Healing our culture requires us to engage in the work of “anti-racism.”
In the introduction to his 2019 book, “How to Be an Antiracist,” author Ibram X. Kendi explains that “neutrality” in the struggle over racism is not possible. The opposite of “racist” isn’t “not racist.” It is “antiracist.”
Kendi argues the process of undoing the harmful effects of racism requires us to do three main things:
- identify
- describe
- dismantle
Our struggle is not to elevate the rights of one group over another as we work to become anti-racists and advance anti-racist work. Rather, our task is to “struggle to be fully human and to see that others are fully human.”
Human rights are universal, they are not conditional, geographically bound, or sectarian.
Understanding and supporting universal human rights does not require adherence to a particular religion.
The legacies of chattel slavery, colonialism, and unrestrained capitalism have deeply wounded our shared culture on our planet. To heal these wounds and scars, we need to take up the mantle of anti-racism.
Anti-racism is an important part of our work as “culture healers, not culture warriors.”
I invite you to join me in this work and on this journey.
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