positioned to be an amazing ally. And Tracie and I, and so many leaders of color. And so many white allies are so eager to have you in this work, but we want you to show up ready to be the powerful change agent. We know you have the capacity to be. And that doesn't mean what we're gonna cover in a later episode, then we're not talking about perfection. We're just talking about being a bit more ready and mindful.- So the other piece of this, in addition to all of the other things that we've just said is that, you know, this is, this is a marathon, not a sprint. And so that's the other piece of sort of not rushing into take action is to pace yourself so that you don't burn out because we need you in this work. We really do.- And that's what the elders were saying. When I sense the elders were saying in this work is "Honey don't insult us. We tried our whole lifetime." And I think it's possible actually for us in our lifetime actually, I think based upon how things are going to make amazing strides. Because we're building on all this progress that has been made. And I don't know that we can fully eradicate it in my lifetime, but I actually think we can have a very different reality that is dramatically better and it's possible. And we need you in this work, but we need you in right relationship with yourself and this work, in the work.- Right.- [Narrator] Thanks for tuning in. Our show's theme music was composed by Elliot Hammer. You can find this track and other beats on Instagram at Elliot Hammer. If this episode resonated with you, please share it and subscribe. To join the conversation, visit jewstalkracialjustice.com where you can send us a question or suggestion access our show notes and learn more about our team. Take care until next time and stay humble and keep going.