Reading instead of doing
Today I finished reading Antiracism as daily practice, and it has a long list of resources at the back of the book.
"I just read this whole book to learn about antiracism, and you want me to read more books?"
No, she doesn't, and she warned against book-club syndrome. She wants me to engage.
If I want to do antiracism, I need to engage in community and be antiracist. And then, if I come upon an obstacle or an idea that I don't know how to navigate, THEN I should check the resources.
But I'm not engaging. I'm not super involved in community, outside of my personal social and family circles. I used to be, but stepped back from things due to mental disability.
So no, I don't need to read just-one-more-book. When and if my mental improves, I need to get involved in issues that I'm personally concerned about and act on them, then continue educating myself as needed.
To be honest, I would focus my work on local journalism and/or local environmental issues. If I'm engaging in that work, thennn I can consider how to bring antiracism INTO it.
I was previously involved in planning the local Pride Fest, and the number of black people at the Fest is not representative of our city. I've raised this issue before at board, but was mostly shut down and didn't really know how to proceed.
That's something I could work on, if I get involved again. I really doubt I will. That work was terrible for my mental health.
But if I did want to work on antiracism in that circle, I could work to build relationships with predominantly black (and hispanic) groups in town. Previously, I saw it as just a ... let's advertise to black folks, but building relationships is a big part of what Harvey talked about.
She wrote something about "move at the speed of trust", which is slow.