By Nathan Young
Ever since the George Floyd murder and the Black Lives Matter protests began a couple of weeks ago, I’ve certainly gone through my own process of better understanding my part in systematic racism, how I can do better going forward, and how I intend to personally react to the situation now. It’s not easy, it's constantly evolving, and there’s some uncomfortable self-reflection; but I also feel like this is a necessary endeavor for all of us to take on, especially us privileged white folks.
While I’m working through all that for myself, I also have another set of questions about how The New Narrative should respond to what’s going on right now too. I’d love to open up a discussion on this with anybody who has thoughts to share.
The New Narrative has always been about how we can create a world that’s more equitable, fulfilling, and sustainable for us all. A big part of that mission has been about understanding the challenges of people of color and how we can envision a future world of racial equity and equality. We’ve created a forum for tough conversations, and I’ve always tried to elevate the voices of people of color as much as I possibly could.
…But when you look behind the curtain, the New Narrative is still essentially just me, a white, cis-gendered male from upper-middle-class suburbia. I've been doing my best over the years to educate myself, understand systematic racism, and do what I can to be a part of the solution, but it hasn't been without mistakes. I certainly don’t have the direct experiences of racism to inform my decisions, and there’s always the lingering questions of whether I’m doing *enough.*
This all comes back to the question of how the New Narrative should respond to these times. It seems quite obvious that we should be finding some way to respond to what’s going on right now, and adjusting our programming towards figuring out how we can all play a greater role towards dismantling systematic racism and achieving racial equality, but I struggle in figuring out exactly what that looks like for the New Narrative, and to what degree I’m the right person to lead it.
One thing I've been wanting to do for a long time with The New Narrative is to open up to allow other people to introduce their own programming with the audience and support infrastructure we’ve already got in place. Do we want to do workshops on anti-racism? Talks and panel discussions? A book club? Does anybody have something they're working on in this regard that they want help rolling out and making a reality? These aren’t the type of things that I feel adequately educated and prepared to initiate on my own, but it could be done with the right partnership.
I also wonder to what degree the New Narrative takes a step forward vs move into a back seat right now. Do we instead focus our energy on elevating other projects done by people of color? Do we funnel our audience towards where these conversations are going on elsewhere? Or is there maybe room to do all of this and find some middle ground too?
I’d love to get thoughts from anybody reading this. Building and growing the New Narrative had been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Probably the best part is the caliber of people it attracts. We have a lot of thoughtful folks, willing to look in the mirror, hear new ideas, and understand what their role is towards making a better world for everybody. I honestly feel like programming built around anti-racism and dismantling structural bias in our world would be productive, well-received, and fit right into what we’re already doing. It would be great to find a way to build this that would be mutually supportive and beneficial for everybody involved too.
If you’ve got thoughts, I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to send me a direct message if you’d like too.
Thanks!