Five key steps to displacing your whiteness

1. Lean in. Sometimes Afrocentric knowledge hurts, and that's when you need to lean in and open up more, decentralizing whiteness is like debriding centuries old wound that is rotten to the core. You will have to work hard and quickly before sepsis sets in.

2. Old habits die hard.
Decentralizing your whiteness is not a gift to People of Color, Decentralizing your whiteness is NOT a gift to People of Color, therefore we do not owe you our labor or knowledge for free.

3. Stay the course. Do not feel berated or discouraged when those oppressed refuse to help for free. While you may not have directly participated in colonization and slavery you have been born into a world where you continually profit from its systemic inequalities. see step 2 above.

4. Double Down. Knowledge is power, so keep reading keep reflecting on how you have unwittingly contributed to the status quo, keep unlearning and then do the work QUIETLY (do not expect an ally ship cookie), donate, show up when needed and collect your friends when their privilege starts leaking (white tears are a valuable asset that signals they might want to start at step 1. above)  

5. Pass it on. If you learn something new you will be expected to clue in your other white friends and family members (this might be hard, so seek support from your community) never forget that while privilege isn't contagious it does leak and even with your new found knowledge you have not arrived at ally-ship mecca.

*ally-ship mecca is the mythical place where you end up after clocking a set amount of allyship hours, once you are there you are not only absolved of all privileges (while still benefiting from them) but you then become immune to ever being guilty of not being a super ally.

Race relations Canada vs USA

*backpost from November 2014 - Its a little ranty but thats ok :)

Thinking Canada is any better than the US is just naive.

Thinking that the Special Investigations Unit's (SIU) are any better than the police they investigate is just naive

2012 Ontario ombudsman says its problematic that SIU investigators arrived at the scene with “a whole bunch of preconceived notions of self-defense"

Thinking that if a black man was mercilessly gunned down that you would have answers or the very least know the name of the officer who killed him is just Naive.
Ask the family of Jermaine Carby

Thinking the police would lay charges against one of their own if the police ran over and killed your 5 year old black child while: speeding, running a red light, in an unmarked car without any flashing lights or a siren then you are naive. Ask the family of Nicolas Thorne-Belance, in Montreal

DONT BE NAIVE - Canada is packed filled with racist ideologies, and governed through systemic oppression.

Continues to chant "The system isnt broken it was built this way" #BlackLivesMatter 

Dear Rob Ford: My 6yr old would like share her lesson with you

For the last three or four summer camp days my spawn has been coming home with her water bottle full, so as always I’ve been following up with: Did you forget to drink your water today, why is your water bottle still full?, you need water to grow, and a 100 useful “fun” facts about why we need water. All of which were rebuffed with stories of how she drank all her water and re-filled it at camp. Which made sense the first two times. After the third day I caught on and would ask questions casting doubt and reminding her why it is important to tell the truth but she reassured me it was all legit.

Fast forward to day five or so when she had a string of supporting cast all of who she went with to fill the bottle and featuring a teacher who helped open the bottle. So of course I asked if I called her teacher would she support her story and what should happen if she doesn’t; To which my cleaver spawn even had punishment ideas. That’s of course until I called her bluff and suggested harsher punishment more befitting prolonged deception. She broke down and in tears admitted to all the lies in sequential order and then uttered as sincere of an apology as a six year old in tears could muster which was then followed up by a plea for clemency.

Her punishment was decided upon and agreed to by the both of us in three parts: One was a denial of privilege by rescinding her permission to attend a field trip that was planned for the next day to the Hockey Hall of Fame something she had been looking forward to for a very long time and even got a family member to purchase a hockey jersey of her favorite team to wear on the trip; Two education thru repetition, she would have to tell everyone who asked why she wasn’t going the whole truth of what happened; And three in her next video blog she would discuss the lesson she learn and different ways to rebuild trust.

She cried that morning before summer camp I almost did too, we shared our feelings and how we will hold each other accountable in love thru honest communication, how punishment can sometimes feel like lack of love in the moment and that even though that’s how she felt that she also knew in her heart that I loved her “dearly”. 

....Lessons from a six year old to Rob Ford