Another norm for engaging in courageous conversations and anti-racist activism is No Fixing. I’ve found this easiest to explain with a metaphorical story. A few months ago I was riding my bike home from work when I was hit by a car. I was going straight and I saw the driver at an upcoming intersection look left, directly past me, then pull out into the intersection to make a right hand turn. Luckily she was moving slowly, as I was right in front of her (in the bike lane, btw)

I wrote and presented the following at an Episcopal Women’s Gathering recently: I’m going to give a brief overview of our approach to anti-racism work by explaining the norms we operate under. One of the first steps in dismantling racism is self-awareness. For me, as a White person, this means the on-going process of interrogating the dominant cultural norms I’ve taken for granted as “just the way people are” or “just how things are done”. In contrast, the norms of People of

Culturally competent leaders can come from all levels of an organization or community. While leaders have the responsibility to move their organization towards positive change, it’s important they recognize they are also learning along the way. Becoming culturally competent is a journey not an event and no one person has all the answers. The best leaders are those who are intentional about developing their cultural competence through practice with others and by learning from

A friend of mine sent me a photo of a poster she saw outside of an elementary classroom yesterday. In front of a colorful collection of crayons it read, “We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull. Others are bright, some have weird names, but they all have learned to live together in the same box.” Interestingly enough, all of the crayons in the photo looked brand new, i.e. all of them were “sharp”. How is this supposed to inspire child