Reflections on #amplifymelanatedvoices and plans moving forward!
These seven days of muting are over and I feel it’s important not to go back to the status quo without addressing the experience and also having a plan for moving forward. The point of this experiment as laid forth by the founders, Jessica Wilson and Alishia McCullough was to experience a new reality and reflect. I want to share my reflections here.
On honoring the Black members of my community…
It was powerful to focus deeper on the Black voices in my community. I admit I often don’t see all of you clearly enough or appreciate and honor you enough.
I honor you and see you and I am going to keep doing that beyond just this week.
I became aware of some amazing new people too this week and I’m so grateful for that, like Andrea Ranae who offers exactly what I was looking for in the next phase of my business, a course called Rise Up: Visionary Business Through These Times. I have joined and I am looking forward to the transformation because her work speaks to me on a deep level.
Reflecting on my responsibility…
This week reminded me that I can never turn off my whiteness. It’s always on! It’s going to take up space wherever I am, so I need to be mindful of that. This is especially important as someone who has a growing following in a field that came about in primarily white spaces.
I grew up in a white supremacist society in the whitest city in America and it shaped my experience completely. This is something that I know I have to actively combat, every day. If I don’t, I can harm and alienate others.
It’s important for me to recognize the space I take up and how to channel that in a way that is actively dismantling white supremacy.
I’ve been actively learning and unlearning for 3+ years which was already late to the game. I’ve learned from a lot of people - random tweets from Black/BIPOC activists generously sharing their voices, articles from a variety of sources, Rachel Cargle, Rachel Ricketts, Layla F. Saad, and now I have new voices to support and learn from.
Initially, why did I begin to learn? Because I got called out for some things I said that were hurtful. Let’s tell it like it is. The good news is that I’ve made a lot of progress. I have a better view of how the world has shaped me, and shaped us all, and how to combat white supremacy actively.
I still fuck up. I still get way too complacent sometimes. But I fuck up less and I’m able to acknowledge it and course correct faster each time.
On why I wasn’t talking about this more, earlier…
While I have addressed white privilege on my platform before, anti-racism wasn’t something I talked about directly. I do look at HD through an anti-racist lens when I do my work, but I noticed that I often fail to name this, and systemic oppression, explicitly.
Hmm. Why?
This week I reflected on why. I realized that in some way, I felt it wasn’t my place. And if I’m not talking about it…is that even anti-racist?
It is my place, and above that, it’s my duty. I want to explicitly expand the historically white narrative of Human Design because #1 this is the right thing to do for humanity and #2 doing this IS the New Paradigm. The New Paradigm doesn’t exist somewhere out there, up there, away from the realities of the world. The changes and movement we are seeing right now in dismantling oppressive hierarchies that have been built on the systemic exploitation, oppression, and murder of Black people (and other people of color)…this is the shift into the Aquarian Age and I want to address that specifically.
I am grateful for this push to be more explicitly anti-racist.
Planning for the future
I took the time to review my business and education plans moving forward and make sure they are in alignment with social justice and with the world I want to see. Which is - that my dollars are going to the people I want them to go to, I’m collaborating with the people I want to see succeed and who challenge me to expand, I am building a sustainable way of financially supporting anti-racist work into my business structure, and I’m sharing my work in a way that is a win-win...accessible to those who want it and viable for me. I don’t want to replicate the hierarchies and systems that we’ve had for hundreds (thousands?) of years. Because I truly believe win-wins are possible in the New Paradigm.
Most of my plans aligned with that, some didn’t, and some new inspiration emerged, too.
Basically, to the Black members of this community- I see you. I support you. I am always challenging myself to look deeper, unearth my racism (and call it out in others), and make sure that I’m seeing the whole picture and not just the narrow white lens I was raised with so that I can support you, too. I have received so much support from you as I’ve built this platform and I will do everything I can to support you.
Same goes for the BIPOC members of my community - I am always actively working to support you, too. I don’t need there to be a national/global crisis like we just had to continue educating myself and putting that into practice.
To the white members of my community, please join me in furthering an anti-racist narrative of Human Design (and everywhere in life!).
I’ll be sharing more specifics over the next week for my plans moving forward since I am planning to release some new offerings!
Love,
Rachel
Make sure to keep in touch!
