When George W. Bush put US soldiers in Iraq, I joined thousands of people and marched in Washington DC against the war. I’ve honked in solidarity with pickets, and supported multiple different protests. I was a good, liberal white person, like so many of my friends.

I thought of myself as open-minded. I mean, how could I not be—look at what I do in life! Right? I saw myself as open-hearted, and onto myself, willing to take internal deep-dives and work on core issues like a good Guardian. Lots of people told me what a nice person I was. I was one of the good guys—right?

But I was fooling myself. I was hiding from a truth that turned my lily-white, liberal world around—the truth that I am a racist. By not recognizing that fact, and what the roots of racism are in my own life, I was actually perpetuating a racist system that is unjust, inequitable, and desperately in need of change. I was being the person I protested against in a vital issue that I had allowed myself to be ignorant about.

Can you imagine what that did to my view of the world and myself? Me, the “loving” one; me, the leader; me, working toward Ascension, for Pete’s sake—and me, safe and smug in my lack of recognition of a world-changing issue. I was unwilling and unaware of even the need to move outside of my comfortable little box of a white-centered life!

It’s embarrassing to me how old I was able to get before educating myself about racism (something that had to do with “someone else” and not me), because every year represents a year of not seeing and not doing anything about the racist system I benefitted from, nor of the suffering and pain that nice white people bring to our world.

Then 2020 came and brought a pandemic along with it. Quarantine brought about meetings with Samuel through Jitsi and Zoom where he repeatedly spoke about the need to use this time to change the fear-based, third Density paradigms that are at the the foundation of multiple aspects of our world—education, commerce, entertainment, law, economics, employment, the corporatocracy, as he called it, and more. When, during this time, George Floyd was brutally murdered and nightly protests began across the world, Samuel told us that the paradigm of racism, especially in the US, was the paradigm that would change all the others, because the roots of racism were thoroughly enmeshed throughout our society and embedded in conscious and unconscious experiences of white privilege and white supremacy. He told us repeatedly to educate ourselves and take action.

This is a recent quote from Samuel about the importance of changing the paradigm—as well as what needs to happen FIRST amongst the Guardianship, and from there out through the world.

Be warned, dear white friends reading this, this is hard to read and might be harder to accept. But if you DO follow through and begin educating yourself to recognize the racism present in the world and in our lives, and how white people have benefitted from a racist system, you WILL become a part of the solution. And being a part of the solution is exactly why all Guardians are here, right?

Here’s what Samuel said:

“The paradigm of racism is at the top of the precipice now. This paradigm has deep roots throughout your world. American racism right now is really out of control. And the biggest reason it’s out of control is because it is ignored, allowed, accepted by well-intentioned white people who do not believe that just because they let it get by, because they don’t like to confront, or ‘it didn’t seem that bad,’ ‘nobody seemed to mind,’ or ‘I have black friends,’ it’s referring to [them].

“Until white people are able to see that perpetuating the problem means you ARE the problem, whether you meant to or not, not taking action, not getting it, not educating yourself with step one—admitting YOU have grown up in a racist society which is so imprinted in your bones, whether you want it there or not, whether you agree with it or not, are some racist beliefs.

“My darlin’s, this opportunity has passed too many times. There are things you can do. Step one is admit you’re a part of the problem, whether you think you are or not. Step two is start educating yourself on the problems because if you shift this paradigm, think of all the functions in your world that would shift as well.”

Below are resources that have been very helpful to me, Frank, and Stuart in giving ourselves the start of what will be a life-long education process about racism, the 400+ year old oppressive, discriminatory, slavery-based “dirty little secret” that nice white people are keeping away from their conscious minds. But this is far from anything but a start. The internet has a multitude of good information on the subjects surrounding racism and learning to be a good ally. Do a search on youtube for “white fragility,” “racial justice,” or even “explaining racism,” and you’ll be able to learn as much as you can take in; search the internet for “wealth gap,” or “school to prison pipeline,” or “police union contracts,” and you’ll have thousands of articles available to you to sort through and find the direction you want to start in. The list below is only a beginning because, as I said, this is a lifetime learning process!

This is a time of change for our world, and as Samuel has said for…ever, “You are here to change this world. But you can’t change this world without changing yourself first, and you can only change yourself with Love.” We’re here in this time of transition to help our world move toward Ascension—and racism is a paradigm so rooted in the many areas of third Density, fear-based functions that focusing on racism will bring some of the most in-depth, across-the-board change desperately needed now. Silence is violence.

Resources

Books

So You Want to Talk About Race – Ijeoma Oluo 
In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from intersectionality and affirmative action to “model minorities” in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race and racism, and how they infect almost every aspect of American life.

Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla Saad
Using a step-by-step reflection process, she encourages people with white privilege to examine their racist thoughts and behaviors. Thousands of people participated in the challenge, and more than ninety thousand people downloaded the Me and White Supremacy Workbook. Since then, the work has spread to families, book clubs, educational institutions, nonprofits, corporations, event spaces, and more.

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and “allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to ‘bad people’ (Claudia Rankine). Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence.

How to Be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi
Antiracism is a transformative concept that reorients and reenergizes the conversation about racism—and, even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other.

Podcasts

1619, by the New York Times, hosted by Nicole Hannah-Jones
An audio series on how slavery has transformed America, connecting past and present through the oldest form of storytelling.

The Untold Story: Policing, by Lemonada Media
A seemingly impenetrable system stands in the way of ending police violence. Join host and actor Jay Ellis as he explores the untold story of policing. Jay’s mission: demystify police union contracts, separate truth from fiction, and deliver some concrete steps that can end violent police misconduct across the United States

Videos

White Fragility
University of Washington professor Dr. Robin DiAngelo reads from her book “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism,” explains the phenomenon, and discusses how white people can develop their capacity to engage more constructively across race. I hour 23.5 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45ey4jgoxeU

“What does defunding really mean?” One of the clearest videos to help explain “Defunding.” (about 10+ min.)
https://www.youtube.com/I9w841nrIBg

Race–The Power of an Illusion: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Created (29 min.)
https://youtu.be/QHo8AKNfB68

Documentary

13th: a Netflix documentary directed by Ava DuVernay

Articles

4 Steps That I and Other White People Can Take to Fight Racism (includes a fabulous list of references on all four steps)
https://bthechange.com/4-steps-we-can-take-as-white-people-to-fight-racism-a582e826eb92

Anti-Oppression Resources website lists relevant Podcasts & Interviews, Books, and Articles
https://traumahealing.org/anti-oppression-resources/?utm_source=SE+Trauma+Institute+Mailing+List&utm_campaign=9a094a7916-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_02_10_07_55_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ee45b349f3-9a094a7916-2557586