Welcome to the EmbRACE newsletter. We’re delighted you are joining us on our collective journey.
Each newsletter will contain a number of sections contributed by different authors - people like you who are taking active steps to educate themselves and become actively anti-racist.
We will usually include something for you to do, something for you to watch, to listen to, to attend, and some terminology for you to ponder. So, whatever your interests and learning styles, we hope there’s something that appeals to you. Many of these sections will include a personal reflection from the contributor - we hope it’s encouraging to hear how other people are experiencing their own journey. Some sections will also offer suggested reflections that will hopefully help us all to critically examine our current state, behaviours, and feelings.
And so we begin…
Something to do
Appreciate excellence
Once a week, submit an excellence report about someone you work with. In our trust this can be done through the Ulysses incident reporting system. Take the time to appreciate, and recognise, the contribution of your colleagues.
Suggested reflections
Is the colleague that comes to mind from the same racial background as yourself?
What are your expectations of “excellence”? Do you associate these behaviours or properties with colleagues from certain racial backgrounds?
How do colleagues from different racial backgrounds demonstrate excellence in ways that might not have initially occured to you?
Something to read
What’s the context?
Our brains are desperately trying to make sense of a chaotic and ever changing world. They have developed an ability to categorise objects and people around us so that we can quickly process this information and learn rapidly. This evolutionary tool allowed us to learn which berries are safe to eat and which are poisonous. Or to give us that gut feeling of danger when a bear starts coming towards us! Unfortunately this quirk of evolution is the driving force behind “implicit bias.”
"Implicit bias is not a new way of calling someone a racist. In fact, you don't have to be a racist at all to be influenced by it. Implicit bias is a kind of distorting lens that is a product of both the architecture of our brain and the disparities in our society" (Eberhardt, 2019)
Research suggests that bias is most likely to inform behaviour when we have to make quick decisions about people we don’t know. Clearly this is relevant to us at the front door of the healthcare system!
Who’s the creator?
Dr Jennifer L. Eberhardt is a professor of psychology at Stanford, with a PhD from Harvard. She has studied the effect of implicit bias and race in areas such as; education, employment, housing and policing. In the wake of police shootings of unarmed Black men and children in the USA she has been drafted into multiple police departments to educate their officers on the potentially deadly consequences of unconscious bias.
What does it mean to me? (Matt)
I loved this book because it is rare to find something that is so evidence based and yet so emotive and personal. She brilliantly weaves academia and personal anecdotes of her experience as a Black woman and mother to illustrate her point. There is nothing confrontational about this book. She has a compassionate understanding of human psychology and if the reader can humble themselves to acknowledge the power of their subconscious it's a challenging but thoughtful read.
One of the key points made in this book is the danger of ‘not seeing colour’. Many of us who find overt racism and hatred despicable adopt a stance of claiming that race has no impact on how we think. But this book clearly illustrates that to attempt to ignore race will blind you to the stereotypes that can inform your thoughts, feelings and actions.
As someone who likes to consider themself an ‘Anti-racist’ I found it uncomfortable to reflect on the times in my life that I have used bias to inform my behaviour or make judgements on those around me. But living with this discomfort and communicating with others is essential to make personal change and to start to change the culture which enables bias and exclusion.
Suggested reflections
Have you been in a situation where you or another have claimed they “don’t see colour”? Did it open the conversation and explore lived experiences, or close the conversation and deny or silence experiences?
Think of a time and place where you have been aware of your own race (especially if you are White). How might the colour of your skin have influenced the way you were responded to?
When considering the author’s credibility, which factors carry greater weight for you? Are you more drawn by her academic credentials, or her lived experience as a Black woman? Do either of these reduce her credibility in your eyes?
Consider supporting authors, and book sellers, of colour by getting your own copy of the book from a retailer such as Afrori Books. Every purchase is a vote.
Something to listen to
Finding Our Way, Episode 1: The Body with Sonya Renee Taylor
What’s the context?
Finding Our Way (Apple, Spotify) is a podcast hosted by writer, healer, teacher, and somatics practitioner, Prentis Hemphill. Prentis dives into topics of embodiment, boundaries, harm, creativity, and more with people who are working to reshape this world. This isn’t a podcast about answers. It is an exploration into ourselves, and the skills we need to create and embody the world we want.
Who’s the creator?
Before founding The Embodiment Institute, Prentis was the Healing Justice Director at Black Lives Matter Global Network and a lead somatics teacher with Generative Somatics, an organisation committed to bringing politicised somatics to movement building, and Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity (BOLD), a group dedicated to rebuilding Black movement infrastructure.
Prentis currently lives on a small farm in Durham, North Carolina with their partner, Kasha and their three dogs, on land first loved and stewarded by the Saponi people and near where Prentis’ ancestors first arrived to Turtle Island.
What does it mean to me? (Tom)
Prentis hosts deep and wise conversations with inspirational figures. Together they envision a future characterised by greater social justice, and illuminate ways we can step towards it. As a White man, these conversations can be uncomfortable or even confronting at times. The current reality offers me many privileges; it took deliberate work on anti-racism for me to recognise this. However, in reality, racial inequity serves nobody. My attachment to the way things currently are, and my sense of entitlement to my privilege, can be difficult to shake off, but I’m working on it. I can sometime spot my White fragility coming up as a feeling in my body, other times I’m not even that self-aware. However, I’m always struck by the sense of peace, clarity, and spaciousness Prentis’ podcasts bring me. I often feel like the concepts they discuss neatly explain things I’ve witnessed or experienced but have not been able to name. In this episode you’ll get to think about how we each inhabit, embody, and reproduce a system of oppression and comparison based on the “ladder of bodily hierarchy”, which keeps us from community and creates shame and disillusionment.
Suggested reflections
What response do you feel in your body when you hear the terms “White supremacist”, “colonialist”, and “slavery”? If you experience discomfort, are you comfortable to sit in discomfort and remain open to what is being discussed, or do you disengage?
In what ways have you internalised the “ladder of bodily hierarchy”? Do value slimmer, able, heterosexual bodies with fairer skin? How does this hierarchy show up in the way you live your life?
How could you invite radical self-love into your life, and access a more authentic, vulnerable, and generous version of yourself? How could you create conditions that allow others to do the same?
Consider supporting content creators from diverse communities through a site such as Patreon.
Something to attend
In Conversation with Professor Dame Elizabeth Anionwu
Wednesday, 6 October 2021, between 18:30 – 19:30 BST. Online
Tickets £5.98, available from Eventbrite
Professor Dame Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu (@EAnionwu) will discuss Mary Seacole and her own long and illustrious career in nursing. Elizabeth identifies herself as of Irish/Nigerian heritage and started working for the NHS as a school nurse assistant at the age of 16. She invested many years as a nurse, health visitor and tutor for Black and minority ethnic communities in London. In 1979, she helped to establish the first nurse-led UK Sickle & Thalassaemia Screening and Counselling Centre.
As part of the celebrations for the 70th Anniversary of the National Health Service, Elizabeth was named as one of the 70 most influential nurses and midwives in the history of the NHS. Elizabeth is Emeritus Professor of Nursing at the University of West London.
Elizabeth helped lead the campaign to raise a statue of Mary Seacole, which, in 2016, became the first named memorial to a Black woman in the UK. Mary was born to a Black mother, in Jamaica, more than 200 years ago at a time when many Black people in the Caribbean were enslaved. However, as Mary’s father was a White Scottish army officer, Mary was born a ‘free person’. In 1855, her offer of help having been rejected by the British War Office, Mary funded her own passage to the front line of the Crimean war in order to establish a care facility for sick and recovering soldiers.
BlackHistoryMonth.org.uk shares listings of events throughout the year. Events in the North West can be found here.
A word to ponder
White Fragility
In response to race-related matters, White people may display behaviours that allow them to avoid meaningful engagement with the topic. This is termed “White fragility”. It includes defensive responses and emotions such as fear, anger, guilt, silence, arguing and withdrawal. Underpinning White fragility is a (possibly subconscious) belief in White superiority and White people’s entitlement to not experience racial stress. We are socialised to adopt these beliefs from a young age. White fragility behaviours, often provoked by discomfort, can be exhibited without the intention of being racist. However, their impact is to shut down conversations about racial inequality, which perpetuates the devastating consequences of racism for people who can’t live without being affected by their race.
The term was coined by White sociologist Robin DiAngelo, who wrote a book exploring why White people find it so hard to talk about race.
White fragility might look like:
A White person saying “I don’t see colour, so I’m not racist”
Avoiding a topic about racism because it makes the White person feel uncomfortable
A White person saying “I have a Black friend/relative so I’m not racist”
A White person crying rather than engaging with a discussion about racism
A White person stating that "Racism ended with slavery”
Suggested reflections
What feelings do I have about the term “White fragility”? Do I resist the term, and is that itself a display of “White fragility”?
Does “White fragility” explain behaviours I have expressed or witnessed?
During a conversation about race-related matters, have I exhibited behaviours that had the effect of distracting from, silencing, denying, explaining or excusing what was being discussed?