This is what integrity and congruence looks like.

Preemptive: Yes, I know that there are some built-in advantages and privileges that the author has that a lot of us as working-class and middle-class people do not. At the salary he’s alluding to he probably has a sizeable nest egg, and he also probably has Amazon stock that I would be doubtful that he is selling off.

That does not diminish the public stance that he took by stepping down from a coveted position in what is the most powerful Corporation in the world.

This all turns on the three things we talk about all the time:

capacity – defined here as the ability to truly understand a given issue,

volition – shown here as the willingness to act upon what you now know,

agency – here, to find the conviction that you can make change, and crucially, that you don’t have to ask for permission in order to do so.

It’s amazing to me how many people, all of us really, white people especially and particularly, abdicate all three of these virtues when it comes to assessing, naming, choosing, and then doing what we know is right.

We saw that this week in Santee California, where Shoppers and grocery store workers stumbled in their response to a Ku Klux Klan hood-wearing shopper. We saw it again, also in San Diego, as a black woman was arrested, head buried in sand for walking her dog on the beach, while white beachgoers went by unscathed.

These incidents did not happen in a vacuum. They happened with witnesses.

Paralyzed, gobsmacked, colluding witnesses.

As I’ve seen in responses to both of these news reports on the Lace on Race page, one of the most prevalent responses to incidents like these is uncertainty and confusion, saying variations of ‘I wouldn’t know what to do in times and scenarios such as these’.

That is why practice is so important.

To be able to imagine scenarios where ‘if X happens this is what I will do’ allows us to think on our feet; allows us to remember what our convictions and values are, and discourages us from hiding behind the skirts of uncertainty and doubt.

The point here is that you do indeed have to practice. And this is rarely seen.

White people tap out when they have to respond on a comment on Facebook that challenges them, or indeed any time they’re asked to do something, anything more strenuous than wearing out the react button with their thumbs.

They make sure we know about their various ailments, challenges, other commitments, more pressing priorities, so that we know, but are discouraged from overtly accepting the fact that they have no intention of placing this on their front burner.

It becomes like a manual to an appliance that’s never read. When something happens and the garbage disposal blows up because the operating instructions were never thought about or even acknowledged, and therefore never internalized, there is passivity, coupled with calculated ignorance, inability, and ineptitude when it comes to rectifying heinous situations that are right in front of their faces.

We will be talking about this more at Lace on Race, but for now, I want to leave you with a couple of standout quotes. Read them. I want your response to not only what you felt about his action, but whether you yourself would be willing to make such a determined stand.

‘I believe the worker testimony too. And at the end of the day, the big problem isn’t the specifics of Covid-19 response. It’s that Amazon treats the humans in the warehouses as fungible units of pick-and-pack potential. Only that’s not just Amazon, it’s how 21st-century capitalism is done.’

‘Amazon is exceptionally well-managed and has demonstrated great skill at spotting opportunities and building repeatable processes for exploiting them. It has a corresponding lack of vision about the human costs of the relentless growth and accumulation of wealth and power.’

Read. Reflect. Comment. No reacts.

Workers deserve better than your mindless thumb twitches.

https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2020/04/29/Leaving-Amazon#p-3