A thread for my fellow white academics: like many of you in the past couple of months, I’ve joined (sometimes voluntarily, sometimes involuntarily) many an anti-racism, equity, diversity, etc. workgroup, taskforce, committee, etc. 1/n

I am not new to this conversation (see earlier tweets abt my education, in every sense of the word, in social work school) but that doesn’t mean I’m an expert nor perfect at it. Each time I have to lead or just chime in to a conversation abt race or racism, I get nervous. 2/

I worry I’ll say something wrong, I worry I’ll have to address something someone said, I worry I’ll offend my colleagues or superiors. My anxiety (ie white fragility) has only gotten marginally better in the last 13 years. But you know what has gotten better? 3/

Getting comfortable with the uncomfortable. Knowing that my heart will race every time I have these conversations. Knowing that sitting with long silences is necessary. And knowing that no matter how much discomfort I feel, the consequences, as a white woman, are never severe. 4/

I used to think my discomfort was a sign that I shouldn’t be doing it. I wasn’t educated enough. I used to think until I was perfectly anti-racist I shouldn’t lead anything. But after feeling so uncomfortable so many times I realized, oh, this is it. This is the work. 5/

And I’ll never be perfectly anti-racist & I’ll always get nervous & I will definitely make mistakes and missteps. But none of that is a pass for not jumping in. Not leading. Not talking. Not DOING. It’s a matter of life & death for so many. For our country. For our humanity. 6/

So if you’re on a workgroup right now & you don’t think you know enough or are too nervous to engage, I’m telling you to JUMP IN. Then do it again & again. It won’t get (much) easier but once you do it enough you’ll worry less abt how you feel & more abt what you can do. 7/7

Footnote: I recognize that academia is horribly hierarchical and not every can jump in bc of very real consequences. This thread is for those academics who can jump in relatively safely and only hesistate bc they are nervous or feel unqualified.

And bc I can’t not use gifs in my tweets and I recently learned of this gif from @lakeya_cherry and it’s one of my top faves now. Byeeeeee!