Seeing with New Eyes

For the past three weeks, I and a colleague have been co-facilitating a reading group, for Leela Saad's challenging book, Me and White Supremacy: How to recognise your privilege, combat racism and change the world by Leela F. Saad.

The third session was last night, and today, the quote of the week, by Marcel Proust, read, "The real journey of discovery does not consist in looking for new landscapes, but in seeing with new eyes."

And this book is definitely helping the participants in our reading group (including the two facilitators) to do just that. Chapter by chapter, Saad covers all the multifarious aspects of white supremacy, including white fragility (feeling hurt and defensive if you become involved in a conversation about racism and are criticised), white silence and white apathy (saying and doing nothing in the face of a racist situation) and white exceptionalism (believing that you are one of the good people, and therefore do not need to do this work). The list goes on... Saad gently leads the reader to understand how insidious white supremacy in all its manifestations is in our society, and gives them the tools to overcome it in themselves and become a true ally to people of colour in the battle against racism.

Reading it, working through it, has helped me to see with new eyes. It has made me realise how far I have to go, but I am determined to stay the course. Because if I do not, I will be betraying one of the central Unitarian values, as stated in the First Principle of the Unitarian Universalist Association, 

            "We affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person."

And it is not possible to do that, from a one-up position.