Things white people can do immediately toward racial justice.

*If you are not coming from a Christian perspective  all of these are pertinent to you as well, please see past Christian references.

“Then, as we pulled into a parking lot to break for lunch, another white student stood to speak. But instead of a different variation on “Please don’t make me responsible for this,” she took a deep breath and gave in to the emotion of it all. “I don’t know what to do with what I’ve learned,” she said. “I can’t fix your pain, and I can’t take it away, but I can see it. And I can work for the rest of my life to make sure your children don’t have to experience the pain of racism.” And then she said nine words that I’ve never forgotten: ‘Doing nothing is no longer an option for me.‘” Excerpt from I’m Still Here by Austin Channing Brown

Proactively grow in your cultural intelligence or cultural awareness.

“Interrupting the forces of racism is ongoing, lifelong work because the forces conditioning us into racist frameworks are always at play; our learning will never be finished. Yet our simplistic definition of racism -as intentional acts of racial discrimination committed by immoral individuals- engenders a confidence that we are not a part of the problem and that our learning is thus complete”- Robin Diangelo

Too many of us decide “I am not racist because I don’t do anything that is blatantly racist— therefore I have nothing to learn.”

See one resource list here, but there are many more. Reading books and listening to podcasts should not be the only thing you do to grow in these areas but it is a part of the process. Never stop—as white people this is one of the ways we can prevent ourselves from becoming desensitized from realities that our brothers and sisters can’t avoid.

Believe and trust your brothers and sisters of color.

Take their word for what it is like existing in the world as a POC. Take their word for what it is like to be a person of color in your organization. Don’t dismiss and even more tempting don’t diminish their experiences.

One of the ways that this has been true for me is that I am increasingly learning how much emotional energy is spent surviving. Mental and emotional energy spent on being constantly aware of injustices or aware of being in loop a white dominated space. As a white male I have a full reservoir of mental and emotional energy to be spent on the task at hand. If I am not careful I diminish the impact of this reality.

*Current mainstream stories magnify this point, i.e the disproportionate impact of COVID and the murder of Ahmaud Arbery , but the reality exists all the time.

Increase endurance for discomfort and learn to hold more than one emotion at a time. 

It is the tendency of white people to want to get out of discomfort as fast as possible, to make sure everyone feels good by the end of a meeting or conversation. We must increase our endurance for discomfort or we will avoid the painful realities of white supremacy and become apathetic to the realities of our brothers and sisters.

A friend of mine says it this way, “ White people tend to consider comfort to be evidence of God’s work but in reality discomfort is evidence of the Holy Spirit at work.”

One of the greatest gifts of the past few years for me came when in a book study with a diverse group of people. One of the people of color in the group brought up the reality that white people don’t know how to hold more than one emotion at a time because we have never had to therefore we move quickly out of discomfort and try to make everyone feel good. People of color don’t have that luxury therefore they have been forced to learn how to hold more than one emotion at a time. It is a great gift to learn from marginalized brothers and sisters that it is possible to grieve and be joyful at the same time.

If white people don’t develop this ability we will never stay committed to this endeavor, we will always eventually move out to comfort.

Learn the theology of lament and practice it.

The white church has historically avoided lament in favor of triumphalism and celebration. We are missing a powerful part of being a Christ follower. The best resource I know is Prophetic Lament by Dr Soong Chan Rah.

Make and embrace changes that may be for the 1 rather than for the 99.

Song choice, food choice, language choice, agenda change, program change. Your organization will never reflect the beautiful diversity of God’s Kingdom if you wait to make changes until there is a critical mass of non dominant culture people.

Actively make every space you enter a space that is welcoming and inclusive to all.

How might someone from the non dominant culture feel right now in this place? What might be preventing them from being able to bring their full selves?

Avoid speaking in ways that only insiders or only people with your background would understand or relate too.

Lovingly call out injustices or insensitive comments.

It is not enough to simply not act unjustly or too not just avoid saying insensitive things. We must actively work to undo unjust systems and actively put an end to insensitive statements. This is the difference between being non racist and being actively anti racist. I have not yet read “How to be an Anti Racist,” by Ibram X Kendi despite multiple recommendations but this concept is what I am after here and I do intend to read this.

When you do get the opportunity to have cross cultural relationships do it with grace and sensitivity.

On the one hand, don’t be paralyzed, when in friendship with people who are different from you. Don’t be afraid to talk about your differences. Ask questions about how they experience the world as a person of color etc. Every time I have entered spaces that I am a minority, and every time I have entered conversations with people who are different from me about our differences I have been received with abundant grace.

On the other hand don’t say stupid things and then play the victim when someone gets upset with what you said or how you asked the question.

There is no question that the most powerful change we can make in our life is to be in mutually caring relationships with people of color (and any marginalized group). This, more than anything else will impact the lens with which you see the world.  However, we must do it with grace and sensitivity. Much has been said about the power of proximity, but less has been said about how to do this with grace and sensitivity that doesn’t once again put the burden of responsibility on the marginalized person.

Be a costly ally.

There are certain things that are uniquely the responsibility of white people. We must speak up to our white brothers and sisters—even when or especially when it stands to cost you something. We need to give up power. We need to turn down opportunities. We need to boycott.

If you (and I) are not doing things that cost us we are not truly allies.

I am convinced that if we do these 9 things our next more powerful action steps will be clear to us day by day.There is certainly more for us to do. Much more. More costly and more impactful. This is just a start. A start I believe that is doable today, literally today.