Reflecting on the week, you can always tell yourself two truths:
- You did good work.
- You perpetuated white supremacy.
Both are true, every week.
We all make positive contributions throughout our lives when we do things like encourage others, keep commitments, extend generosity, or exude joy.
Also, we can never fully extract from our psyche the idea that white is right. It’s in the air we breathe, the systems we navigate, and the social fabric of our society. Internally with self-talk or externally with others, we can cause damage by overextending our influence or l withhold gifts to the world by squashing our potential.
Taking inventory of our thoughts and actions leads to self-awareness. When we see it, we then have the ability choose equity and liberation more often, in big or small ways. For a few minutes at the end of the day or the week, consider emails sent, conversations had, or assumptions made this week that may indicate beliefs about yourself, about families, about the child welfare industry, or Blackness, or justice, or right-ness.
Technology can also be leveraged in our efforts uncover and address internal biases. In a LinkedIn article, DEI consultant Janice Gassam Asare writes about ways ChatGPT can be used to identify biased language in emails, job descriptions, or other written language.
So, let’s not allow our internalized superiority or inferiority go unchecked today! Our continued efforts to increase deep self-awareness, tell and accept the truth, and give and receive compassion makes a difference in the lives of the children and families we serve.
Look for internal bias and meet it with hard truth and even harder love.
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