....digging out the roots

Yogis,
The small garden area in our town that I am responsible for ‘beautifying’ has a particular weed running through it. Every few days I head down and pull out the green that’s sticking it’s head up through the mulch. But this is only a band aid.  Two days later they will be there again, as the roots run deep. So do the roots of our racism…..

I know from my own garden that I can go years simply tidying up the top, pretending that nothing lurks beneath, and my garden will ‘look’ beautiful. But I go away on vacation for 10 days and upon my return the truth looks me right in the eye. As does racism…..

It is only when I am ready and willing to do the work that change happens. When I will get down on my knees, dig deep and allow myself to get dirty. Pulling, tugging and willing to keep going down, even when my shovel hits those darn rocks the size of a football.  Standing up at the end of the afternoon with earth under my nails, skin glistening from sweat and muscles sore. Then I know I have begun the work. The same is true with racism……

We are in a unique moment that will test whether we are going to tidy up or remove the roots.

Changes are already happening. Policies and laws are beginning to be overhauled which will help to save black lives, but these are what is happening above the ground. They will not tug at the roots. The roots of racism live within each of us and will require inner work and personal action to dig them out.

The protests and social media personal stories have swept back the top layer of dirt and the roots are now exposed. Will we get to work, or once the protests end and everyone goes back to their own manicured gardens will we hire the landscaper to cover them back up?

Who must be in this gardening club? All of us white people. This is not the job of the black community. We are the ones that planted these roots hundreds of years ago and we must get out our tools. And there are many tools to help us.

All you have to do is Google the best-selling books of the week and you will find enough reading on the issues to take you through the summer. Seek out the amazing black writers, educators and activists and listen to their words. I have been doing this and it is utterly heartbreaking. They have been speaking for so long, but I haven’t heard them until now. I have so much to learn/unlearn and work to do.

The word that has been coming to me all week is ‘vulnerable’. As whites we have been in the position of power for so long that it has become the norm, but now can we be brave enough to be vulnerable? Trusting that in allowing another to rise I am in no way diminished….in fact isn’t that the very essence of what it means to be a full human being?

Getting messy,
SARAH