When considering February’s service theme, “Reparation: Loving back into Relationship”, I took the time to examine the possible definitions of the word “reparation”. Reparation is about making amends, repairing and compensating others for the wrongs done to them. (In the last century it was most often used when talking about the aftermath of wars between nations: reparations were paid or made by the defeated countries for the damage the victorious nations incurred.) Today, the term has larger connotations than it had in the past, as we use it most often to describe what should be done to repair the unequal centuries old systems of racism and colonialism. For this to happen, our society must accept responsibility for creating and benefiting from these systems. For white people, (like me) it means identifying and accepting the privilege we have in a society where systemic racism is the norm, working to bring clarity to our blind spots and using our words and actions to repair the damage these systems have caused and continue to cause different groups in our society.
When I was growing up, it seemed like just feeling guilty was enough. We talked of “white liberal guilt” as if it proved that we were at our core, good people. Guilt, of course, is ultimately unproductive and the past is not the present. While you don’t have to look very far to find white people who long for those “simpler” days…this in itself is an indication that, to paraphrase Jacques Derrida “an ongoing (self) critique is necessary”. Robin DiAngleo, in her book White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism identifies nostalgia about the “good old days” as a function of white privilege: “Claiming the past was socially better than the present is also a hallmark of white supremacy. Consider any period of the past from the perspective of people of colour…” (59).
This month in CYRE we will be exploring two necessary avenues to repairing our world. We will celebrate Black History month by exploring this too often overlooked part of our history and talk about ways to dismantle the systemic racism that still pervades our society. We will also consider the ongoing work of truth, healing and reconciliation with Canada’s Indigenous Peoples, considering why we are all treaty people and how the injustices of the past might inform our path for the future. We’ll be using lots of teaching stories, as we have been all year, and activities that give the kids a chance to reflect and consider what they are learning. This is of course, heavy stuff, so we’ll be sure to find ways to connect these issues to the kid’s own experiences. I suspect, like many things, the kids are already ahead of us on a lot of these issues.
Yours in service,
Tim