Setting priorities when the world is on fire

I have been interviewing for jobs, and a frequent question is how I set my priorities when I have many things to do. 

My standard answer is that I will look at what is most time critical. I will also look at the time needed to do complete tasks, because if I can knock out multiple things quickly there is a mental boost that comes with that, as well as having those items done. In addition, if some of the tasks build on other tasks, then the foundational ones need to come first. 

That is all very logical and practical, but if my intuition is telling me to get to something sooner, I will listen to that.

I had thought that I would probably spend the rest of this year on fighting white supremacy in different ways, going through various areas of concern, potential actions that can be taken, and explaining how they relate to white supremacy when it is less obvious.

I find that this week there is so much to respond to that I don't know where to go.

It certainly felt like the environment was an important area to get to, because it is time critical. However, voting rights may determine whether we have a chance to really do well on the environment or not. While immigration issues were definitely going to come up, events in Afghanistan may hasten some urgency there, as well as raising humanitarian concerns and concerns about what information sources you are listening to and what kind of people we are going to be.

Plus, there was this talk...

If there is one thing I know from blogging, it is that I am not the only one who feels the way I do. At this particular time on this particular planet, there is going to be a lot of pressure on anyone who cares.

Yes, more needs to be done than you are capable of doing. There is a certain logic to despair, but it doesn't help.

One thing to accomplish is an ability to let some things go, with faith that there is not just this life to get things right.

Beyond that, of the things you can do...

• Which is most urgent?
• What can be done quickly?
• Are there some things that need to be done before others can be done?

And also, always, what is your inner voice telling you.

No matter how much needs to be done, what you are capable of doing matters.

COVID-19 says "Don't forget about me!"

There wasn't a post last week, a result of my doing some travel.

It felt great to get away. 

We were as responsible as we could be in terms of being vaccinated, wearing masks, and maintaining distances. It may still have been irresponsible.

Over the course of this last week, I am aware of a memorial service that was attended by one person who then tested positive for Coronavirus, and a day care that had a worker in the infant room test positive, and a memory care facility that has had its first COVID case of the entire pandemic. That is all in Washington county.

There are breakthrough infections, especially as more variants emerge. We are hearing more about the Delta variant, but there are really concerning things about the Lambda variant.

There are also still many people who are not vaccinated. 

This has been called a "pandemic of the unvaccinated".

There is a level at which that makes sense; the odds of infection and of complications are definitely higher without the vaccine. There are also some problems with it.

The first is that our mental image hearing that is of people who are foolishly suspicious of a highly tested vaccine, the effectiveness of which we have been able to observe for several months now, but fine with taking a horse de-wormer after some internet searches. 

(Horse de-worming pills will not cure your COVID. They may bring on liver failure, which could make the COVID less of a priority, but that is clearly not ideal.)

It may feel like you can't effectively communicate with that segment of the population (possibly true), but there are many others with additional obstacles to getting vaccinated.

Children under twelve are still not approved for the vaccine. Also, children are not immune to the virus and do not always survive it. Especially as schools start back up, we need to think about that.

There are people with compromised immune systems. That is a wide umbrella term, but there are some who cannot safely get the vaccine, and some who can get it but will not be fully protected by it.

In addition, while we have the supplies here in the United States to vaccinate all residents, there are many other countries that are not so lucky. 

They are all susceptible. The greater the number of people infected, the greater potential for variants. That increases the danger even for the vaccinated, but also, getting COVID is not your only risk.

Hospitals are getting filled to capacity again. Some already are. There are a lot of different conditions that require hospital care. If you or someone you love needs that, there will be a need for available beds, equipment, supplies, and staff, which cannot be guaranteed now.

I understood the pressure to open back up, but I also strongly believed that it was too soon. That was not merely that not enough people have been vaccinated yet, but also the amount of cases that were out there and still spreading, as well as knowing that it would be harder to close something again than leave it closed.

Yet here we are.

Please, if you haven't gotten vaccinated yet, do it. 

If there are other people you can encourage, do it.

Especially, if you have the ability to help get patents set aside or restrictions waived so other countries can produce their own vaccines, or other methods to help globally, do it.

Then still continue to wear a mask and social distance, because of variants and lag and other issues for which we do not have a magic wand. 

Is it fair? No, but how many of your life problems have been resolved in the interest of fairness?

This is just where we are. It sucks, but we need to act accordingly.

Fighting White Supremacy: Following Black Women

Here I am doing it, despite all of my concerns mentioned last week, plus all of the concerns linked to in that post but expressed much earlier. 

To those concerns, let me just add that if ever I find that someone I know harassed or annoyed someone because of my writing, I will find a way to make that regretted.

The more positive thing that I will say is that it is something that can build up gradually, in a self-sustaining manner. I did not set about intending to follow a lot of Black women and learn from them, but somehow comics and feminism (via Gail Simone) led me to some, and they led to others. 

Then it was not just Black women, but Black men and several brown people and then there were gay and trans and non-binary people and lots of disabled people and more recently I have become connected to a few rabbis who are women, and none of it was expected. There were growing pains at times, but it is a beautiful thing and I am a better person for it. This post will focus exclusively on Black women, but it should be a starting point, not an end.

I still have a deep fondness for my first three, so I am going to start with them.

I am trying to link to pages, but generally there are Twitter links, which is generally where I got started and interact the most. I am not linking to Patreon pages, because those seem to be more helpful after you know you like someone, but don't forget that Patreon can be a great way to contribute.

Sydette Harry:  https://modelviewculture.com/authors/sydette-harry

I adore her. She is especially well informed on tech and media, as well as immigration and vocal performance. She also had a great deal of experience with the limits of white feminism, especially in terms of when it caters to and protects abusive "feminist" men.

Mikki Kendall: https://mikkikendall.com/my-writing/non-fiction/

Especially informed on policing, assault, and gender. I have two of her books that I need to read now, or I would be able to say more, but I can wholeheartedly recommend Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists: A Graphic History of Women's Fight For Their Rights, which is interesting and covers a lot of ground, but also does well at providing context.

Jamie Nesbitt Golden: https://blockclubchicago.org/author/jamie-nesbitt-golden/

Based in Chicago, Jamie knows a lot about that area and the sexualization of young Black girls, which converges on some really important writing she has done about R. Kelly.

Imani Gandy: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/

She is also the co-host of the #BoomLawyered podcast. She specializes in reproductive justice, which sounds like a focus on abortion access, but is also about maternal health and the ability to raise your children safely. I've heard her speak on this and it was an inspiration. 

Shay Stewart Bouley: https://blackgirlinmaine.com/

Living in Maine, Shay knows a lot about being a Black face in a white space, but she is also the executive director of CCI Boston and recently elected to the Portland Charter Commission.

Tinu Abayomi-Paul: https://medium.com/@tinu

Founder of #EverywhereAccessible and a good source on pain, chronic illness and disability, leading chats and threads on the those topics with humor and compassion. 

April Reign: https://spark.adobe.com/page/0X134IItMApVH/

Good insight on entertainment and representation. Known for #OscarsSoWhite, but also does #ReignyDayJobs as one way of trying to improve inclusion.

Tarana Burke: https://www.taranaburke.com/

Creator of #MeToo and director of Girls for Gender Equity, with many years working with victims of sexual assault. Most recently working on shame and resilience.

Stacey Abrams: https://fairfight.com/about-stacey-abrams/

Expert on voting votes, especially in Georgia, and hopefully an elected leader soon. Wonderful energy and strategic source.

Mari Copeny: https://www.maricopeny.com/

The youngest of the activists, Mari Copeny has been a leading role in Flint's water crisis, and continues to work with both a global and local focus. She is currently leading a school supply drive that can be supported via GoFundMe or Amazon and Target wish lists.

That's it.

On the one hand, it is just ten people, and I have left out many, which gives me a pang.

On the other hand, it is a start. You don't even have to follow all of them, but following a few can lead to more.

The other thing I will add is that as you start listening to Black women, it is likely that there will be moments of discomfort, where nerves are struck. 

That discomfort is a gift if you will learn from it. 

Fighting White Supremacy: Breaking through the inertia

When writing about Stephen Green's examples for Do. Do More. Do Better, I chose the social media example because it tracked with something I had wanted to do, but got stuck on.

I was very aware of the importance of listening to Black women, based on the perspective that they get from facing racism, sexism, and anti-Blackness (this combination can be referred to as misogynoir), as well as their voting patterns historically and their tendency to identify bad actors early because the abuse is often tested out on them. There are so many reasons we should be listening.

I also know that most of the people I know through school, work, and church don't follow a lot of Black women. Society is segregated in general, and it is a real issue in the Portland area. Despite how nice and liberal many people are, they are also not engaging with structural racism or recognizing its impact on them.

(One sign that most of my white liberal friends were not listening to Black women? How many of them kept quoting and referring to Shaun King.)

I followed so many wonderful Black women on Twitter, that I thought I could highlight some, and encourage others to follow them. I had already done the Do of following people of color on social media, so amplifying those voices and encouraging other people to follow them would be in tune with the Do more and Do better.

(So yes, I think those steps are very logical and reasonable.)

Then I could not do it.

It was not just hesitation about the step; the national election was pending and required its own posts, and also I had thrown myself back into blogging too quickly and was having trouble focusing. I took a two-month break from blogging, and when I restarted it was much more personal than political (though it is established that the two are related).

Mainly, I was worried about making things worse.

There can be many concerns that get in our way. Me acting like an authority on whom to follow was a concern; who was I to tell others? I did have some worry about that. I also had some concerns about focusing on Black women so specifically, because I follow people from many marginalizations, and so leaving out this Latina woman who was really great, or various Black men may have been a slight concern.

Still, my biggest concern was that I was going to make life worse for these women. Black women get a lot of abuse on the internet, even from... well, they don't call themselves nice liberals so much as progressives or leftists now, but it happens. There was one notable case just this week. Even people who might not be abusive might still ask a lot of thoughtless questions or keep interjecting "Not all white people!" in the interests of fairness. 

I did not want to be responsible for any of that.

I tried to mitigate that in three posts, which I will link to. (This was on the main blog.)

I also decided to only focus on women with a higher follower count, as they may have better resources, or at least more experience in dealing with trolls and such.

But I still worried, and there was still the question of whether we could get rid of Trump and regain (barely) control of the Senate, and I wasn't in the best state. Together, that meant the post never happened.

I am going to try again, next week, but I want to go through the process of dealing with those concerns.

First of all for that fear of making things worse for people, if I were aware that I had anyone following me who would deliberately be abusive, I would block that person. I might not know there was someone, but if I were to find out, it's an easy decision to block. 

In the past I have been more reluctant to do that, but I don't see a lot of evidence that there is any good influence happening by staying connected to the aggressive racists, so that's a block.

Sticking with people with higher follower counts is probably still a good idea. Where I do most of my following on Twitter, if they have blogs or web sites or Instagram accounts where they post content, that might be a better source. (Though, harassment can happen that way too.)

It can be great to ask someone if they have a preference, or if they would rather not be promoted.

One thing that you learn as you become more aware of structural racism is that it causes a lot of harm; it is always reasonable to be looking for ways to mitigate and prevent harm.

That leads to another one of the problems, that is kind of more complicated; I was trying to do things that I was not in a state to do.

Being anti-racist means learning about horrible things that can take an emotional toll, something that life does anyway. Burnout is real, and where my burnout came more from the care giving, poverty, and job seeking, it was still there, and I was still in denial about my abilities. 

There are times when we need to push ourselves, and times when that is destructive. Knowing the difference is not always easy, but try. I assume that will get easier at some point.

The other problem is much simpler, when you look at it right.

That concern about it being arrogant of me to highlight other people... you can have reasonable thoughts about whether you are centering yourself or others, and which would be appropriate, and work on that. Sometimes, you may get it wrong, and actually you might get other things wrong. Maybe you are reading this and feel vaguely wrong about recently quoting Shaun King.

There are going to be things that feel awkward. There will be things that feel uncomfortable. We are so used to the racist underpinnings, and the tacit agreement to that talking about some things is rude, and then you find it is necessary.

Welcome the discomfort. It will take a long time before we can be comfortable with our legacy of racism, but once you are aware, you should not be comfortable with silence either.

Try not to harm. If there needs to be a choice made, choose the oppressed over the oppressors.

I'm not saying it's fun, but it is right and necessary.

Related posts:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2020/10/why-we-should-listen-to-black-women.html

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2020/10/listening-to-black-women-101.html 

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2020/10/listening-to-black-women-pre-requisites.html