What Comes After Listening and Learning
“I’m listening and learning.”
You’ve probably heard a lot of people say that over the past couple of weeks.
Like I mentioned in my previous blog post, Crafted By the Master’s Hand, I want to use my voice to stand up for good.
This week, social media has pretty much gone “back to normal,” at least on my feeds. People are posting about fitness and health tips, vacations, daily routines, favorite coffee orders. They’re back to their “regularly scheduled content” so to speak.
And while these things aren’t necessarily wrong, it makes me wonder. What changed?
What did last week’s “listening and learning” do?
Did it do anything at all?
What I really hope doesn’t happen is that this whole movement and moment in history becomes just another “bandwagon trend.” I really hope people who posted black squares and “muted themselves to listen and learn” last week don’t revert back to the same old ways.
I really hope we actually do change. I hope people didn’t just post because it was the “cool thing to do.” I really hope we’re better than that.
“What can I do? I’m just one person.” You may be thinking. And it raises a good point.
What CAN we do? Because listening and learning means absolutely nothing if we don’t act on what we heard and learned.
I can’t speak for you, but I can share two things I am going to do moving forward. I aim to add more actions to this pledge overtime, but these are the first two things I will focus on first. Hopefully it inspires you to think about, and make, your own contributions.
Read more books about/written by people of color.
I’m an avid reader and one of the ways I plan to instill change is by reading more books about and/or written by people of color. Transparently, I was inspired by the Lazy Genius podcast to make this change. It’s a no brainer and frankly, I should’ve done this way earlier. I want to educate myself and choosing the books I read is an impactful way I can incorporate this into my daily life.
Research companies before I support them financially.
Frankly, company research is another action I want to take moving forward. Before I purchase something (whether it’s makeup, clothing, houseware, etc.) I want to research the company to learn about their stance on this issue and diversity in general.
Like I said, I really do hope this movement sparks change. I hope we, as a nation, continue to support Black Lives Matter and advocate for their rights. Because this isn’t a political issue.
This is a human rights issue.
This is a human issue.
This is an issue.
Are you listening? Are you learning?
Did you listen and learn for a week and then go back to your normal life?
That’s not good enough.
Did you listen and learn from podcasts and Netflix shows so you could check a box and now you’re done?
That’s not good enough.
Listening and learning isn’t the end of this. In fact, it’s just the beginning.
Listening and learning is great, but it’s nothing without action.
I’m not here to tell you to stop listening and to stop learning. I’m here to plead with you that we gotta do better.
Not just think better, although that’s important. Not just learn and listen better, although yes, we have to do that too.
Doing better requires action.
And it starts with me. And it starts with you.
Listen and learn all you want.
Then act.