Embedded Files
In her book Do Better, Rachel Ricketts says she rejected the term “activist” for a long time. For her, she didn’t feel like the work she did was equivalent to the work of her ancestors, who worked, fought, and lost their lives.
You, in your identification as Black, Indigenous, and/or Person of Color, are an activist in many ways. Every time you’ve shared your truth, that’s being an activist. Every time you’ve done internal work to heal, that’s being an activist. When you’ve stood up for what you believed in and advocated for yourself and others, that’s being an activist.
Week 6 is the bridge that takes you to the other side of your activism journey. This is the place where you begin to make connections between the internal work and the outward action you can take. There will be reference to other weeks in this chapter so get ready!
Your Superpowers
Your Superpowers
Being a BIPOC activist means engaging in acts of resistance, exploring deep critical thought and questioning, leaning into discomfort, building your education and development, processing emotions, holding yourself and others accountable, and so much more. In the introduction to this workbook, we defined what an activist means to our organization. Let’s revisit it.
Activist: Any person who leverages their specific talents, skills, or attributes to the liberation and freedom for all people.
Tiffany Jewell, in This Book is Anti-Racist, refers to these talents as our "superpowers.” In this week, we will specifically identify what your superpowers are and how to harness them in spaces that you can influence or impact.
Do—
Social Change Superpowers
Do—
Social Change Superpowers
List the superpowers that you bring to making this world a better place. These powers can consist of your professional skills, personality traits, special talents, values, etc.
Look at this adaptation from Lotus Water of Deepa Iyer’s Social Change Ecosystem for inspiration.
As you look at your list, what can you conclude about your role as a social change agent?
Reflect—
Reflect—
In a journal or in conversation with another person doing this work, ask yourself:
What issues are you passionate about and how do they connect to your superpowers?
If you were to ask someone else to list their superpowers, it would probably look different, and that’s okay. The article, “Finding Your Role in a Social Change Ecosystem,” drives home the fact that every skill or talent matters. To rid the world of white supremacy and the oppressions that BIPOC people have experienced for centuries requires a multifaceted approach, a mosaic of change agents that share the commonality of persistence, relentlessness, and love.
And let’s be real: as you attempt to execute your superpowers to make change it may not happen overnight. In anti-racism work, change is not sweeping, quick, or easy. Nor is it linear. adrienne marie brown’s book Emergent Strategy says that transformation doesn’t happen in a linear way. It comes in cycles, convergences, and explosions. Imagine if we were to release this framework of failure and instead explore unsuccessful attempts at change as a cycle of learning, growth, and development where we“actually feel what's happening to and around us, and letting our feelings help us understand what we must do.”
Reflect—
Reflect—
In a journal or in conversation with another person doing this work, ask yourself:
How do you typically react to change?
What questions do you believe you should ask before you embark on creating change?
What will you do if that change doesn’t occur as quickly as you would like? What alternatives could you pursue?
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Sowing Seeds of Change
Do—
Sowing Seeds of Change
Based on your superpowers, what changes do you want to take part in and sow into the earth?
Sow the seed(s) of change regardless of your fears, frustrations, or hypothetical ‘what ifs’ . You may see the seed bud. You may see it grow. You may not see anything at all until much later.
The graphic below gives a big picture overview of the experiences and approach for BIPOC activists who wish to enact or take part in change.
Self-care/Soulcare
Self-care/Soulcare
You must take the time to know yourself--your history, triggers, the negative thoughts you’ve internalized, how you process your emotions, and your superpowers. Having taken the time to access the inner thoughts and workings of your being is one of the many steps needed towards liberation. “Freedom is nothing if you keep it to yourself,” according to Color Line’s article "3 Liberatory Principles for Emerging Freedom Fighters". The self-awareness acquired from this process propels you to engage in Community Care.
Community Care
Community Care
This looks like you searching for your people who in community, build power, capacity, knowledge, and connection to work towards a shared purpose. Mariam Kaba recognizes that internal reflection is necessary, but unless you do something with it, or as she says “test it out in the world,” with people, how can you radically transform our world? We can take care of ourselves and our community in tandem.
Collective Action
Collective Action
You must also take part in systemic change despite ourselves being mired in a white supremacy culture. This is the process of you and your community doing everything you can by embracing imagination and experimentation. Each person must bring to action their superpower, be willing to lean into them hard, and be open to manifesting superpowers that you’re interested in developing.
To effectively carry out your role in collective action, you will close out part 1 by making a plan. This plan is designed for you to explicitly make connections between the “how” of making change and the “how” of leveraging your superpower to either contribute, enact, or propel the change you wish to see. To help guide you in your thinking process, see Anti-Racism Every Day’s changemaker form below.
Our hope is that this changemaker form will bring specificity and intentionality to your superpowers. After thinking through these parameters, your next steps coming out of this brainstorm should be clearer. Other steps you can consider if you feel discomfort or uncertainty regarding this change include:
Working on this with a fellow anti-racist. You don’t have to do it alone!
Planning/Practicing for upcoming conversations that may be required after sharing with others. We recommend reading Chapter 6: “What are the Consequences for Saying What I Mean?” and Chapter 7: “To Speak or How to Speak, That is the Question,” in Derald Wing Sue’s book Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence. Both chapters cover challenges that BIPOC folks face when discussing race and sharing their lived experiences. It also talks through some of the nuances that occur when wanting to create change in a racially-diverse space.
You may also view a video of Sue explaining the book here.
Emailing us at antiracismeveryday@gmail.com for 1:1 coaching and guidance.
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Changemaker Form
Do—
Changemaker Form
Think through the change (small, medium, or large) that you want to (re)start/continue/close out using the form below.
For a printable version of the form, click here.
Reflect—
Reflect—
In a journal or in conversation with another person doing this work, ask yourself:
After walking through the changemaker form, what thoughts do you have about that experience?
What changemaking steps have you identified?
Soulcare
Soulcare
Being a BIPOC activist also means prioritizing rest, doing therapeutic acts of healing, love, and joy, putting energy into yourself, and engaging in other activities outside of your anti-racism work. You have a commitment to take care of yourself. You must take care of yourself because this is intentional, life-long work and we need you.
Reflect—
Reflect—
In a journal or in conversation with another person doing this work, ask yourself:
How do you typically relax or decompress? This can be mentally, physically, emotionally, or spiritually.
Who around you brings you peace?
What brings peace to your body?
When stressed, what habits do you tend to engage in?
The Nap Ministry, founded by Tricia Hersey, is an organization that advocates for rest as resistance. This idea of taking intentional time to rest is revolutionary. Rest gives healing, gives us space, and moves us forward toward creating a new world where BIPOC people can live in full liberation and authenticity.
Reflect—
Reflect—
In a journal or in conversation with another person doing this work, ask yourself:
How will you use rest to disrupt history? How will you commit to yourself and your longevity? What does it look like for you? The Nap Ministry provides 11 different examples below:
Closing your eyes for 10 minutes
A long shower in silence
Meditating on the couch for 20 minutes (Author’s note: Start at 5 if 20 is too long!)
Daydreaming by staring out of a window
Sipping tea before bed in the dark
Slow dancing with yourself to slow music
Attending or tuning in to a sound bath
Sun salutations
A 20-minute timed nap
Praying
Creating a small altar
Choose one and plan to do it in the next 1-2 days!
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Taking Up Space
Do—
Taking Up Space
Now take up space by visually creating it here first. What does your rest space look like? What’s around you? What are you doing in that space? Use your five senses to describe the place where you reclaim your body, mind, and spirit.
If you have a space that you love and thrive in, continue to maintain it. Feel free in your drawing to include other ways of rest that would help make this space even more special.
If you’ve created a space but you see opportunities for improvement, include elements of rest space that you’d like to see. What do you think it’ll take to get there?
Feel free to draw the space you imagine or just see it in your mind.
Rest is not an easy endeavor, but it is something that you deserve.
Audre Lorde, a black lesbian poet, warrior and mother famously said in 1988 “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation and that is an act of political warfare.” Self-care for Lorde was about preservation of self, resilience, collective care, building community, and physical and mental care. That definition has taken a new form within the last 20 years as you will see below in the timeline we provided. To dig more into the history of self-care, listen or read the transcript to Still Processing's episode, “Caring for Ourselves and Others in Trump’s America."
Historically and currently in communities of color, self-care and community care have been the standard for supporting the wellbeing of community members. Spiritual practices, cultural norms, and ancestral traditions still act as the guide for North American and European definitions of self-care, and many of these practices have been appropriated by white capitalism. The diagram below walks us through the origins of self-care for BIPOC and how it’s evolved in the United States over the years, alongside the way it has been co-opted and capitalized upon by white communities.
Reflect—
Reflect—
In a journal or in conversation with another person doing this work, ask yourself:
What do you notice about self-care and its role in our society from 1960-2021?
We pour ourselves into institutions, systems, and people. At Anti-Racism Every Day, we advocate for people to take care of themselves by taking care of their souls. We believe in the deep work of soulcare. Rachel Ricketts, in her book Do Better, coined the term soulcare to inspire a different approach to taking care of oneself than what we see playing out in society today, where self-care has become inaccessible due to it’s capitalist message of spending more, doing more, and “treating yourself.”
Rickett’s soulcare definition closely aligns to the original idea of self-care explained by Audre Lorde. For Ricketts, soulcare is deeper. It returns us back to the cultural and spiritual practices of our ancestors. It is a safe space for folks, especially for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color to find comfort, prioritize their needs, and engage in collective care. Through that process comes the overriding of current systemic barriers of wellness that aren't inclusive of body type, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, socioeconomic status, etc.
Reflect—
Reflect—
In a journal or in conversation with another person doing this work, ask yourself:
In your own words, how would you define self-care versus soulcare?
Which one do you find you do more of?
As much as we value doing the internal work, we also value engaging in collective soulcare. We should take care of one another. We are connected as human beings and we all must live in this world. When you work towards making yourself happy, healthy, and free, you positively impact the folks around you.
Read the ways that you can engage in soulcare individually and collectively. Some of these may be familiar from earlier content from this week. While you’re reading, feel free to write down the ones that you’d be interested in exploring or doing more of.
*adapted from My Grandmother's Hands.
Do—
Develop a Peace Plan
Do—
Develop a Peace Plan
After reading this list, think about 5 specific ways that you will bring peace to your body, mind, and spirit based on what you’ve learned this week.
Decide on when these activities should or need to be done.
Determine if there’s a person who you’d like to do the activity with or someone to keep you accountable to taking care of yourself. It is also okay for you to be with yourself.
For a printable version, click here.
Journey Work: Preparing for Cross-Cultural Dialogue
Journey Work: Preparing for Cross-Cultural Dialogue
The goal of this workbook is both personal development and preparation for conversations in cross-racial settings. We will end each week with exercises in applying your learnings in diversified spaces.
Take a proactive approach!
We know that not all spaces are safe spaces. So, before engaging in any type of cross-cultural dialogue, what will be your soulcare strategy to prepare for the conversation?
Identify during which moments your superpowers will be a valuable asset to the conversation and/or under what circumstances they need to come into play?
Feed Your Soul: Referenced and Additional Resources
Feed Your Soul: Referenced and Additional Resources
The following are good supplements to the work you did above, if you are looking to dig deeper into this topic.
Referenced
Referenced
Do Better by Rachell Ricketts
This Book is Anti-Racist by Tiffany Jewell
"3 Liberatory Principles for Emerging Freedom Fighters" by Key Jackson
Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence by Derald Wing Sue
Emergent Strategy by adrienne marie brown
Social Change Wheel 2.0 from MN Campus Connect
Finding Your Role in a Social Change Ecosystem by Deepa Iyer
"Making Social Change | Finding Your Role - What Fits Me Best?" by Lotus Water
Additional
Additional
Revolutionary Hope: A Conversation Between James Baldwin and Audre Lorde
"Toward Love, Healing, Resilience & Alignment: The Inner Work of Social Transformation & Justice" by Sheryl Petty, Kristen Zimmerman, and Mark Leach
The Birth of American Music from the 1619 Project Podcast
"How Some Black Americans are Finding Solace in African Spirituality" by Nylah Burton
Interested in Doing More of This Work?
Interested in Doing More of This Work?
The activities and materials on this page were created for the Anti-Racism Every Day BIPOC Activism Discussion Group. All are welcome to join us to continue this work and benefit from the power of collective reflection and discussion.
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