Black History Month: The Daily-ness of Practicing Anti-Racism Pictured: bell hooks and john.a.powell at the Othering & Belonging Conference in April 2015 February is Black History Month which as stated on the Black History Month website, pays tribute to the generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizenship in American society. That struggle continues today. Recently, I watched the Keynote Dialogue of bell hooks and john.a.powell at the Othering & Belonging Conference in April 2015. bell died suddenly on December 15, 2021, however she is heralded as one of the preeminent feminist voices of our time. Her call to dismantle “imperialist-white-supremacist-capitalist-patriarchy” is through a path of love and the willingness to embrace all the conditions of the world starting with water and climate justice. Throughout the conversation, bell and john touched on many concepts related to activism, belonging, feminism, climate justice and anti-racism. Several themes stayed with me as a white woman committed to dismantling “imperialist-white-supremacist-patriarchy”. bell started with love, “if you have love, you have belonging” and with belonging it prepares you to live well and die well. Before we are able to love, we need to heal the trauma that we all experience and that starts with family. To do the work of dismantling systems with others, we have to be in good spirit within ourselves. bell challenged us to do the work! Asking, “what are you doing in your daily-ness of life in service of anti-racism?” In this month of paying tribute to African Americans, join me in a commitment of daily action in service of anti-racism. You can start with healing trauma within your family through daily acts of caring, compassion and loving kindness. Or, explore 15 tools for White Anti-Racist action. bell reminded us that humor has to be part of this revolution! Thank you bell for your life’s work in daring us to create lives of political and spiritual liberation through healing, radical joy and redemptive love.
