Non-Zero Days, Antiracism Edition: Day 62 (and notes on the future of this series)

Thanks to the teaching of EbonyJanice in her lecture, White Urgency is Violence, I realized that there are potentially violent elements in this series. It is time to take a step back.


July 27

On Day 62, I clearly saw critical issues with this series – and this makes sense since the content from EbonyJanice‘s lecture, White Urgency is Violence, has had time to settle in (credit to the part about How to Learn, replay of the lecture here). That lecture opened my eyes to violent elements in this series: for one, the concept of “writing in haste” about the topic of antiracism (as I did in the last post) is violent, and there are areas throughout where citations are lacking; where ideas that are certainly not mine read like they are mine.

A replay of EbonyJanice’s White Urgency is Violence lecture can be purchased here. She is co-hosting a lecture-conversation, Sustaining Joy in AntiRacism Work, with Thea Monyeé on August 9, and tickets can be purchased here.

Moving forward

I apologize if any part of what I have written and shared has caused harm. The truth is, I have no idea what impact my writing has had, and the right thing to do now is to take a step back. If this series is to continue to be publicly available on the internet, I must:

  • consider who I am writing for, and what is the intended effect of the writing,
  • repair the existing writing,
  • determine how I will be held accountable for its impact in the future.

(these items are inspired by an initial skim of The Four Parts of Accountability by Mia Mingus)

I’m grateful to have What’s Up Pittsburgh and Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) to support me through this process via mentoring and community.

For the time being, I have password protected all posts in this Non-Zero Days series except this one. I plan to continue writing and publishing them on this site under password protection while I work the above items. If you would like to read these posts, send me an email, and we can discuss.