[Lace Watkins]

https://laceonrace.com/2022/02/03/hope-vision-2022/

Hope & Vision 2022

Discussion

[Rebecca McClinton]

Looking forward to this series! What a painful year it has been for Lace, and yet in spite of it all she remained present, focused, engaged with us. I think sometimes it takes a slowing, pausing, and reflecting after hardship to regroup and truly make our next visions and goals meaningful and as Lace would say, galvanized. I’ve done some slowing and pausing since a recent family loss, and it was Lace in a paid consultation session that pointed out to me how it’s been through things like steady engagement here that the space around my grief has started to expand and I’ve been able to engage with it in different ways. I look forward to learning how the aftermath of the storms that have taken place here might lead to new and meaningful hopes and goals.Looking forward to this series! What a painful year it has been for Lace, and yet in spite of it all she remained present, focused, engaged with us. I think sometimes it takes a slowing, pausing, and reflecting after hardship to regroup and truly make our next visions and goals meaningful and as Lace would say, galvanized. I’ve done some slowing and pausing since a recent family loss, and it was Lace in a paid consultation session that pointed out to me how it’s been through things like steady engagement here that the space around my grief has started to expand and I’ve been able to engage with it in different ways. I look forward to learning how the aftermath of the storms that have taken place here might lead to new and meaningful hopes and goals.

[Shara Cody]

During the very difficult year of 2021, Lace remained so committed to the North Star and to LoR that it can be hard to separate that steadfastness from the personal trauma and grief to her from the events. As a white woman following a Black woman, that “not thinking of” or “forgetting” about the personal impacts on my part and only focusing on Lace as the leader or on the work is racism and white supremacy in me which erases Lace as a person. Without Lace’s vulnerability and my own awareness of the supremacy within myself, I would easily be able to glaze over and remain a lurker at LoR and in racial justice in general instead of engaging in Lace’s vision to become the person I want to be.

[Emily Holzknecht]

‘Galvanized’ wasn’t really a word I encountered much before coming to Lace on Race. I knew what it meant in both the literal and metaphorical sense, but I didn’t use it myself and rarely read or heard it. It is such an important word for racial justice work. It seems to me that it must be a very useful work for marginalized people as well. ‘Galvanize’ is an empowering word. It gives back choice and agency where otherwise we might see none. I need to keep examining where I am acting as if I have no agency, as if I am a victim, and see the choice that ‘galvanize’ gives me to mend the tapestry.

[Rhonda Freeman]

It’s interesting to me that ‘galvanize’ means to inspire, but ‘galvanized’ means to be coated in something strong. I think galvanized is the more important word. I have been inspired but I am more at the point that I want to be covered in something strong so I don’t ‘rust’ in my walk.

[Author]

Replies