Juneteenth... What do we really know about this day?
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Today is Juneteenth..What do we really know about this day?
We live, work, and have raised our family in the city of Minneapolis. A city, like many, full of complexities and contradictions. For starters, It is a politically progressive city with a socially and culturally diverse city council and represented by the 1st Somali born female congressional representative. By most comparative national measurements our city and state are pretty darn good places live...If you are not a person of color.
We are under the global microscope at the epicenter of a long-overdue spiritual, social, and political reexamination of who we are as a people in community. We do have a choice.
The writing below showed up in our feed today. May this Juneteenth touch your hearts and feed your soul.
Craig & Patricia Neal
Center for Purposeful Leadership
[Excerpted from Indivisible 06/19/2000]
I’m Jadon-Maurice Forbes. When I think of Juneteenth, I often imagine those winged, black faces breaking their chains and finding freedom.
But the true American tale of how slaves were freed is more grounded in a nuanced, complicated, and painful struggle for freedom that has continued for 155 years (read: that means ‘til today). Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day the last of the enslaved Africans in America were freed from their chains, having continued to work in bondage for a full two years after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
In many ways, Juneteenth is a bittersweet reminder of what was promised but never delivered to Black folks post-emancipation. It's a reminder of delayed justice. Every year, even after my nana passed away, we celebrated this holiday. And every year, we do so in honor of progress as much as for a continually delayed sense of justice and equality.
But this Juneteenth is different. Can you feel it? ... Juneteenth, perhaps for the first time, is for all of us.
In solidarity,
Jadon-Maurice Forbes
on behalf of Indivisible Team
What do you feel is happening to you and those around you that can make a difference in righting the wrongs of the past and creating a future that works for all?
Here are three resources offered by Art of Convening graduates:
Allies in Practice Monthly Gathering: Allies on the Journey recognizes that most of our current Allies are white. With this new learning group, our intention is for white Allies to come together to learn about systemic racism and to discern which actions we each can take to dismantle white supremacy.
Global Book Club & Discussion group. The first book that we will be exploring is," How To Be An Anti-Racist" there are some great folks and a super globally diverse crowd that will be joining us! (including my Mom and Dad!) And if y'all can't make it, we will review more books...feel free to pass this along.
Healing Racism Starts Within: White People in Conversation: Facing racism isn't a one-time event, it’s an ongoing process, more like life-long recovery. While it's important and necessary to talk with people of color about racism, it's also important for white people to discover and heal racism within ourselves without asking people of color to facilitate our process or hold space for us.
Here are three practices to be present to what is needed around you:
1. Listening
FIRST. LISTEN. A natural respect for all voices emerges when we listen with respect for everyone’s voice without fixing, problem-solving or advice-giving.
The practice: next time you are with someone, listen as if your life depended upon it. Because their life might depend on it.
2. Speak from the Heart
Take a chance to speak about what has meaning and purpose for you. It will most likely be meaningful for the person you are with. Speaking honestly and simply from the heart is compelling and authentic.
The practice: Pause, take a deep breath, put your hand on your heart. Ask yourself, “what is at the heart of the matter, right now?”
3. Slow Down the Conversation
Being interested. Follow the other person’s lead. The tendency to have a quick response, or talk over someone with excitement, isn’t the same as deep listening.
The practice: Allow pauses between the speakers, for connection to occur and to allow something new to emerge.
#purpose #artofconvening #convening #listening #leadership #practice #authenticengagement
