This is the first of many posts sharing our thoughts and experiences in working through the White Supremacy Culture article by Tema Okun. In our first discussion (February), the resonant consensus was that we are all perfectionists. We pride ourselves on it. We glory in it. "My greatest weakness? I'm a perfectionist. Ugh, isn't it just awful? Everything has to be just right or I just can't handle it." So then, why is being a perfectionist a Bad Thing?
Perfectionism sets us up for failure. Perfectionism stops us from taking risks. It dissuades us from looking outside ourselves for other ideas and feedback. It rationalizes. It criticizes. It chastises. It's not just a quest for the unattainable; it is a crippling fear of not being enough. Perfectionism tells us that our value is somehow outside of ourselves. It tells us that there is one, single ideal to which we must all strive. When we all work towards this unreachable, unfathomable, uniform ideal, we lose the richness of experience and perspective which makes us actually successful. Perfectionism is one facet of the complex systems we accept as standard, but it's not immobile. What feelings come up when you think about your own perfectionism? How does that feeling resonate in your body? What is an action you can take to break down your own perfectionism? Perfectionism will come up a lot in future topics, so we felt it was the perfect place to start. Now go mess something up today! (We're just kidding. Sort of.)
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Hello readers!
Headline: We're back for our Spring Season. This season will be spent working through Tema Okun's White Supremacy Culture article. We're going to work through this together in real time, so there is no expectation that you will have already read the article. That being said, if you would like to build yourself a more robust foundation, we highly recommend reading the original article, exploring Okun's website, and checking out their recent update, "White Supremacy Culture: Still Here" from May 2021. Bonus thought: One great way to approach this work would be to print multiple copies of the articles and take notes directly on them, marking in different colors or with different writing tools as you work through it. Maybe you start with a pink highlighter and every time you notice yourself feeling defensive, you highlight that passage. Then during our first discussion, maybe you take notes in pencil. Come back with a different highlighter a month later and highlight new things that resonate with you, or which you don't understand. Keep layering this practice, moving on to fresh copies as needed. It's a great way to capture your thought process and see progress! Dates & Times: Thursdays 7:30 - 9:00 p.m. February 2 March 2 April 6 May 4 Logistics: We will have more housekeeping/organizational communications throughout this Spring season as we work to codify the leadership roles within Unpacking and as we work on expanding. We'll also be building up the resources and blog on our website this season, focusing on white supremacy culture. Stay tuned! Final thoughts: Please reach out with any questions, concerns, or feedback. We can't wait to see you all in February. Best, The Unpacking Team discussion recapContent: language, racism, ableism, bigotry Our April discussion focused on words and phrases with bigoted origins or which have developed these conations through general use. These words may seem innocuous to people who do not have direct, lived experiences with them (e.g. a Black person always seeing the color black used as an indicator of evil in fantasy). Our primary takeaways from the discussion are:
Tactics for change:
resourcesOur spreadsheet of words and phrases, their history, and resources is available via Google Drive. If you have recommendations for additions or edits, please send them to us. upcomingOur May 5, 2022 discussion will be about "calling out" and "calling in." More soon.
We will be posting more in April sharing specific stories and examples from this month's discussion, as well as alternative phrases for two extremely common words: "crazy" and "guys". Thank you so much for a wonderful discussion! Content: racism, language
Most of us know not to use the phrase "sold down the river", but did you know that the term "peanut gallery" is also problematic? Many English words and phrases have bigoted origins. Let's talk about it! Join us for a discussion on Thursday, April 7th at 7:30 p.m. via Zoom. (Register to receive a link.) We'll post a complete list of phrases with suggestions for alternatives here, after the discussion. Feel free to submit your ideas or questions in advance. |
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