Study Hall: Recognizing complicity and making investments.
Happy Saturday! Welcome to our weekly Study Hall. Each week I answer questions and share insights from each of you in our community. I hope this week's content illuminates more on the topics we unpacked this week.
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Nicole
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TAKE ACTION
1. Reflect on the questions prompted by our community.
2. Discuss with a friend: what did you uncover this week that you never heard of before? What power and privilege may have protected you from unpacking this concept? Or, which trauma(s) may have shielded you from learning more?
GET EDUCATED
We've published 170 newsletters on racism over the past 170 days. Here are the newsletters we published this week.
11/20/2020 | Honor Transgender Day of Remembrance.
11/19/2020 | Decolonize your reading habits.
11/18/2020 | Advocate for missing Black women.
11/17/2020 | Cancel student debt.
11/16/2020 | Understand your local law enforcement.
11/15/2020 | Learn the key terminology.
Read all previously published newsletters on our archives >
Q+A
Would you be in favor of canceling student loan debts incurred by a wealthy family whose student will be a high earning professional after graduating? I’m more in favor of canceling student loan debt for those who are struggling with repayment. If someone took hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans to get a high paying job, why should that be forgiven? We could help many people with smaller debts or bail out a few of the top 5%. Which would you choose?
From Cancel student debt, published 11/17/2020.
This is a common narrative when talking about this work and, quite frankly, a bit exhausting. Many people feel that equitable initiatives may support people that "don't deserve it as much." But we have to remember that solving an inequitable system isn't perfect. If some people gain that already have wealth, sure, it's not ideal. But pausing an initiative that could help thousands that could really need it, just because a few lucky others may benefit, is far worse. I think it's also important to note that Biden's proposed plan caps forgiveness for undergraduate tuition and people making up to $125,000. Learn more >
And that kind of zero-sum thinking is how we got here in the first place. Remember that, generally speaking, a privileged few almost always benefitted at the cost of many others. Applying the same logic with the players in different positions doesn't change the game. It just rearranges the pawns and protects the status quo in the process.
We need to change the game entirely – in this case, reimagining an inequitable education system. And that can start with (but certainly doesn't end with) eliminating debt for all people, regardless of where they're positioned on the board.
Lastly, I don't think anyone should be penalized for trying to become a high-earning professional. There are many reasons why someone would take hundreds of thousands of dollars to get a high-paying job: maybe because they will be the main breadwinner of their family. Or maybe their family sacrificed everything to bring them to this country to be successful. And maybe they did ALL of that and still found themselves out of a job because of COVID-19, or had to leave the profession because of an illness, or were wrongly terminated and can't find a job again. I went to school to study finance because I knew how much it meant for my family to go to college. I didn't end up working there, but does that make my debt unforgivable?
When you're thinking about issues like this, consider: what part of my decision-making process supports how we got here? How am I protecting an inequitable system? Am I looking for equality or equity? What is the difference between fairness and justice?
Q+A
I try buying from Black-owned bookstores, but they're not as fast, cheap, or reliable or Amazon. How do I find a Black-owned business that I can depend on?
From Decolonize your reading habits, published 11/19/2020.
Oftentimes, shopping at local businesses, small businesses etc, means unlearning the unrealistic expectations these big box businesses have created when it comes to commerce. Since when did we need everything delivered in less than 24 hours? Unlimited access to every product on the planet at our fingertips? Prices that are cheap only because they exploit the people that make it possible?
Doing this work sometimes means taking our comfort out of the equation. And if that means investing time to make a purchase, doing research, waiting longer, and paying more, then so be it. I know it may not be possible to do this for every purchase, but I think we can when we're talking about buying a book.
Also, the only way that a Black-owned business could compete with Amazon is if more people committed to buying there, especially when it's hard. If you want to see stronger locally-owned businesses, invest in them.
Q+A
What are your thoughts on bringing yoga to law enforcement and police?
I've grappled a lot with this as a yoga teacher, and was contacted by my local police department to offer yoga to officers (due to scheduling it never happened) because it's obviously not a be all, end all, measure.
But I'm struggling with the idea of whether this helps officers cope with and manage stress (thereby theoretically reducing the use of force), or whether it falls into the category of "more training" and thereby doesn't actually work to deconstruct the current system as it looks now.
I worry that this will become an acceptable "solution" to the issue of police brutality and excessive use of force, when in reality, it may do more harm than good?
From Understand your local law enforcement, published 11/16/2020.
I think that's a call you have to make for yourself. I think you're trying to decide which of your two points is the "right" one, but I think the real answer is both: you could both help officers reduce and manage stress and add "more training" that doesn't deconstruct the current system.
There's a lot of "boths" in this work when you're operating within a system and trying to dismantle it. I'm not the right person to tell you which to do, but I think it's important that we all recognize where we may be complicit, even as we do work we deem as necessary and productive.
Q+A
I read a LOT but find it difficult to travel with physical books for lack of space. Enter >> my Kindle. This year I've made it a point to buy books written by Black authors no matter the genre but I'm still buying from Amazon because that's what the Kindle is linked to. Are there other alternatives or recommendations for me? How can I avoid Amazon in this scenario or are the authors still benefiting from my purchase?
From Decolonize your reading habits, published 11/19/2020.
This is a match-making Q+A! I'm copying/pasting a helpful recommendation from another newsletter reader below as a response:
I just wanted to share a reading resource (at least for those living in the U.S); Libby and OverDrive are both free apps offered by the public library.
They are essentially digital libraries where you can check out audiobooks and ebooks straight to your phone/tablet, and all you need is a library card to access them. (perfect for social distancing—no human contact woo!)
Unfortunately, the selections are very limited, especially when it comes to diverse authors (at least in my county. The selections offered vary from county to county, as the apps link up directly with your local library branch)
But, you can recommend titles for your library to purchase that will become part of your library’s circulation. (Recommendations can be made both in physical libraries and on OverDrive, Libby doesn't have a place to make recommendations yet, but apparently, they are working towards making it a feature) And I figure, the more people who use these apps and make recommendations for more diverse books, the better access readers will have in the future.
You can find both apps on OverDrive.com. Also, in looking through OverDrive.com to make sure I had all my information straight, I found out that they also offer an app for public-school students that can be accessed with a student ID.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The federal government offered a series of treaties to Indigenous communities across the U.S., but broke nearly all of the agreements
The forceable removal of Native communities from their lands has stripped people of their culture and connection to their ancestors
Initiatives to return stolen lands aren't just reparations, but a clear way to disamantle white supremacy and center Indigenous communities in climate justice
RELATED ISSUES
11/24/2020 | Stop violence against Native women.
11/15/2020 | Learn the key terminology.
10/21/2020 | Change racist sports team names.
10/12/2020 | Honor Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
7/5/2020 | Support the Navajo Nation through COVID-19.
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