Racism or Equality: That seems to be our choice if we are going to work together to solve our major problems
Where are we socially and racially in Texas March 18, 2023?
Here’s how I see it.
According to the news, the number of people in poverty is increasing. What that means to me is that people are going hungry. Parents are not able to feed their children.
Trees that clean the air and produce oxygen we need to breathe are being chopped down to plant monoculture crops to feed cattle to feed people, to build houses to house the burgeoning population, to build businesses to employ all those people.
The loss of trees, the factory farming, the construction, and all the driving/petrol using needed to make that happen are adding to the greenhouse gases/climate change adding to our stress levels and exacerbated by our unhealthy lifestyles/obesity/addictions are increasing our mental and physical health problems and adding to the chaos in the medical system that hasn’t recovered from Covid 19, which is now showing up as a rising number of Long Covid cases.
That adds up to a lot of social problems all complicated by being intersectional with sex and gender and race and identity and expression and orientation and age and intergenerational and other types of miscommunication (see
”Generation Dread” (https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/generation-dread-finding-purpose-in-an-age-of-climate-crisis_britt-wray/29509869/item/48017377/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=&utm_adgroup=&utm_term=&utm_content=509970922794&gclid=Cj0KCQjwwtWgBhDhARIsAEMcxeBBOOxGibBN17k298tp6_s9_0_mXwuzIakP8L9LX-PtefNYWL4qoUaAi_uEALw_wcB#edition=60378432&idiq=54504742).
When problems are encountered, problem-solving is in order. Unfortunately, many humans, when overwhelmed by problems, resort to various defense mechanisms to diminish their anxiety—escapism by denial, drugs, scapegoating others as if blaming someone else will solve the problem, overreacting or actually or virtually running away from the problem.
Problem solving demands being in touch with reality, facing the situation, carefully observing the entire situation in all its details, bringing reason and purpose and creativity to the task of generating a possible solutions to the problem and mustering the strength and determination to implement a solution.
I feel certain that such a complex problem will require multiple minds to analyze the multiplicity of variables and intersecting influences involved. And evidence is clear that when a number of groups of people are needed to implement an innovation, they all must be involved in producing the solution in order to buy into the task.
Given that the problem is huge/global, in fact, yet solutions will be myriad and have to be implemented locally, but cooperatively across lots of boundaries, vast numbers of actors/activists must be employed in the creation of the solutions and huge teams of diverse citizens deployed in the implementation of the solutions. Obviously, they/we must all act/create/work together in harmony to make it happen.
All the -isms and phobias to which humans are prone will have to be harnessed, brought to heel, dismantled, or eliminated altogether for us to reach a point of mutual respect so we can cooperate in community.
So, how can we get there from here?
Own our complicity in creating the climate catastrophe.
Own our complicity in the racism/ homophobia/ xenophobia dilemma as well.
Educate ourselves in the elements of the problems in which we have any expertise and/or interest from atmosphere and agriculture to bioengineering and medicine, permaculture, and/or zoology and every system in between.
Take a deep dive into understanding our feelings about all the other groups of others we need to be working with in creating and implementing the solutions.
Yesterday at the Climate Resilience Conference Tara Brach proposed RAIN, an acronym for steps in how to increase our resilience when faced with a disturbing situation, including facing the facts of climate change or dealing with climate disaster—fire, flood, famine, displacement. Let me explain how we might use it to confront our -isms and phobias.
R: Recogize the feeling you are having in response to the situation—fear, anxiety, anger, rage, dismay, curiosity, or whatever you feel when in a crowd of people who don’t look like you, or even in anticipation of having to work with them.
A: Allow yourself to feel that feeling till you are comfortable with it as you sit there in your own space, unconfronted. We have to be real about what we feel. If we can’t feel it, we can’t heal it, as Cherry Steinwender points out in Dialogue: Racism.
I: Investigate what those feelings do to our body, our facial expressions, posture, physiological responses: trembling, shaking, red face, clenched fist, pounding heart, tears, awe, a tilting of our head when we notice someone different. If you can remember where that feeling originated, for we were not born even recognizing those differences, much less having strong feelings about those people. Think what seeing someone different, or a group of people who are different, causes you to anticipate. If you have expectations of them, think about the real likelihood of those events occurring. Think about why you have those expectations.
N: Nurture yourself now to dampen any negative feelings. Notice where you actually are and remember this place and what it normally affords you—safety, peace, support. Note that you have brought yourself home and kept yourself safe. Be thankful you could do that and will continue to do that. Remember that gratitude; it is your touchstone.
Now that you have explored your feelings about being with or working with others, I hope you will explore activities with other groups that will enable you to overcome your negativity with other people. Everyone I’ve known who has participated in such activities, like Dialogue: Racism, have reported a major change in their lives. It certainly has been life-changing for me, and my circle of friends has become varied and my relationships with them all have become deeper. I hope you will take that little risk. It may be a little uncomfortable at first, but I promise it will be worth the effort. And I dare to say that wherever you are, healing help is available. I just did a Google search for “healing racism in Timbuktu” and got 577,000 hits! Some I read are so interesting, I will learn more about them! Do join the adventure of overcoming our racist past and creating a cooperative community of all of us who can cooperate in solving the problems that bedevil all of us.
FYI: I’ve just listened to the Tara Brach link to be sure it is relevant to my use of her RAIN process to becoming aware of our -isms and phobias, and it is. She also told a story that made me laugh and another that made me cry and offered a meditation that provided healing that I need when I even think about any -ism from Ageism to Racism, Sexism, etc. or any phobia—transphobia is especially dangerous now, so even to imagine gives me grief. Tara’s video lasts about an hour and she does two mediations in which you could apply RAIN to an -ism or a phobia. Part of the Investigation is to consider its origin, but for most of us we absorbed or introjected our feelings from our culture and are left with implicit memories, so we cannot say where we got the feelings. I’m glad I spent the hour with her. So, let me finish dinner and get back to work here.
If a critical number of us can get over our negative feelings about being and working with all kinds of people, similar to us or not, we will be able to team up and brainstorm, maybe continuing to studying the problems as we go, and begin to find ideas that could lead to solutions. We should then be able to hear each other as we make suggestions, give careful consideration to the ideas of others and hear constructive ideas about how to improve on our own suggestions. It won’t be a one-shot session. We will need to sleep on it and come back and go at it again. We will have to nurture our expectations.
As we wrestle with our ides and note where we need to add fine points, gradually possible solutions will emerge from the morass of ideas. Patience will be needed.
Then we must continue to refine the solutions and consider the many nuances that will be necessary to fit each locale where they will be implemented. Ongoing openness to possibility and creativity must be inspired.
Planning how how to implement the solutions will require considering just what each person brings to the effort. Teams will have to be created to tackle the instantiation of each element of the solutions,
Scheduling will be flexible to fit the locations where the work is to be done: when and where to begin, how to make it happen. Perseverance will be mandatory.
Intra-Group and Inter-group support may be the key to success. Inter and intra group respect and admiration and high expectations will be a sine qua non. Without believe that we, all of us together, via respect and communications can do this problem solving and solution implementing for the benefit of all of us.
Where do we begin to educate ourselves?
On Climate Change
Climate Resilience Conferences 2023 This is my project this week
Climate Change in Kalamazoo got 2.5 Million hits: Google your own location as we need to work locally as we think globally
The climate in Kalamazoo is changing. Over the last several decades, we've experienced a 40% increase in heavy rainstorms. High heat days exceeding 90 degrees are predicted to increase from 10 per year to as many as 40.
Climate change in Houston netted 39.2 Million hits. This is a great site!
Why Climate Change and Renewable Energy Matter to Houston: “Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists have published research finding that man-made factors are causing average temperatures to rise. This warming means more people will continue to die from heat, particularly older adults and young children; we will experience more frequent, intense, and destructive storms due to warming oceans; increased flooding in coastal communities from rising sea-levels; and could potentially destroy flora and fauna species.”
On Racism: with links from first 3 hits in the search I did for “healing racism in Timbuktu,” which got 577,000 hits Please google your own city for local resources as we need to think globally and act locally.
The Timbuktu Report (It is created literally in Timbuktu ) seeks to provide reliable scholarship on race and racism and I found it intriguing but some editing is needed; at one point “so much”, I’m guessing, became “smooch”. The beginning catalogues egregious examples of racism in America and suggests the term “white privilege” is as offensive as the “n” word and should not be repeated. This appears to be a local publication, podcast, etc.
Racial Healing in Houston Google search found 47.3 Million hits, the first of which is The Center for Healing Racism, whose mission is “Healing: Our mission is to facilitate the healing of racism through education and dialogue in a safe and supportive environment, in order to empower individuals and transform communities.”
Greater Houston Partnership which is committed to racial equity; 140 Houston companies have pledged to adopt the One Houston Together principles.
Truth Racial Healing and Transformation with link where you can get involved.
WHY AM I SO COMMITTED TO HEALING RACISM? Racism is the reason, I believe, that our public school system is inadequate enough the State wants to take over the Houston Independent School District and the Texas Government wants to ban books that mention the reality of our racist history and prevent mention of many topics in public schools that would enable us to learn the truth. Consequently, public school education is in jeopardy at a time in history that we desperately need better educated citizens to work on solving the serious problems we face as a society of humans. That will be the subject of my next substack.