A publication celebrating diversity in bodies does not mean just promoting different sizes and shapes, it means recognising intersectionality; gender, sexuality, age, disability, and race.
We cannot say we support all bodies if the only representation we are including is white bodies, excluding POC from this, or any, discussion.
It is uncomfortable to realise you haven’t been doing enough. It is an uneasy feeling to recognise where you could have been doing more, myself included. But instead of staying silent in discomfort, do your best to improve. If you’re unsure, there are steps to find out how you can help.
- Raising your voice is a good start, with whatever platform that may be. Share those relevant posts with information that can help others, with quick access to donation links and resources.
- Make sure you are following up on what you are sharing. If it’s an info post, use that information in your offline life. Sign that petition. If you are able, donate to the causes you are sharing. Support what you are talking about.
- Do the tough bits. Identify ‘socially acceptable’ and normalised racism. Call-out people you’re in conversations with when they say something damaging. Talk to your loved ones who are avoiding the subject.
On that last point, in having a few discussions myself, I’ve found three common arguments cropping up. Consider this a mini cheat sheet for how you can expand that conversation, even if you’re not totally read up on greater details:
- “I don’t know what I can do about it.”
- This is where I direct you to my previous three points above. Let them know that you are learning too and you can help each other in showing up for others.
- “But all lives matter.”
- White privilege is a good starting point to read into here. Saying ‘black lives matter’ is not to say others don’t. It doesn’t mean your life hasn’t been difficult and you haven’t experienced significant hardships. It means that your skin colour isn’t making it any more difficult for you.
- When a white person does something wrong, this isn’t deemed a ‘trait’ of their race, but instead a one-off that we can treat with a slap on the wrist and a readiness to move on. Black people are not given this forgiveness. This attitude needs recognising and the resulting actions need attention.
- “This happened in America… they’ll take care of it.”
- Racism is not isolated to the United States, you are seeing one variety of it. Systematic oppression exists globally; it can be manifested differently across different countries. If you’re not seeing it in our education system or on the news, it doesn’t mean it isn’t there. We can educate ourselves to see what is really going on around us.
- This is the ‘it’s not my job’ mentality. Just because the most recent events happened in a country that wasn’t yours doesn’t make the people any less worthy of your help. Think back to your co-workers saying this and remember how unhelpful it was then. It’s the same here; counterproductive for the group as a whole.
It isn’t unlikely that we slip-up and say the wrong thing at some point, but that isn’t something to back-pedal on and bury. It’s to learn from and make progress.
Some starting points:
Got a few quid to spare? DONATIONS:
The official George Floyd memorial fund: https://www.gofundme.com/f/georgefloyd
Black Lives Matter: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ms_blm_homepage_2019
Black Visions Collective: https://www.blackvisionsmn.org/
Want to see change? PETITIONS:
Justice for Floyd with colorofchange: https://act.colorofchange.org/sign/justiceforfloyd_george_floyd_minneapolis
Justice for George Floyd with change.org: https://www.change.org/p/mayor-jacob-frey-justice-for-george-floyd
Active on social media? INFLUENCERS:
@bodyposipanda
@sassy_latte
@rachel.cargle
The Resilience of Being 