Let’s Look: June 2020

I am joining the link up with Shay & Erika to share how we’re ensuring racial equality in our home. In no way do I even feel qualified to speaking on the topic, we’re just starting this lifelong marathon of changing our ways, unlearning all that we thought we knew, and doing the work to be better allies.

First & foremost I feel that in order to become allies we have to understand racism & oppression. Right now I am doing a lot of listening, reading, & watching to educate myself on the matter. I can’t jump right into being better without first understanding all that I’ve done wrong first. I read White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo last week – it had been recommended to me months ago, I placed a hold on a digital copy at my library and only read a short bit before it was due back so I had to place another hold and just now it was my turn again – I did not at all understand the importance the first time around of prioritizing reading it amongst the variety of chick lit books on my to read list. It was an eye opening read for sure! My husband & I have watched 13th on Netflix this week as well. Another big eye opener that was heartbreaking. I felt icky after learning some of the info. And that is okay, this is supposed to feel uncomfortable as we learn & grow & push our boundaries.

We will continually get things wrong, giving ourselves grace through those moments to know that we will also work to correct ourselves when we do make mistakes. It has been hard sometimes over the last couple weeks to think how did I not know these things, how was I so blissfully unaware?! We can not know until we know though and once we know better we MUST do better, and so now I know and now I WILL do better. Besides the bulk of right now that we’re doing in our home of educating ourselves these are a few of the steps we’ve taken to start the road to becoming active allies…

I’ve sought out Black owned businesses to support & purchase from. Instagram has been a great resource to find these businesses as many people are sharing them right now!

I purchased books to add diversity to Ro’s library and purchased them from a Black owned bookstore in Michigan. I recently logged all the books we own for him to find that he has almost 200 books in his library and I could only find 5 that had pictures and stories of people of color. Sure many of his books are of animals but I refuse for that to be an excuse. I also requested many other diverse books from the library, can’t wait for them to open next week so we can pick them up!

Ron & I have been searching for ways in which we can get involved through volunteer opportunities. We went to school in Flint, MI and live but 15 minutes away, Flint has a large Black community and we have no excuse for not getting more involved in it until now.

Some other things we have brainstormed for future ways to open our home to diversity and racial equality facilitating discussions on racism are to attend multicultural events or festivals in the surrounding areas (Flint is basically in our backyard and we’re only an hour from Detroit, both areas offer events that we can & should be attending), have themed weeks or nights at our home in which we choose one culture to focus on – making their foods, watching videos, reading books, listening to their music, etc., another thought we’ve had is to be active participants in our children’s education – teaching them beyond what is taught in school so that they have the full picture (too much is left out in history classes & textbooks).

I don’t know exactly what I am doing through all of this, I do know that I am trying my absolute best and I promise to be better. Not just better for today or this week or this month, better always.