The bricks and mortar of Lace on Race is Relational Ethics, rooted in building meaningful connections and promoting understanding, empathy, and respect. This September I have been thinking about the many ways Racism and White Supremacy fueled the South’s Massive Resistance to Desegregation in the 1950s and later. I have thought as well about the lack of WHITE RESOLVE, RESILIENCE AND RELENTLESS RELIABILITY in the face of this renewed opposition to TRUTH in the telling of OUR STORY and white washing the Enslaved experience.
White America shamelessly attempts to erase the barbaric history they own. As CRT faces opposition and attempts to be silenced, Relational Ethics offers strategies to foster dialogue, challenge misconceptions, and promote equitable education. Here’s how it can be applied:
1. Dialogue and Listening: Relational Ethics emphasizes open and respectful dialogue. It encourages conversations that allow individuals with different perspectives to engage in meaningful exchanges. Relational Ethics encourages us to actively listen to one another, to seek to understand the experiences and concerns of those who support and oppose CRT. By creating spaces for dialogue, we can address misconceptions, bridge divides, and promote empathy. The spaces for these conversations, State Assemblies, Schoolboard Meetings and Street Protests have been violence prone and the voices of the descendants of enslaved people have been shouted down.
2. Relationship Building: Relational Ethics emphasizes building relationships based on trust, respect, and understanding. Fostering connections between individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Encouraging collaboration and cooperation to help remove barriers and challenge stereotypes. Relationships built on trust and mutual respect create opportunities for transformative discussions and learning.
3. Education and Awareness: Relational Ethics recognizes the importance of education in promoting understanding and empathy. Communities now require educational resources and opportunities outside of classrooms that explain the core tenets and goals of CRT. We must offer workshops, seminars, and professional development sessions to dispel myths and misinformation. Through the fostering of critical thinking skills and providing access to accurate information, we can counter the resistance to CRT.
4. Intersectionality and Inclusion: Relational Ethics acknowledges the interconnectedness of various forms of oppression and places emphasis on the importance of intersectionality in all discussions about race, class, gender, and other social identities. Highlighting how CRT provides insights into the complex ways in which systems of power and privilege intersect and promoting inclusive perspectives, we challenge resistance and foster a more nuanced understanding of societal issues.
5. Advocacy and Solidarity: Relational Ethics encourages individuals to stand up against injustice and actively support marginalized communities. It requires allies to advocate for the inclusion of CRT in educational curricula and policies, Fostering solidarity by amplifying marginalized voices and supporting initiatives that promote equity and social justice. By our combined efforts, we can counter the new Massive Resistance and create spaces that value diversity and foster understanding.
Having said all of this, I must tell also tell you that allies are discomforted by these new conversations as they were by police brutality and voter suppression, redlining and gentrification. Not much has changed. The heavy lifting is still relegated to Black and Brown people. All the public hearings that are recorded to date, show angry white people shouting down Black and Brown Americans as they force THEIR will onto us, LEGALLY erasing centuries of factual pain and degradation, and telling us how very happy we were to be enslaved.
The Apple pie holidays are fast approaching. I am challenging allies and coconspirators to bypass the niceties and start a NEW AND DIFFERENT MASSIVE RESISTANT, one that turns this farce upside-down and reconciles TRUTH and FACTS! A resistance that calls perpetrators to account for the harm they continue to inflict. Your silence is complicit.
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