Session 09: Transcript

Session 09: Transcript

Session Topic: Anti Racism for Allies Lightning Q&A - July 30

Carrie Sawyer: Hi, this is Carrie Sawyer from the Inclusion First Project, welcome, thank you so, so much for being here today. We are doing our Thursday Lightning Q and A ally session for anti-racism and people who are wanting to learn more about this. And I have an incredible guest here with me, Monique Mendoza, and she is going to be introducing herself in just a moment. But before she does, I would love to just tell you a little bit about the Inclusion First Project. So we are taking a look at what inclusion looks like through the lens of the questions and the discourse of allies in the anti-racism movement. And so what does that mean? It means that we're exploring the questions that people have and we are answering them. And Monique and I are going to be modeling things like how to have a conversation about race and the things that you can say and consider and do and different aspects of thinking about these different questions. But I wanted to point out that one of the things and one of the frameworks that we like to use and to bring to mind is that I am speaking from my own experience and so is Monique. She's not speaking for all Latinas. I'm not speaking for all black people or all black women or all Southern Californians. We are just speaking from our own experiences. And so as you're having these conversations to take the person for what they are right in front of you and don't make those assumptions, we're just going to communicate and get this information from each other in real-time and start with this kind of blank slate. So, Monique Mendoza, will you please introduce yourself, tell everyone who you are and why you're here today?

Monique Mendoza: Thank you so much, Carrie. Again, my name is Monique Mendoza. I'm coming at you as a psychologist, as an entrepreneur, meaning that I love creating things from within, and also as a consultant. I have been doing work in higher education and health care for over 10 years. But I'm also coming to you as a mother of a biracial daughter and a woman that's coming to you from generations of working women. And I'm really excited about this project, really looking forward to sharing some of our own insights today on how to answer these questions that you're posing to us.

Carrie: Awesome. So we're going to just tackle two questions today. This is our Thursday Lightning Session. And these questions come from our earlier session that we have on Tuesdays. That's an hour long. It's our weekly ally Q&A session. And so what we're going to do is go look at these two questions and then we're going to answer them, give our thoughts and experiences around it, and then we'll be done. So, Monique, do you want to ask the first question?

Monique: I'd love to Carrie. So my first question for you, Carrie, is, do white people speaking up have the same, less, or more impact on opposing racism as does a person of color speaking up? And if so, why or why not?

Carrie: So I love this question because it starts to like have people putting weight on, like, does my voice matter or does it not matter? Do I have to look a certain way to have a way to step into this movement? Or if I'm white or not, just how does that impact me? And so I just want to say that every single person, regardless of your ethnicity or any other intersection, has a space and opportunity to make a difference in the Black Lives Matter movement and putting forward anti-racist ideas and in supporting to bring equality and justice for all people. And your real homework in this is to understand, like, where do you fit in and what does that space look like? How can you make a positive impact? And before you do that, how can you actually educate yourself so that you are able to bring something to the table versus coming kind of with an empty cup like fill me up, tell me what I need to do. It's much better when you're like, ok, well, here is the area that I'm interested in because there's really no wrong way or no wrong space to step into. This covers every single sector, all kinds of people, every socioeconomic status, like we are all striving against anti-racism at this point. And so your job is to find out where do I fit in and what does that look like.

Monique: Yes, Carrie, I love that I think it's a place of we're not putting weight on anybody's one particular action, but rather there's an opportunity and a responsibility for all of us to take action in opposing racism. And so I love that it's not this place of saying one is going to be better than the other. It's really about where you're going to find your space and your place in that action.

Carrie: Mm-hmm. Absolutely. And so diving in where you feel called, maybe you're a mom and you want to find out how to not raise racist children. Maybe you're an educator and that is your space. Maybe it's in your place of faith. Maybe it's in your neighborhood. We all have racist systems around us and you can dive into any one of those as you're investigating and then figure out how you can make a difference.

Monique: Yes, definitely.

Carrie Sawyer: All right. So question number two, I'm a speaking coach and I work mostly with women and mostly, but not all, white women. I help them reclaim their voices, be more visible, take up space, and share their message. I'm confused about how to coach them right now, though, I'm not sure about when white women should take up space and when we should listen and amplify the voices of women of color. This is a good question.

Monique: Yes, thank you, Carrie. I love this question. I think it's awesome of this work of the speaking coach that's already doing the work of uplifting, underrepresented voices. So that's one, just to go back to our previous one, that's one opportunity. And this person is definitely taking that and owning that opportunity there. And then going back to a little bit about what Carrie touched on in the previous question, it's really about intersectionality. And an anti-racism movement is not a singular movement. It involves all those that have been systematically underrepresented and women are included in that. White women are also included in that. And with that, I think is coming to the space around, sharing their message, taking up that space and opening up that space honor and respecting that there are varied representations and maybe women that are also persons of color may have a different experience. So being open to that, hearing that, finding ways to share and connect, and finding opportunities to uplift their own special story as well. So really, it's that honoring and respecting that well, there may be a movement in that and as a speaking coach, that's uplifting women, that there's also going to be these other underrepresented spaces and spheres that people are going to be working within and to honor and respect those and listen for those too.

Carrie: Mm-hmm. Yes. And I love that idea of uplifting. Like, how can you as a white woman, use your power and privilege to uplift and amplify the voices of the women of color around you? How can you step into this movement and educate yourself, just like we were talking about with that last question so that you can find the right way to get into it because your opinions and your experiences matter no matter who you are. Right. But how are we making those collective experiences work together towards figuring out how we mitigate racism, how we change the systems that are around us, and how we get that just justice and equality for all? So I think that there's space for everyone at this table. It's kind of the moral of the story, figuring out where you fit in, and you absolutely do. Every single person has a role to play. And it's I love the word that they use earlier about the responsibility of you to find where that is. Everyone has a unique sphere of influence. Right. And we can go into that sphere as uplifters and as advocates and as champions and as amplifiers. And so how can we do that with the most grace, with the most learning, and with the most collaborative spirits that we can?

Monique: Yeah, Carrie, and what you're talking about really is we're trying to break down these dichotomies of either I do or I don't, this fits or this doesn't fit. I'm a part of this or I'm not a part of this. And it's really around all of these being a responsibility, an opportunity to find that sphere of influence and really to break down those ideas that one size is going to fit all in the allyship against anti-racism or for anti-racism.

Carrie: Absolutely. Ok, Mo, any last thoughts or any closing thoughts on these great questions that we have today around people who are allies fitting in and where their voice stands?

Monique: Keep those questions coming. And all of these things are giving us an opportunity to show you and offer you places where you can fit into that space. So keep it coming, because these are fabulous ones to really give us a voice to these things that a lot of people are grappling with in terms of how to understand their role as an ally.

Carrie: That's so great. Thank you so much Monique for being here today and for sharing your insights with us. Thank you, everyone, for watching. You can find out more information about the Inclusion First Project at www.inclusion1stproject.org, please join our communities so that you can find out more about these free sessions that we're doing on Tuesdays and the free lighting session today. And I'm going to give you a sneak peek because we are about to launch a campaign next week where we are wanting to collect five hundred questions in 30 days. And so how can you help with that? Well, you can definitely share it with your organization, with your network. But the number one way that you can help us is to submit a question yourself, and you can do that on our site. So thank you so much for being here today. And we will see you next time.