White People, Don’t Be Afraid To Do The ‘Antiracist Stumble’

I’ve stumbled and face-planted more times than I can count

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels

If there was a book titled "How Not to Do Antiracism," I swear my face would be on the cover page. Still, part of the reason my antiracist journey has been transformative and continually deepening is that I've made several mistakes. I've stumbled and face-planted along the way; heck, I've even created an antiracist alias! Through it all, though, I recognize that being in this work for the long haul means striving for sustained antiracist commitment and not perfection.

It doesn’t matter what brought you in and when you decided to do this work, so long as you are committed to abolishing the oppressive systems you've internalized: white supremacy, capitalism, patriarchy, etc.

My journey into antiracism has been a gradual one. There isn't a singular personal event that brought me into this work. Instead, it's the culmination of privileged and oppressed lived experiences that did so—mostly oppressed, if I'm honest. The calling toward antiracism was inevitable for me; I tried my best to make corporate America work, but I couldn’t ignore ‘The Call.’

I used to work in television ad sales, so believe me when I say corporate America doesn't run on Dunkin; it runs on white supremacy culture. The culture is so toxic and demanding; it pummels people emotionally and physically until the soul is bruised beyond recognition. After working in corporate television for several years and ad sales for two, I finally called it quits because my body and soul couldn’t take it anymore. I was chronically ill in that stressful environment, and I had countless nights where I came home exhausted. So I did what any person would do: I cracked open a bottle of red Argentinian Malbec, and I drank abundantly to try and subdue my depression.  

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