Dear Friends,
We have missed you. The Solsara leadership team members have been on an unplanned and spontaneous sabbatical of sorts with the pandemic-inspired stay at home order. We have not been actively meeting, creating, or planning events, curriculum, or engaged on social media. Rather, each of us has been plugging into our own lives as family members, gardeners, service workers, change-makers, and students, as well as basking in the spaciousness of what it means to simply be.
While our individual work has not faded, the recent horrific murders of black people by police and vigilantes have re-fueled our community engagement. We are deeply impacted and committed to continuing to do our part in the fight against racism and white supremacy. We stand in solidarity with the black community, with indigenous folks and people of color, and with all of those fighting for reform and justice in the US and throughout the world. We join our voices with protestors in denouncing police brutality against BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color), racialized violence, and systemic oppression in all its forms.
As you likely know, about a year ago Solsara decided to pause our regular offerings to take a step back, evaluate whiteness inside of ourselves and our community, and seek education for our facilitators and our assistants on how to be an actively anti-racist organization and develop anti-racist curriculum and events. We have made some meaningful strides in that direction, including hosting the Interrupting Whiteness workshop earlier this year, yet it is important to note that anti-racism work, while urgent, is a marathon and not a sprint. Allyship is a life-long commitment to self-reflection, learning, and action.
As an organization that has historically been led by mostly white people and served mostly white participants, we recognize that we have significant work to do to address issues of privilege and oppression and we are committed to continuing to do better. We hope you will join us.
To our white community, we urge you to take action--to educate yourself, to do the internal work to integrate, somatically and psycho-emotionally, and to engage with the people and policies around you. As writer and speaker Ijeoma Oluo wrote about white folks, “Your privilege is the biggest risk to this movement. [and] Your privilege is the biggest benefit you can bring to the movement.” Please use it wisely. Be informed, and come into relationship with yourself, your loved ones, your co-workers, and your community as a racialized human who has an impact on others, intentionally or not.
We encourage you to practice humility by mindfully and actively listening to black educators and to pay or donate for their services. Many black folks and POCs report how exhausting it can be to repeat painful truths to white folks again and again. It is important that we directly support black leaders financially, and also do our part as white folks to self-educate and gather together with the intention to further our learning and accelerate our actions for change.
If you haven’t, now is a time to invest wholeheartedly in anti-racist work. Please step in. Know it will be a process. It will be messy. You will not be perfect. You will not “look good.” And you are essential to this movement. You are needed now.
To Black, Indigenous, and People of Color community members, we see you and we will not look away; we hear you and we will keep listening and refining what it means to listen; and we will fight for and with you, and for our shared humanity.
To everyone, thank you dearly for being a part of our community and exploring the dynamic experience of what it means to be human together.
Blessings,
Carrie, Sara Eden, and Larry