If you're white, you have almost certainly benefited from white privilege.
I know I have.
Recognising the specifics of our own experience of 'white privilege' is a step along the way to understanding the continuing impact today of the historical and systemic exploitation of non-European people and societies by Europeans and the societies they established in places like North America and Australia. I have been exploring my own white privilege, using a simple exercise.
The UK has been captivated in last few days by a viral video of highlights from a meeting of Handforth Parish Council, and Jackie Weaver has become something of a hero: the 'grown up' in the room. One participant in the Zoom meeting declared "you have no authority here Jackie Weaver!" shortly before being removed from the meeting. Where does 'authority' in a meeting come from?
I’ve been working with a group of people from many different organisations who have been thrown into collaborating because of the pandemic.
They have achieved a lot, but when they took some time to reflect, they were able to see tensions which were exacerbated because they didn’t know each other very well and their ‘trust cushion’ was thin. So we experimented with some ground rules during a workshop session, all designed to help build trust.
The gap between what we say we want, and the way we behave, is such rich territory. We get in our own way – we make excuses for our perceived failures, blame others, or assume too much responsibility. Our internal stories are one of the ways we do this. The stories we tell ourselves about the climate emergency often come back to three strong themes.
Given the unprecedented year we’ve had, lots of organisations are thinking much more seriously about risks and contingencies. What can you feed in to risk assessments or your organisation’s risk register, from a sustainability perspective?
The environment and sustainability sectors, here in the UK, are starkly white. So let's celebrate and amplify those people of colour who have led environmental and sustainability work in this country and elsewhere.
When we set up 'real' rooms for participants, we use flowers, music, posters, objects, room layout and pay attention to countless little details, to create a beautiful, welcoming space which says "you matter" to participants. How can we do this online? Twenty facilitators, trainers, coaches and others joined a workshop to share ideas.
More priority given to care and caring? Collective action for individual good? Cities designed to enable us to be good neighbours? Or inequalities made worse by stark divisions between the people who can work from home and those who can't? She is Still (virtually) Sustainable brought together a brilliant panel to explore what the future of sustainability looks like, from our vantage point within a pandemic and a lockdown.
During Storm Dennis, eight people apparently had narrow escapes because their Teslas' automatic braking systems stopped them in time to avoid a falling tree. But what other benefits might disruptive technologies like autonomous vehicles, AI, or big data have in the climate and ecological emergency? I was lucky enough to chair an IEMA Fellows and Futures event and hear about disruptions from blockchain to bicycles.
