I’ve spent the past week listening to and learning from incredible BIPOC voices.

It’s been difficult. It’s been convicting. And it’s been absolutely necessary and important.

I am deeply thankful for these voices, and I’m sorry that I wasn’t truly listening until now.

There is no excuse for it, and I am committed to doing better.

Of all of the necessary lessons I’ve learned this week, this one rises to the top:

Intent doesn’t matter. Impact does.

I can be a good person with a good heart, but my inaction and my ignorance is the biggest problem contributing to systemic racism.

Because if good intentions really did make a difference in this world, then we would be seeing very different results, wouldn’t we?

I am committed to:

1.) Listen. Read. Educate myself so that others don’t have to do it for me. I will be doing monthly training with an expert and I will personally continue the deeper work offline.Robin Diangelo’s “White Fragility” is next on my list of reading (buy the book and watch this video here), and check out @britbarron and her Understanding Racism 101 guide.

2.) Make donations to charities furthering the agendas of BIPOC.  This article has 115 suggestions on where you can donate to financially support Black lives and other people of color. 

3) I am committed to having regular and intentional conversations about race within my own family, business and friend group. This is an important and critical conversation that must be happening online and offline, and I am committed to the personal transformation this moment requires of us all.

4) I will speak up, stand up and keep my eyes open to what's happening in our country.

A few other tough lessons I’ve learned this week:

1) I am not a white ally like I assumed I was. And that assumption itself is a big part of the problem.

2) The worst thing I can do is deny my own racism that 100% exists inside of me. I have been shaped by a culture built on white supremacy. Denying that truth is to uphold the system that upholds my own white privilege.

3) It’s not about apologies. It’s about repentance. Acknowledging my faults, taking responsibility for my actions and their impact, and then committing to a different way of being.

Thank you to the collective POC voices I’ve heard this week for speaking these truths.

I’m hearing it, and will continue to hear it long after this week is over.

I hope you will, too.

Hugs,
Penny