If you read Monday’s blog post on moving forward, then you know I plan to use the book Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad in order to unpack my own baggage around race and racism. It’s time to look at myself and uncover my own racial biases, in order to move towards a better world.
I am not asking anyone to do this with me. But if you wish to do this on your own then you really need to get the book Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor. (I am not sharing this as an affiliate link because it’s not my place to profit from this lesson.)
The book covers 28 days of discussion and journal prompts around such subjects as white privilege, white silence, racist stereotypes, cultural appropriation, white saviorism, and other topics. Each day, one subject is covered with an explanation and real-world examples. At the end of the daily subject, there will be journal prompts to reflect upon.
I start the first week today and in next week’s Wednesday post I’ll share what I’ve learned about myself. I’m doing this because I was called out. Not personally, but in a blogging group that I’m in, it was suggested that white bloggers say they want people of color to read their blogs, but they don’t make their blogs welcoming to anyone who isn’t white.
When our posts and pictures all showcase white people and we don’t use people of color in our pins for Pinterest or our pictures for Instagram and Facebook…our we really being welcoming to a more diverse readership? Or are we sending out signals that this is a blog for white women?
And I realized…this is me. This is my blog. For over two years, I did monthly interviews with mostly middle-aged white women around how they started over in their life after an empty nest, or a move, or a new career. I featured one black business but all the interviews were with white people.
It didn’t start out as my plan to only interview white people. I asked for participants in numerous groups. But if someone who is BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) came to my blog, would they feel welcome? Would they think that I was open to having someone like them on my blog? Not if they just looked around. They’d have to work and dig around to find that out about me…but why should they have to? I should be doing the work to make them feel welcome.
And so, this is my work to look inward and uncover any hidden biases I have.
Good for you Jennifer, for being willing to do the work. Also for commenting on the need to show diversity in pictures on our blogs. I can’t claim a lot of credit, I use a lot of pictures from Pexels so they often show some diversity. But, it hasn’t necessarily been an intentional action. The book sounds interesting and worth while. Thanks for putting yourself out there and modeling for the rest of us as well as pointing us in the direction of a worthwhile book. Blessings, Michele
Thanks for sharing your journey on this. I actually rarely show any people in my blog header pictures. I had to stop and wonder why actually. And I have never had guest posts. (another why not moment!) So, I’m not sure if my blog is “welcoming” to POC or not. I’ve never looked closely at my followers to see who they are (should I?)… I know most of my regular commenters tend to be other mid-life women, more similar to me…. but I have many other followers/readers – men and women. An interesting thing to consider, for sure.
Of course it’s true that likes tends to seek like, so it’s not surprising that much blog readership is white women. There are probably various other societal issues involved, too. Of course, publishing is much the same. I’ve also been giving my blog a hard think around issues of inclusion, know I can do better, and I’ll be interested to know how that book is!
Good food for thought, Jennifer. I’m sure we all have hidden biases we’re not aware of, even though we think we don’t. I’m interested to hear your findings.
You’re right about that. We tend to feature people who look like ourselves. However, the stock photo industry doesn’t offer a wide variety of of black photos either. I got to interview Patti La Belle and some black authors for my blog and podcast and have written about my abbhorence to prejudice several times but not nearly enough.
SELF examination is a wonderful thing.