Happy Soul Food Friday,
–Sign in Our Neighborhood
This week:
Whether is it personal, political, educational or musical, there must be something that resonates for you!
Now more than ever, we must work tirelessly to influence, build and support a more just, equitable and humane society.
Silence is Compliance. No Bystanding!
What Can I Do?
STOP the CRUELTY with Eric K
Uncomfortable Conversations with Emmanuel Acho
Political Implications:
America Needs Moral Leadership. Instead, We Have Donald Trump with Stephen Colbert
James Mattis Denounces President Trump, Describes Him as a Threat to the Constitution:
The Role of Education:
Every Day Presents an Opportunity to Make a Difference with Teach For America ED Dr. Randy Ward
The Power of Music:
The One Thing I Would Like to Say to the Whole World…Rehumanize Yourself! with The Police
Stop The CRUELTY!
I’m sad, mad, heartbroken and confused. And I’m frightened. Just like my clients, family, and neighbors I’m asking myself what to do? What to do?
I haven’t figured out great answers. And not figuring out answers really pisses me off. I’m used to having answers, and I have great skills for finding answers. So not figuring it out is frustrating and frightening.
What I have figured out, is that there is much cruelty around us. Marginalization and harassment is cruelty. Bullying and oppression is cruelty. And George Floyd’s murder is cruelty. That wasn’t justice, it was cruel. It’s one thing for a cop to restrain someone, I get that, but it’s another thing to hold someone until they go limp and choke to death. Cruelty is behavior that causes pain or suffering; but it’s also callous indifference to that pain and suffering. Cruelty shows up as racism, and also as anti-Semitism, xenophobia, chauvinism, and bigotry.
As a Jew, my DNA is laced with millennia of cruel persecution, harassment, and organized efforts to kill and eliminate my ancestors and family. I’m not alone in this. So are African Americans, Gypsies, Gays, Palestinians, Rohingya, and a painfully long list of targeted populations. Some cruel people act alone, some act in groups. And right here in the USA there is systemic cruelty in legal, educational, and financial systems.
No doubt you believe that you’d do something to stop cruel behavior. No doubt you’d stand up for yourself and others. But you’re likely deluding yourself. Marianne LaFrance, Yale psychology professor, asked a group of women, “How would you feel if you had a job interview and someone asked you really sexist, ugly questions?”
Almost everyone answered the way you and I would, something like: “I would walk out. I would give the person hell.” So she tested people. Her team set up interviews (the positions were attractive, but the jobs were fake), and interviewees were asked several sexist, ugly questions. Every one of the women interviewees was just silent. Every. One. Was. Silent.
How we believe we’ll behave, and how we actually behave in stressful, cruel, and demeaning situations are not the same. People behave much more meekly in reality than in their minds. And cruelty spreads and normalizes with each instance that we accept and tolerate. With each silent acceptance of pain and suffering we increase the presence of cruelty.
I’ve already said I don’t have great answers. But here’s what I’m thinking about and doing, and what I’m inviting you to think about and do with me.
Say something. I’m not willing to be a complicit participant when I see or hear cruelty. Meanness in the office, bullying in politics, and racism in the streets are cruel actions. Every silence emboldens the cruel. I can speak up with courage, yes. But I can also speak up from love, and I can speak up from my values of compassion, service, and collaboration.
Feel the shame. My feelings are guides and indicators. Feeling shame and remorse are signaling that there is a better version of me waiting to come forward. I won’t drown my shame and regret in rationalization or denial. Rather, these feeling marinate in my psyche and call forward my best self.
Don’t be cruel. I won’t cause pain and suffering to people around me. How can I tell? I watch people’s reactions to me. I will be more curious about their experience of me. I commit to not act with anger, malice, sarcasm, or bullying.
Black Lives Matter. I acknowledge the systemic cruelty of racism and am getting educated about the history and impact of slavery and oppression. Saying “all lives matter” is more denial. Yes, all lives matter, but we have to emphasize returning black lives to equality and dignity.
Vote. Trump is a cruel man who perpetuates cruelty. I’m not a registered Republican, but I’m aligned with some fiscal Republican positions. But Trump’s cruelty in his conduct and speech is perpetrating and perpetuating cruelty. There are better leaders to follow and emulate.
Practice love. I feel love, and I also practice love behaviors. Specifically, I practice compassion – doing something to relieve another’s suffering, and I practice deep listening – giving my full attention to someone.
I wish that every human brother and sister reach their potential and realize their dreams. And I wish that we all rise in consciousness and spiritual clarity. And this much I do know, the markers of spiritual evolution are never cruelty and oppression, the markers of spiritual evolution are always kindness and inclusion.
In the spirit of leading, learning, and loving.
Eric
Uncomfortable Conversations with Emmanuel Acho:
An opportunity for allies. Silence Is Compliance!
https://m.facebook.com/watch/?v=272134207491609&_rdr
After Days Of Unrest, America Needs Moral Leadership. Instead, We Have Donald Trump with Stephen Colbert:
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
James Mattis Denounces President Trump, Describes Him as a Threat to the Constitution:
I have the utmost respect for James Mattis. He is a warrior, not just a soldier. There is a difference…
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/james-mattis-denounces-trump-protests-militarization/612640/
Every Day Presents an Opportunity to Make a Difference with TFA ED Dr. Randy Ward:
Dear Teach For America San Diego Community,
It is with a saddened heart that we must continually address the injustice that so many of us have persevered over time. The recent protests remind me of those 1968 nights in Roxbury, a ghetto neighborhood of Boston where I grew up, when my brothers and friends stood on the corner of Blue Hill Ave and Dudley Street to watch the unfolding of the Roxbury riots after the assassination of MLK. I was 12 years old at the time and unfortunately knew discrimination all too well as a young black boy growing up in a very racially divided Boston. That experience has shaped my entire life and dictated all that I wanted to impact in the brief amount of time I am afforded here in this world.
After 40 years in education struggling to create a level playing field for the students, schools and districts I have had the privilege to lead, I have come to understand that every day presents an opportunity to make a difference. That’s why I joined Teach For America San Diego as their Executive Director. I understand that Teach For America truly has a “Superpower:” Teach For America finds, develops, and supports exceptional and diverse leaders – individually and in teams – so they can transform education and expand opportunity with children, starting in the classroom. That is our secret sauce! You are the secret sauce! YOU continue to give me hope for light at the end of this long tunnel.
I look forward to our collective impact today, and every day into the future.
If you are seeking ways to learn or take action:
Donate
San Diego Community Fund (Bail bonds for protestors)
Self-Care
- Self-care in the face of racial injustice from Therapy for Black Girls
- 4 Self-Care resources for days when the world is terrible from Colorlines
- Self-care for people of color after psychological trauma from Just Jasmine
- Black Lives Matter Meditations for Healing from Racial Trauma from Dr. Candice Nicole
Learn more
- Affirming Black Lives Without Inducing Trauma from Teaching Tolerance
- What Matters from Black Lives Matter
- Coverage of Criminal Justice on Colorlines
- Let’s Talk! Discussing Whiteness from Teaching Tolerance
- Anti-racism for White People: White People, You Gotta Do Work Now from Awesomely Luvvie
Support Students
- The Urgent Need for Anti-Racist Education from Education Week
- Resources for Talking About Race, Racism, Racialized Violence with Kids from the Center for Racial Justice in Education.
- Teaching About Race, Racism, and Police Violence from Teaching Tolerance
- Why Teaching Black Lives Matter Matters | Part I | from Teaching Tolerance
- Teaching Resources for Black Lives Matter School Week of Action from D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice
- Addressing Race and Trauma in the Classroom by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network
Take Action
- Follow Arizona-based Poder In Action on Twitter or Instagram for ways to organize and take action locally.
- Connect with a local chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice
- Review Active Bystander Training from the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at the Ohio State University
- 75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice from Medium
Be well and be safe,
Randolph Ward, Ed.D. Executive Director, Teach For America San Diego
The One Thing I Would Like to Say to the Whole World…
Rehumanize Yourself!
He goes out at night with his big boots on
None of his friends know right from wrong
They kick a boy to death ’cause he don’t belong
You’ve got to humanize yourself
A policeman put on his uniform
He’d like to have a gun just to keep him warm
Because violence here is a social norm
You’ve got to humanize yourself
Re-humanize yourself
Re-humanize yourself
Re-humanize yourself
Re-humanize yourself
I work all day at the factory
I’m building a machine that’s not for me
There must be a reason that I can’t see
You’ve got to humanize yourself
Billy’s joined the National Front
He always was a little runt
He’s got his hand in the air with the other *unts
You’ve got to humanize yourself
Re-humanize yourself
Re-humanize yourself
Re-humanize yourself
Re-humanize yourself
I work all day at the factory
I’m building a machine that’s not for me
There must be a reason that I can’t see
You’ve got to humanize yourself
A policeman put on his uniform
He’d like to have a gun just to keep him warm
Because violence here is a social norm
You’ve got to humanize yourself
Re-humanize yourself
Re-humanize yourself
Re-humanize yourself
Re-humanize yourself
Re-humanize yourself
Re-humanize yourself
Re-humanize yourself
Re-humanize yourself
Re-humanize yourself
Re-humanize yourself
Re-humanize yourself
Re-humanize yourself
Thanks this week go to Eric K, Hal D, Arman S-B, Randy W and Ron M.
Please pay it forward with action not silence, with love and not indifference…
Love,
Neville
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/NevilleB108
Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nbillimoria
“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change.
I am changing the things I cannot accept.”
–Angela Davis
Happy Soul Food Friday! 