At the heart of it the challenge is to consciously commit, get past the natural barriers; act with intent; and continuously learn and build capabilities.
These actions will have different levels of importance for different people.
We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
– Elie Wiesel
Committing
Barrier Busting
Acting With Intention
Continuous Improvement
“A vision is not just a picture of what could be; it is an appeal to our better selves, a call to become something more.” – Rosabeth Moss Kanter
“When confronted with a challenge, the committed heart will search for a solution. The undecided heart searches for an escape.” – Andy Andrews
“Your purpose doesn’t at all have to be something BIG, either. The value of your impact on others and on the world has nothing to do with its scale. There’s a saying I learned while living in Mexico: “Hay gente para todo.”
This means “there are people for everything”, and refers to the fact that in order for our world to function, we need people living and contributing at all kinds of different levels. If we each could find and inhabit the sphere where we’re supposed to be, and contribute what we were made to contribute, what a beautiful world it would be!” – Susan Biali, M.D.
Envision the Actions You Would Like to Work Up to
These actions may be evident right at the beginning, or they may emerge as we gain experience. You may be able to take them on as you evolve naturally as an anti-racist or you may need to commit to specific knowledge and/or competency building to take them on.
Choose the Attributes that Go into Your Profile as an Effective Ally
The key to being an effective ally in countering racism is to consciously and unapologetically bring the competencies and character that we have developed in our lives to the desired group or organization – with genuine and unapologetic humility. We are not the saviors, but we bring capabilities and qualities that can add-value – and we can develop the understanding and skills that are missing to continuously add more value. But we need to know what we are bringing initially.
Let no one be discouraged by the belief that there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills — against misery and ignorance, injustice and violence… Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.
It is from the numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man (or a woman) stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he (or she) sends a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
– Robert Francis Kennedy
Day of Affirmation, University of Capetown