Leaving whiteness and entering an anti-racist world were, for me, like moving to Taiwan. I didn’t know the lay of the land. I didn’t know how to get around. I didn’t know the language. I was a newcomer.
This is exactly where recovery from our internalized racism happens. Squamish author and designer Ta7taliya Nahanee created a Decolonizing Process Map by which she reminds us that it is only when we enter the work that we are actually decolonizing and dismantling. It might feel like a maze. It can feel disorienting. But the only way to do the work is to get on the scooter and join the traffic. We can’t stand on the sidelines and think we are doing the work. We can’t just talk about it. It is in actively learning, walking, and being with others that the old consciousness gets dismantled. We have to get on our purple scooters, get into the streets, and follow those who know how to get home. We have to leave the comfort of the old ways and set our heads and hearts toward liberation.
From “Recovering Racists: Dismantling White Supremacy and Reclaiming Our Humanity” by Idelette McVicker