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White People Celebrating Black History Month? Part 2: Equity In History And Culture
Equity, cultural humility, white privilege, and structural racism have all emerged as “hot topics” in our national narrative—especially in family-serving organizations, academia, and progressive, local, and state governments. While this is admirable and certainly needs to be addressed and transformed into actionable policy changes, organizational norms/practices, and individual accountability, it is crucial to take a critical view of how some of these conversations are surface level, transmitting “flavor-of-the-month” energy and lip service participation. As I thought about what to write for this blog as an African American woman, I contemplated my observations and the implications for Black History month, white allies, and white people who haven’t yet grown into white allies.
White People Celebrating Black History Month? Part 1
I have always been intrigued by differences in tangible things within various cultures like clothing, food, and decorations, but it was my decision to live abroad that first opened me up to learning about differences of thinking… I have opened our home to exchange students from Brazil, Germany, Montenegro, Romania, Slovakia, and Taiwan. Each student stayed for a school year and what we learned about them (and, throughout the process, about us) changed the way we thought about others, ourselves, and our place in this world.
A White Sister’s Experience with Transracial Adoption
About a year after my brother moved in with my family, I was in the toy aisle of Target staring at a bunch of Ryan Reynolds look-alikes. I was beyond frustrated—Green Lantern was his favorite superhero, because he was Black like him. But the 2011 remake meant that the only Black action figures at Target were some half-price villains in the clearance bin. At 16, the symbolism was not lost on me.
In recent years, about one-in-two adults in America reported experiencing loneliness. And that was before the COVID-19 pandemic cut off so many of us from friends, loved ones, and support systems, exacerbating loneliness and isolation.