What would a post-racist planet look like?

This was a question I was asked two years ago in a documentary I was featured in called The Post-Racist Planet.

I’ll be honest with you, I struggled with this question.

With all the antiracist work I had been focused on for so long, you would think that this answer would have come easily to me.

But the truth is that I was so focused on fighting what I was against that I hadn’t made enough time to dream and imagine what I was fighting for.

What would this utopia look like? Would racism never occur? Or if it happened would we universally deal with it using both love and accountability? What would our systems look like now that systemic racism no longer existed? How about our institutions? What would a post-racist planet really look like?

I’m not going to lie, I still don’t have the answers to these questions.

It’s hard to imagine what we’ve never seen.

And who can blame us for lacking imagination?

Systems Of Supremacy (SOS) like white supremacy do a real number on us, leaving us with very little time, energy, or capacity to envision and create a new world.

I call it the 3D Oppression Offensive.

SOS uses three war strategies to keep us stuck in a world of dominance and oppression.

1. Deception: SOS deceive us as to their existence. They remain hidden in plain sight. They are the air we breathe and the water we swim in, but when we try to see them they act like they don’t exist.
   “That’s not white supremacy, that’s just an act of meanness or rudeness or misunderstanding.”
   When we don’t see SOS, it’s hard to resist them, let alone dismantle them.

2. Distraction: SOS know that if we focus our attention on them, we have a chance of dismantling them. So instead, they focus on keeping us distracted. They make us look at the symptoms of the issues, instead of addressing the roots.
   “We’ve had an incident of racism at the company, so let’s put out a DEI statement.” (meanwhile no substantive changes happen at a systemic level)
   When we are distracted we are easy to manipulate.
   

3. Devastation: SOS are masters at emotionally winding us. We experience blow after blow of horrific acts of violence, as well as daily microaggressions. It’s hard not to live in a state of constant shock, grief, anger, and numbness.
   “I just don’t have the energy to do this anymore. It’s just too much.”
   By keeping us in a constant state of devastation, we have nowhere to go except hopelessness and rage.

The 3D Oppression Offensive is an effective assault on our minds, bodies, and souls. Which is why we have to learn to outsmart it.

We have to cultivate skills that allow us to not only survive as changemakers, but also thrive.

That’s why I created the Good Ancestor Practice (the GAP).

It’s a way of living and leading that takes back our power. It helps us to change the world in ways that are powerful, impactful, and most importantly, sustainable.

What is the GAP?

It is a set of three practices that directly counter the Deceive, Distract, and Devastate offensive.

💫 Practice #1: We Name

If SOS wants to Deceive us as to their existence, then we must directly name them. We must name the systems at play. We must name the specific harms these systems are causing - to us, by us, and through us. And we must directly name the legacies that we have inherited that have created the world we have today.

Books like Me and White Supremacy are about naming all of these things. That’s why there's so much pushback about them. Because SOS don’t want us to name them.

💫 Practice #2: We Claim

If SOS wants us to remain Distracted, then we have to become focused. We have to focus on claiming our healing from the systems that are harming us. We have to focus on claiming our space - our unique way of being a changemaker in the world. The specific work we are here to do. And we have to claim our leadership. Because when we see ourselves as leaders, we approach changemaking with a much greater sense of focus and responsibility.

Claiming is about taking back our power. Reclaiming our clarity. So that we can see and act.

💫 Practice #3: We Sustain

If SOS wants us to remain in a constant state of Devastation, then we have to get serious about sustainable change-making. This looks like prioritising our self-care and our community care. As well as sustaining our commitment to the work by rooting down with our values.

We need both depth and distance in change-making. And willpower alone is not enough. We have to take care of ourselves and one another before, during, and after the devastating blow hits. We have to understand the importance of joy in this work. And we have to build our capacity to dream of a new world.

I don’t know what a post-racist planet looks like. Or a world free of SOS.

But what I do know is that it’s not a place. It’s a way of being. 

It’s how we show up, now. In the racist world that still exists. In the world of SOS that are still with us.

We have to practise our way into this new world. 

Until we become it.

Because the new world is in us.

To our healing + liberation,

Layla