Enough Is Enough: My Personal Commitments

What our country is going through right now with regard to race, continues to go through, and has been going through since its founding is unconscionable.

It is gut-wrenching to know that George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor—and countless others—were murdered because of the color of their skin and that racism continues to infiltrate every part of our country. The pain that I personally feel as a white person pales in comparison to what others must feel knowing that it could be their son, their brother, their uncle, their husband, their father, their cousin, their sister, their mother, their wife next. It just keeps happening. There is no end in sight. 

This particularly difficult time is layered on top of an already difficult time related to our federal government’s utter failure to protect its people during a global pandemic. We see—once again—that the struggles disproportionately impact People of Color. In Austin, for example, Latinos make up 34% of the population and yet account for 62% of hospitalizations related to COVID. Nationally, Black Americans are twice as likely to die from coronavirus. We are locking up People of Color in detention centers and prisons. Unemployment continues to rise, and we neglect to meet our people’s most basic needs for things like healthcare. 

But we can’t forget that all of this is layered on top of a “status quo” that already wasn’t okay. In our country, injustice and inequity persist. The color of our skin predetermines so much about our life prospects—whether it’s our health, our likelihood of living in environmentally hazardous neighborhoods, our ability to accumulate assets, our job options, our income levels, our rates of incarceration, or our risk of being killed by the police.

It’s not okay. It has never been okay.

Liberty and justice for all must mean LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL. 

It’s not too late. 

Let us each commit to doing what it takes to put our country on a pathway toward true “liberty and justice for all.” We have to take it beyond the statements. We have to take it beyond the Facebook posts. It is imperative that we translate our angst, our disbelief, our pain, our suffering, our anguish, and our indignation into action. Enough is enough.

Here are my personal commitments:

1. As a white person, I commit to continuing my ongoing work to deeply understand race, racism, privilege, white supremacy, and white fragility. Dr. Moore lays out an incredible 21-day plan to help all of us build the habits we need to more actively dismantle racism. There are also amazing courses like Embracing Identity for White Anti-Racist Identity Development. I will continue to seek out resources like Our Liberation is Bound Together. As a white person, there is blood on my hands, and my work to dismantle white supremacy within myself will never be done. I must make ongoing time for this work, and I must not burden People of Color with my personal education. 
2. As the leader of an organization, I commit to continuing to actively hire more People of Color and trying to work in partnership to build a culture that liberates the inherent leadership within everyone. I also commit to doing a better job of ensuring deep, high-quality, ongoing Anti-Bias, Anti-Racism professional development so that we are collectively growing.
3. As an educator, I commit to continuing to figure out how to fully implement Montessori in a way that ensures equitable outcomes for all children. I also commit to making sure that we are continually centering issues of race, racism, privilege, white supremacy, and equity. Finally, I commit to continuing to be an advocate for integrating our schools across racial, culturally, and socioeconomic lines. We are better together.
4. As a mother, I commit to making sure that I don’t unintentionally raise the next Amy Cooper. I commit to having more conversations with my white sons about race, racism, privilege, and racial justice over and over again in small moments and big moments. I commit to these conversations, even though my own parents didn’t model these conversations for me. I will persist even when it feels awkward or uncomfortable. I will remember that white silence is violence. I will turn to resources like Embrace Race, which helps families raise “a generation of children who are thoughtful, informed, and brave about race.” I will also do more to publicly share with my white friends, colleagues, and neighbors how I am having these conversations, with the hope that they get more comfortable with having these conversations, too. 
5. I will learn more about reconciliation from social justice leaders like Bryan Stevenson. I will continue to participate in Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Circles. These circles seek “to unearth and jettison the deeply held, and often unconscious, beliefs created by racism – the main one being the belief in a ‘hierarchy of human value.’” And I will bring my white friends, colleagues, and neighbors. I will also learn more about how countries like New Zealand have been working on reparations for more than 35 years. We have to actively heal from our past.
6. I will remember that working at the personal and interpersonal level will not be enough. These issues are systemic and they need to be dismantled at the level of government and policy. I need to be part of a movement to reclaim our democracy. I will do this by figuring out how to support the mass mobilization of voters, including advocating strongly for a “mail in” option by November. Even winning the popular vote is not enough because of the electoral college. I want to figure out how to help register new voters and encourage everyone to get out and vote on election day. 
7. I want to show up better for my friends, colleagues, and neighbors who are People of Color. I want to do more to make space, and I want to amplify Voices of Color and make space for more leadership from People of Color. I also want to be a resource for People of Color as they seek to take care of themselves. For example, The Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress 1-800-273-8255. Therapy for Black Girls talks about Self-care in the Face of Racial Injustice, and Just Jasmine shares Self-care for People of Color after Psychological Trauma. There are also Black Lives Matter Meditations for Healing from Racial Trauma from Dr. Candice Nicole.

Collectively, our commitments can transform words into action and action into change.

What are your commitments?

Let’s say “enough is enough” and really put action behind it this time.

In partnership,