A couple weeks ago, I attended the Reimagining Small Business Town Hall led by Rachel Rodgers, Ericka Hines, Sonya Renee Taylor, Robert Hartwell, Susan Hyatt and Nathan Berry.
One of the pieces that has stuck with me the most was Ericka's introduction of Barbara J. Love's Liberatory Consciousness Framework, which provides a structure for moving towards anti-racist allyship. In this framework, there are four stages:
- Awareness
- Analysis
- Action
- Accountability/Allyship
Before the recent murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, and subsequent murders and protests, I would say that I was in stage 2 when it came to anti-racism. I have been aware of these systemic injustices for years, going back to my university days when I had my eyes opened to the concept of the White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy (barf) that we live in. I had also moved into the work of analysis: evaluating my own behaviour, integrating what I was learning, and understanding the broader implications of racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia & all the other forms of marginalization and discrimination our culture is so fond of embedding into our systems and ourselves.
But over the past few weeks I have learned even more deeply, from a wider spread of Black teachers and leaders. I have learned that it is equally important to experience and support Black joy as it is to recognize Black pain. I have learned that I've been wrongly spelling Black with a lower-case "b" my whole life. I have learned that I was missing out on so many incredible teachers and ideas due to the homogeneity of my Instagram feed & newsletter subscriptions. I have learned that many of the people around me had never really thought about race before.
Above all, I learned that I had not yet moved to stage 3 of this framework: action. Barbara J. Love defines the step of action thusly: "Asking what, if anything needs to happen to move the reality that we are witnessing or experiencing on a path toward liberation, and what our role should be in that movement."
The best time to take action in dismantling white supremacy was years ago. The second best time is right now.
At the Town Hall, we were asked to sign The Anti-Racist Small Business Pledge, a thoughtfully curated list of commitments that small businesses can take to interrupt racism in themselves and their businesses. I was so grateful to the organizers for doing this labour, which they offered for free, in order to help well-intentioned business owners turn their good intentions into tangible action that will actually be felt by BIPOC. You can see and sign the pledge, as well as watch the excellent Town Hall discussion right here.
After a couple weeks of analysis about my business specifically, I am moving into action. I am starting by publicly announcing my commitments to creating a more anti-racist business. Not everything on this list is in motion or completed, but the accountability commitments that I mention below are designed to keep me engaged with this work to implement these and further actions.
In honour of the stage of "action", I am drawing inspiration from a quote from bell hooks: "What we do is more important than what we say, or what we say we believe." Each item on this list is framed with a verb to represent a different form of action I commit to taking in my business or personal life.