Contemplative Anti Racism: Commitment vs. Privilege

by Damita Brown, PhD.

Heart Light Action workshops are about deepening commitment to building racial justice. This means prioritizing this work as a social responsibility as much you might prioritize avoiding plastic shopping bags. It means understanding that it is possible to be an anti-racist and also be racist. Being racist has never been the problem, the problem is not understanding racism well enough to take meaningful steps toward building racial justice.

After a few workshop series, participants can begin to see that a lifelong commitment is needed. As we begin to identify the harm racism poses to loved ones, our community and the world, we ideally welcome that commitment. It is important for white people in particular to figure out how racism harms them and to include themselves among people who gain from unlearning racism. When that awareness is missing, performativity and saviorism is more likely than genuineness.

After we begin to work with the essential skills of contemplative social action, we hopefully become willing and able to continue to refine and implement our racial justice action plans. It is really just asking a basic question, “If I really care about dealing with racism, what am I planning to do about it?” Practicing anti-racism means having a plan and putting that plan into action. This interplay between contemplating, planning and action is the transformative space that can foster to commitment.

What do we do when we are faced with someone else’s unexamined privilege? How do we relate to our own privilege? What happens when we remove obstacles to respecting the dignity, intelligence and unconditional wonder that is inherent in humanity, a kind of natural and unconditional equality.

Unless we understand this unconditional equality, it is easy to believe that some people are better than others, more deserving and therefore entitled to more economic, political or institutional power than others.

Heart Light Action workshops have a contemplative foundation. Learning to meditate gives us an edge. Through the bravery of self-reflection, we build the confidence, trust and openness we need to see each other beyond our ignorance and confusion.

We aspire to see and connect with the best in each other. This “best” is a kind of unconditional equality which is fundamental to being human and so it cannot be destroyed. It transcends personal or social conditions and circumstances. From the position of confidence in the best in ourselves and each other, anti-racism becomes a logical and heartfelt endeavor, not the product of guilt or blame. At this point embracing collective liberation becomes possible.

(Art credit) iStock / Heather Green, Unsplash / Ana Luisa O.J.