Module 3 part 3: How to Engage

I love all three of these TEDx videos for different reasons, so I'm going to go through them in order. 1. Get uncomfortable! I have been really thinking about being uncomfortable a lot recently. I'm reminded of an oratorio piece in college (To Be Certain of the Dawn, a Holocaust Oratorio) where the opening piece begged to be dropped like a stone and sent down unknown paths, to be made restless, so that our eyes can be opened and we can truly see.

2. People can do racist things even if they aren't normally racist. I loved the metaphor about hygiene. To be clean, we shower every day, we brush our teeth, we wash our hands, we take care of it when we get dirty because dirt happens. To be anti-racist, we do the work EVERY DAY, and when we do racist things (which will happen!), we do the work to become aware of it and clean it up and try again.

3. Personal stories have more impact than a bunch of talking points. This is one I try to balance. I try to uplift people's stories that have more experience with the issue than mine - why would someone want some rural white girl to tell them about their experiences with racism when there's someone more "qualified" to do it? Yes, these sources are helpful and these voices ARE the point, but it's okay to connect with our own experiences too. We don't need bulletpoints and finely-crafted arguments to win people over, and sometimes those "perfect" arguments make people tune out.