What happens when a Black woman and a white woman get into a room with friends and strangers and share their lived experiences of their racism and anti-racism journeys? Really good things. A lot of comments from the audience afterwards of “more please.”
Dawn L. Johnson, a life coach and owner of The Dawn Johnson Experience and myself, Renita Faye, founder and CEO of Addwomxn co-hosted a program titled, “Feeling Our Way Beyond Allyship: A Fireside Chat,” for Twin Cities Startup Week. A sold out crowd was in attendance, made up of mostly women, coming in community to hear about how we – as white women – need to do better in tackling racism and advocating for our Black sisters.
Dawn shared her lived experience as a Black woman in corporate America and the daily microaggressions she faced and still faces today. I shared stories of my journey of wanting to be an ally, turning to accomplice and hearing my calling for being a disruptor/conspirator/collaborator in my work life (creating Addwomxn) and my personal life (leading the way for my children) all the while making many mistakes along the way.
Our goal is to encourage and help other white women come along the anti-racism journey to do the same. Because if we are white in America, we are taught to be racist from day 1. We are also taught to “be nice” and not disruptive. We are proud to be feminists, but Black women are often left out of the story. We need to change the narrative.
White women: we need to unlearn these behaviors and it’s gonna be messy. But we gotta start somewhere.
If you need some ideas on how to start your anti-racism journey, please reach out to one of us. It’s a long road – it’s actually never-ending – but there’s always a place for you to start. Because we have to. No one will do it for us.
Dawn and I are very good friends and we truly love each other. The commonality is that we both love ourselves and that has been key to our personal healing. Whether you are Black or white, you must love yourself above all else to be on this journey.
