i would like to invite you to Race with Me.

i am on a journey of anti-racism which begins in the mirror. Working on myself, checking for blind spots, looking to make sure that i am doing better at this than i was doing yesterday. Before moving on to my  community and the systems and structures around me and seeing what differences can be made there.

It always begins with me. i have not arrived and likely will not in this lifetime. There is work to be done in me.

Race with Me

However, because i have been intentionally working at this stuff for a number of years now, i may have discovered some things that will be helpful to you. Especially if you have not been journeying as long as me.

Some of you will know that i spent January in the Philippines working at finishing a book i was writing on race. A book for white people from a white person. Tentatively titled, ’50 Ideas for white people asking, “But what can I do?’

i have finished my part of that book and am waiting on a few people to get their stories and pieces to me. But i have started sending it around to publishers and have already received my very first rejection letter [Yay me!] i know this will likely take months or even years to happen. And it may never happen at all. So i have been thinking about using the work i have done in the meantime, so that as many people as possible can hopefully benefit and it doesn’t go to waste.

Which is why i returned to ‘Race with me.’ A few years ago my mate Richard Bolland designed a beautiful little Intro for a video series and Jake Waldron let me use one of his tunes and i started making a video series about race. Which lasted about three episodes. i can’t even remember why but it was likely due to technology.

i know have a much better camera, a light and microphone and a good editing program [Filmora for the win!]

The plan is to make a short video for each of the 50 Ideas in the Book to share them with you. And for you to share them with your friends. The hope is that these will get people thinking and engaging and working together on their own anti-racism and that they will help us build up some positive momentum.

The benefit to these 50 ideas over the original blog series is two-fold. Firstly there are ten more ideas. Secondly, the blog piece evolved day by day with me thinking, ‘What should i talk about today?’ and so they didn’t have a great flow to them and were kinda all over the place. These fifty ideas tell a bit more of a story and have some more progression.

But enough talking about them. Let’s get to them. If you find this video helpful in any way, please do subscribe to the channel and more importantly share this on your page or tag your friends and start talking about these things. And doing them. It’s time to Race… with me!

For Part II on The Voices that Inform, click here.

For Part III on The Importance of Names, click here.

For Part IV on Being Colourblind, click here.

For Part V on Recognising Dignity, click here.

For Part VI on Dismantling Stereotypes, click here.

[For the link to the ‘Race with me’ playlist on YouTube, click here]