Facebook Publication Date: 2/23/2019 21:02

Dearest community of Lace on Race:

As part of the reboot, perhaps now would be a good time to talk about who we are, why we are here, what we hope to accomplish in both the short and the long term, what you can expect from me and I from you–and what we can expect from each other individually and collectively; in short, the type of community we all want to be.

There is a story of Lace on Race, which we wrote and delivered as a lecture at a conference last year, and which we will be adapting for here. It gives a good overview of why we saw a need for the type of work we are doing, why we feel this space is important, and why our core values are paramount as we do this work. I look forward to sharing this with all of you, and especially look forward to your feedback.

For now though, in this correspondence, I want to talk about assumptions and expectations, both yours and mine.

This was a conversation that did not happen last year when we launched LoR, and it should have happened.

I take responsibility for that; I own the fear, disguised as hesitation, to offer clear norms for approaching this material and for relating to each other.

There have been few ‘fires’ so to speak, and when there have been, we have dealt with issues on an indiviudal basis. This has been semi effective; but what will probably work better is setting clear norms that we all can agree upon and affirm.

This will be important as we create a safe-ish space. Note that I said ‘safe-ish’; this distinction is important. We will be talking about this more, but for now, I just invite you to think and reflect about what the concept of ‘safe-ish’ means to you.

Coming close on the heels of this will be the following discussions. I dearly hope for robust conversation and dialog from as many of you as possible, here and in the subsequent posts, which will include the following topics:

–What a ‘safe-ish’ space means, and how it can help us navigate difficult topics

–Expectations from you towards me: what do you want to see in this space? Do you want this space to be a place of support, instruction, or both?

–Expectations from me directed to you; we will discuss this in greater detail, but for now, know that I *do* have some. Both the obvious and the less so. This is a different space, by conscious design. More is indeed asked of you, pretty much on every front; and still more will be asked as we migrate to the website, and our needs and our reach changes.

–Commitment: what it means in terms of commitment to the imperative of racial justice itself, and also commitment to this space and the people in it, and commitment to walk a journey for the long haul.

–Money. Yes, we are going to tackle it head on, both the need for it, and resistance to contributing, and what it means for both inward formation and external praxis. This is another subject that has caused me great anxiety and fear this year, and the work has suffered somewhat as a result. We should have moved to a website long ago, and this facet of faithfulness should have long been settled. That it has not been is a deep disappointment of mine, and needs to be faced squarely, by each and every one of us.

–Accountability and teachability–it should be self explanatory, I know, but it so often isn’t; so we will define both of these terms for our purposes here.

This is enough for now. By this time, you should have an idea of our conviction that who we are while we do this work, and how we approach the work we do, is at least as important as what those outside this circle would call ‘program’ or ‘action’. It has to be.

I dearly, truly want to hear from you. Did any of the above resonate with you? Did I miss anything?

This reset will reap great benefits, I think. Particularly if we each of us, you and I alike, seasoned and new alike look at this work, and each other, with beginner’s minds.

Part of the reset is this expectation is that you respond thoughtfully and mindfully, and that means more than 5% of you. It also means not fixating on hearts and likes. So get in the scrum. Let’s start walking together in real and durable ways.

You got me. Have I got you?

All in.

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