 Welcome back to the heart of the matter. We are here today discussing racism. It's a tough topic. We are going to deal with tough topics here in the heart of the matter. Bring in local experts to and nationwide experts to talk to us about solutions for some of the tough problems that we have as a community, as a society, as a people. Join today and continue our conversation with Sandy Holman. I'm Andrea Jones and I'm glad you've joined us for the heart of the matter. Let's talk about some Sandy. We've gone over some of the constructs, the systemic racism that plagues our country, but I think we need to move into the talking about the hope and the solutions and what we can do as a people. What we, still in the majority, barely, actually in this state we're not, but what we as white people, as white allies can do because I know there's a lot of people in this community and in other communities that are afraid to ask some of those questions, are afraid to talk about some of these issues in real terms, are afraid to use certain language because if they say that then they'll be portrayed as a racist and we see this unfortunately on the political front this year, hopefully that will resolve itself and we will move forward in a peaceful transition of our government as we have for 240 years, but we do see people who are blatantly saying racist things, then ascribing that racism to someone who repeats it. So how do we talk about, how do we bring solutions and our concerns to the table in a thoughtful and productive way? So first of all I want to thank you again for having me and I want to say we have not even begun, even with the other two previous segments we did to touch the tip of the iceberg, that historical component is so critical to understand because it's pivotal in the solutions and any solutions that we talk about. I know for example that when I've worked with people in workshops, our forums, our gatherings and that they've learned some of these things that they've never been taught in their 50s, 60s, 70s and even 80s, often a common reaction is crying because it's a lot to take in this sense of while my education, my way of living, my isolated community did not allow me to know that other people's truths were based in these historical systemic constructs that have been caustic to their living and people's living who look like them. So I just want to say, you know, this show is giving more time than most would ever give to a topic like this but it's still antiquated in the sense of it's hard to talk about solutions with the brevity that we're doing. So I don't want people to feel like, you know, who may just be tuning into this first show that, you know, we're just hopping right to the solutions because one thing actually even one of your camera people said that triggered a memory in my head is that if we first don't acknowledge these truths, these historical truths that are creating what we've seen and meaning that we won't see it. We won't acknowledge it. We won't hear someone else's truth. In fact, we'll find reasons to say your story is not true. No, they don't treat you differently because you have dark skin. We really don't have a fundamental chance of changing core things. It's going to be much more difficult. I won't say it can't happen, but it's just going to be much more difficult because if I'm sitting at a table with you and we're sisters of sorts in humanity and I tell you that as a black woman, my life experience has been much more fraught with peril and challenges and things that have to directly to do with my skin and my sex. And you have every reason for saying why that hasn't happened that everyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps and everyone has the same opportunity and everyone, your color doesn't matter. In fact, many teachers say this to me, I don't treat them all the same. I tell them they're all the same. And I always say, why do you say that when they can look and see that they look different? That's the first kind of informal lie they learn, even though those teachers are well-meaning. Right. So, I mean, and that goes to the old adage of I'm colorblind. Yes. I'm colorblind. And that's, you know, when we talk about continuum of becoming culturally competent, which is part of a solution and is an hour showing itself, that middle one where people will often say, I don't see color. Everyone's the same to me. That's the first lie that we're saying to ourselves, because it's just not true. So, I just wanted to say that as we talk about this, because I'm not, it's not like a simple recipe. If you do this, this, this and put this ingredient in this pot, it's all cool, right? If it were simple, we would have already done it. Yeah. And it's not about having a ton of PhDs and pundits talking about this. It's not about having power and prestige and people who have even thought a lot about this. It's about all of us, lay people included, having real honest discussions that then combine knowledge, awareness and action to change. So, first of all, we're going to have to begin to dismantle these inequitable institutions that are impacting people's lives in a huge way still today and acknowledge everyone should have an equity 101 class. Every single person should have an equity 101 class where they learn about historical constructs, practices and policies and ways of being in our foundation of white supremacy and how it's still today affecting us. If you have that class, then when I come to you and or you have those discussions around those issues and you learn that history, then when I come to you and say, you know, I was walking down the street and five other white people walking down the street and the police came by and they stopped me, your first reaction isn't going to be, well, what were you doing? Your first reaction is going to be, well, that's because historically they're more likely to stop someone who looks like you than them. And that's why this historical part has to be a part of the solution. The groups who are affected and the groups who are perpetuating oppression, and I would say all of us have a role in that, are a part of this problem. And if you don't know how things work and how they're set up, you just become a pawn in perpetuating it even when you have a good heart, right? Oh, no, definitely. So that has to add that education, that knowledge, that contemplation, that grieving about what you thought was the truth, but was not the truth. And I've had many interns literally cry with me as they find out some of the things we talk about because they've never heard it and they're in college, and they're getting PhDs, right? Yeah, they got into UC Davis. Yeah, they're going to Stanford and Harvard. They're, you know, presidents of our country, and they don't know these things. Secondly, I think people need to understand that it is going to take some hard work. It is going to be very, very difficult because we're going to be working in parallel. It's not like everyone's going to get on board and say, okay, we agree all this happened and it isn't fair. Let's make it right. It's a continuum, a parallel journey of your self growth and acknowledgement of these realities and how it feeds into our system with your gifts and tensions and action. And so when things get tough, quite frankly, people are going to tend to go back to their old ways of believing and seeing because my pocketbook is affected right now. I can't provide for my family. It must be someone's fault. Oops, it's those immigrants. Oops, it's those black people and so forth. So this is a difficult process that takes a lot of time, but we need to start the action and not be staying in a spin cycle. So that means individually, I need to be really learning about this stuff. And I would like to say, you know, the culture co op, local groups like the culture co op, the social justice coalition, the Davis Phoenix Coalition, Ohio walks international house, I am we people, these are all Yolo County local groups, as well as national groups like the Urban League, for example, the Urban National Urban League has a 10 point plan for policing that is real and not just based on let's trust each other because it's much deeper than just building trust. We're talking about dismantling practices. Okay, so what if I like you more if you're still going to be working as a part of a system that's designed to subject me historically. So people should go to national, the National Urban League and look at their 10 point plan. Our policy link doc or who is doing mapping all over the country of the trends of the kinds of things that are happening based on inequities and trying to create more equitable situations. They are invaluable. So we need to be educating ourselves ongoing as fast as we can, I would say, and making sure that we are taking that and say your gift is jewelry, like one of my dear friends, Autumn, she just launched her Etsy jewelry store and I'm excited about that. Maybe she designs jewelry with a purpose where if you buy some of my jewelry, I'm going to contribute to organizations who are doing best practices towards systemic healing and systemic practices creating equity model in our country. That's good for all of us. So we can each take our gifts and do that, but that knowledge is the first part. Third, I'm very concerned as someone who has tremendous love for the young people and what they're seeing and what they've been seeing for years and what they're hearing. We need to be designing our educational systems to be more pluralistic and also in the information we share historically about their being. When I was growing up, I learned that I was a slave, I learned about Martin Luther King, Harriet Tubman, maybe Southern Sojourner Truth, which I have no shame about it. I didn't do that to people who look like me, but it's a deficit approach to teaching history. I didn't learn about contributions that we contributed in the country. I didn't learn that we're the reason this country is wealthy today, because the wealth was built on the institution of slavery. I didn't learn about the contributions that Africa made to the whole world, including this country, that a lot of people have benefited from today. So we are teaching in our education, in our political process, for example, gerrymandering so that we can vote the same people in who are mostly white into positions of power, doing those kinds of things. We have to understand what we're doing in order to try to fix it, right? So if there is a killing or something or something bad happens to the community, my reaction is only to do a vigil, which is a part of the process, or to only do a march protest, which is a part of the process, but not do a continuum of intervention that goes beyond that. Choosing an institution that's important to you, for me, education is a key one, right? And looking at and sitting down and surveying from an equitable perspective, what are policies that we still have in place today that are basically keeping these gaps that we're seeing these opportunity gaps, this achievement gap that we're seeing? How can we get rid of them? How are we training our teachers? Who's teaching who? Where are the best teachers being sent? And all these things, that's part of looking at it from an equitable, systemic perspective, and then understanding that all these systems interact together, if I'm hungry, when I go to school, I'm going to be less alert, I'm more likely to get sick, I'm more likely to be involved in any kind of political process, I'm more like sent to the office. I mean, all these systems integrate together, they don't work in isolation, which is why we're doing that documentary, the cost of darkness, because we want to show that there's a compounded institutional impact, that all of these are impacting communities and people. Again, this gets all the way back to the knowledge. But with youth, it is never too early to start talking about things in a way that's age appropriate. That fact that we all have the heritage, we all have something to be proud of. And I even say to babies that are in kindergarten, that, well, things were not set up fair in our country. So certain people do better than others, and we need to change that. They give that, right? That's an age appropriate way. They handle much. We need to let our youth know that they need to let their voices be heard. And I would say to all the adults, you need to let your voices be heard and speak out as a solution. But don't just speak out and complain. Don't just go when you're mad and hurt and angry because something's happened. Continue the work with action to change that thing. And then we need to not be afraid of books like Grandpa's Everything Black Bad, because people are not understanding why blacks are being so targeted, why blacks are internalizing impression and seeing themselves in ways that aren't even healthy for themselves. We need to be having these equitable, multicultural discussions at the earliest ages. I would like to see our schools restructured to do that. I would like to see the curriculum restructured to be more inclusive and more pluralistic in how we're sharing the experiences of people in our lives. It would go a long way towards changing how we interact and how we are with each other. The other thing I'd like to say is that if we truly want to dismantle, you know, these oppressive system models that we have here and around the world, we need to invest in what they call at the policy link.org or it's either Kerwin Institute, which is another great website. I encourage people to go. They can learn a lot. We need to develop and encourage what we call disruptive leaders. That may make conjure up negative things, but it's not. A disruptive leader is someone who's conscious, understands the history, has learned excellent leadership skills to then take into communities and systems and be a part of creating viable, powerful changes systemically. You know, some of my, like Angela Glover from Policy Link.org, one of my sheroes, for example, and others like her who are doing just that. So anyone can be a disruptive leader, meaning I really think we have a responsibility as citizens when we see egregious things going on in our community and beyond to say, how can I be a leader that is a part of proactive change that's going to lend itself to real and lasting change? And we have so long to go on the topic of isms, but we need to start. So your personal accountability to yourself. What can what can you do? Educate yourself. Learn about systems and how to dismantle them. Study best practices that are going on. You can go to so many Southern Poverty Law Center. I mean, you don't have to come up with this stuff from your hip. Like I said, Corwin Institute alone, PolicyLink.org, Southern Poverty Law Center, they have all kinds of best practices and things we know from history that work. Also, really courting our political leaders, whoever they are, they are a big part of this process. They can pass laws and things that change how things can happen. They can be a core part of that. So, you know, when you write a letter to a politician, it's treated like 100 people feel the same way. So really getting involved in things like fighting against voter suppression laws, holding our leaders accountable, writing letters, understanding how things work, which is why we see a reflection of black and brown people more in prisons than not. Again, all of this ties back into knowledge, but when you have good knowledge, you'll come up with better solutions. The other thing is that I understand that that ideal of taking someone's truth is their truth. When you have the opportunity to engage and interact and everyone, if your closest circle looks like you, you're part of the problem. I'm just going to be honest. And that's tough. And that's tough for a lot of people in Davis to hear and around the country to hear. I have people say to me all the time, well, I can't help it. I live around mostly white people. Yes, you can. You can get in a car and go to another community. One of the biggest transformations that occurred for me personally is my inner circle is very diverse. I call sister brother friends. These are my closest sister brother friends. And then I have general friends. Some of who that we get around, we get together around a particular thematic thing. Maybe we both like scary movies or whatever. But it has changed my outlook on life. I have heard their stories. It has busted any bubble that I may have been in as far as other people's experiences. And I would say white people have the privilege of not challenging themselves to do that. Most people of color don't because they're forced because the way our institutions are set up to have to engage white people, whether they want to or not. And actually, I want to because I feel like a lot of my white brothers and sisters have a lot of work to do. We all do. But they have a lot of work to do just because of how they've been conditioned to think about their world. This is not putting any blame on any person. So that's one thing I would encourage people to do, especially if you notice you're starting to develop some not so nice thoughts about groups of people like Arabs, for example, or people who describe themselves as a Muslim. One of the best way to counteract that is to go engage and interact with a few of them, not just one. That's right. Because they're not going to be the poster child for everything Muslims or people of Arab descent represent. They're not going to be the poster child, but get to know them and their reality. And you might be surprised that those stereotypes you're seeing on the media constantly, which are reinforcing the conditioning we've had done to our brains are wrong. Okay. That's been my experience. So I really want to challenge people to go out and meet and interact and actually, if you meet enough of a group, a couple of them may become your friends, right? I can out ourselves and say we're purple twins. You're a sister. You're like a sister to me. And we learn things from each other. We talk about things. We're talking about this very important issue today. Autumn. I have tremendous respect for Autumn. I've gotten to know her over a period of time in her heart and her intent. So if I'm seeing something that a white person does that just breaks my heart and I could, it could be easy for me just to go to hate. I can't do that so easy because I remember Autumn and I remember Andrea and they're not doing those things. I have a representation of someone who doesn't act as maybe someone from their group who looks like them is doing. This is critical. We've got to get out of our inner circles and you need to be taking your babies and your babies or anyone 25 and under to me. You need to be taking them and putting them in diverse spaces and places and with people and teaching them these systemic things in an age-appropriate way and reading books to them that edify that we are a common humanity that love is powerful. But love is not enough. We need to take love and action and understanding to do it. And then connect. Everyone in the Yolo County should connect to one of these groups I mentioned. The Culture Co-op United in Unity. Like I said, Davis Phoenix Coalition, Social Justice Coalition, I House of Hiawaks, all these people I am, we people and so many others who are doing things to make a difference in the area of equity, social justice, diversity and humanity. They are wonderful groups. You don't have to reinvent the wheel because we all kind of have overlapping focuses but we have you we have focuses you know that are important whether it's the LGBTQ issue or working with young people or working with older people or working with education. So these are all available here and I would encourage people to start watching Davis Media Access more because they have awesome shows like this one. I think that's a good thing to do and one thing I've appreciated and as we see our media dwindling and free media in particular where these things can be discussed. They should be involved in sort of supporting things like that. Tune in to finding out what's going on in their community and beyond. Looking into their archives and seeing all the incredible shows that they've done that might help educate their minds. And then I would also as a solution say this. What happens to someone in any place of the world and large groups of people eventually will show up at your doorstep. So you may have the convenience of ignoring it. It's not happening to me. It's their problem. It's their fault in playing to all those stereotypes. They're lazy. They're this and of course you're able to have them because you're isolated. You have no friends representing different groups. You know you've had an antiquated education and you choose to believe that way. Your parents ingrained it into you which has happened for so many of us on different things. All of us have some real dirty thoughts about other groups of people. Everyone that shouldn't be in our way of being. But we need to remember that we are connected more than you will ever ever know. So if you ignore me or people who look like me who are screaming and crying out because we are being literally targeted, treated unjustly, murdered, profiled and all these other things, then when it comes to it happening in some capacity with you, I won't be able to be there to help you because maybe I'm not around. Right? And furthermore, all of us benefit from a healthy, thriving populace and country. And if I'm not healthy, maybe I'm gonna get a disease that I pass on to you. If you only think selfishly, I want you to think about it then. If I can't get a viable job and I'm treated like trash and I resort to criminal behavior and other things, you may be the person that I attack. Right? If I have a horrible education and because of how I've been taught in school and as a result of that become a part of some extremist ideology, whatever group you're in. Right? You may be the victim of that and we all are much more easily manipulated by our leaders when we are ignorant and educated. I still have so much to learn. So realizing our interconnectedness is so massively critical. And then on the on the fun side of things. Oh my gosh, I tell you my life has been so much more enriched by having a diverse, loving group of people and experiences I could travel to most any country and not get the tourist perspective because I know people from those countries. And not only that, I can know that I'm doing my best with my gifts because everyone has a gift. Every single one of us has a gift and everyone has a cause and a purpose and all of us are supposed to find out what that is for the betterment of ourselves and our society and people around us. Everyone because if everyone does their part, they'll be a part of a beautiful mosaic. We can lay it out like the map of our country that can all be called to order when things happen that we know go against the health of who we're supposed to be as a humanity. And you know, there was some research that says one of the things one of the resiliency traits that help people grow and deal with problems is having a faith, our spirituality, whatever that means to you. I understand people have different belief systems, some believe in God, some believe in Allah, some believe in Buddha, some believe in nature and love or indigenous practices, but people who have a spiritual foundation tend to be more likely to be a part of powerful solutions. I'm just throwing that out there. That's one of 40 traits that they've identified. And I encourage people to go to the healthy Institute and Google all the 40 traits for making sure we all can survive and thrive. So these are just a few things. But I'm particularly at this point in my life at 53, really interested in putting into our youth and equipping them with a survive what I call survive thrive kit, because they have to survive what's going on. Our systems aren't going to change fast because this stuff has been working like a big mass wheel for a long time is going to take a lot of access to knock this stuff down. So I'm trying to equip youth and you can do this with strategies and knowledge and things that they can do to survive what's going on. But then we also want to teach them to thrive by teaching them about this stuff. I mean, young people are amazing and they already know at two or three that something about their skin is wrong. Like, you know, I have babies saying it to me, we've seen it on TV CNN did a special where these little three four or five year olds didn't want to be who they wore. And when they were pointing to pictures, I don't want to be that person. If you ask a group of people, if you had to choose an ethnicity other than what you are, most none of them would choose black or brown. I've done this in my sessions because they know, even those who say they don't know, they know there's something that's a disadvantage about being that. So these are some things that we can do having these kinds of discussion and massively loving on each other and ourselves with equitable action to make a difference. Well, that leaves us at the end of this episode. And we will continue these discussions in the days and months to come with this topic and other topics here at the heart of the matter. I want to thank Sandy Holman from the culture co op and United in Unity. She has a lot of resources. You can go to her website and check that out. We will, as I say, be dealing with these topics and this topic probably into the future, asking tough questions and getting heartfelt answers. Thanks for joining us and thank you for having me.