203: How to move toward anti-racism with Kerry Cavers
Feb 12, 2024
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Guest: Kerry Cavers, Founder of Moms Against Racism Candada. Topics: Moving toward anti-racism, understanding racism in Canada, unlearning racism, roles of white and racialized people, addressing a child's back-to-school anxiety, creating a safe environment, participating in speaking engagements.
Reflect on your own racist biases, challenge discomfort, and aim to unlearn and understand.
Engage in experiential learning by broadening exposure to different cultures, attending events, and doing a diversity book audit.
Deep dives
Reflecting on Internalized Racism
Take time to reflect and journal about your own racist biases and beliefs, accepting that racism exists and acknowledging your white privilege. Examine your thoughts and reactions to stories and accounts of racism, and challenge any discomfort or disbelief, aiming to unlearn and understand.
Expanding Learning and Awareness
Engage in experiential learning by broadening your exposure to different cultures. Make friends with individuals from diverse racial backgrounds, watch movies and shows, listen to music, and eat food from different cultures. Attend cultural events and do a diversity book audit, ensuring your reading materials represent diverse perspectives.
Taking Action and Long-Term Commitment
Engage in consistent conversations with your children about race, racism, and white supremacy. Support anti-racist organizations and actions, both financially and as an engaged member or volunteer. Advocate for anti-racism in your children's schools or childcare settings. Seek therapy to work through personal trauma and limiting beliefs. Commit to ongoing learning and action in the long run.
Embracing the Journey
Recognize that anti-racism work is a continuous journey and actively seek out resources, workshops, books, podcasts, and events to support your learning and growth. Stay committed, take advantage of the wealth of information available, and support others on their anti-racist journey as well.
Last year I hosted a panel event in Vancouver where four people who have been active in helping us to navigate toward an anti-racist, post-patriarchal, post-capitalist future came together to share their ideas in front of a live audience.
It was a beautiful event (eventually we'll process the video of it to share with you!), and I really hit it off with Moms Against Racism Canada founder Kerry Cavers so we got together afterward to chat.
This is a much more personal episode than many. I actually didn't know it was going to be an episode beforehand - I thought we were going to record something that would be mostly for Kerry to use to explain her work to potential funders. But when I realized what gold we had, I decided to release the video as an episode.
I did realize that we were lacking in some specific take-home messages for listeners, so I asked whether Kerry would be willing to share some ideas for ways to take action on anti-racism with us. She has a lot going on at the moment so she wasn't able to record something for us, but she did put together a VERY comprehensive list of actions that I recorded at the end of the episode.
I've also created a PDF of her ideas that you can print and refer back to more easily - click the button below to download it.
Enjoy the conversation!
Taming Your Triggers
Still struggling with how you respond to your child's behaviors? Join our Taming Your Triggers workshop.
We’ll help you to:
✅ Learn the real reasons why you feel triggered by your child's age-appropriate behavior
✅ Heal the hurts from the past and today that create your triggered feelings
✅ Develop skills to understand and meet your needs - AND your child's needs. You stop feeling like you're failing them, and they stop doing the things that drive you up the wall.
By addressing our triggers, we contribute to a cultural shift towards justice and inclusion, fostering empathy and understanding within our families and society.
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Jump to Highlights
00:53 Introducing this episode’s topic and guest
03:31 Kerry's insights into her role within Mom's Against Racism and discusses the organization's mission and initiatives
05:49 MAR’s origin and founding motivations
13:54 The various forms and manifestations of racism in Canadian society
18:50 How members of Moms Against Racism are guided in unlearning racism
24:49 Kerry reflects on her upbringing, sharing how her mother's personal challenges and disconnection from her cultural identity left a void in her understanding of her own heritage
28:00 Kerry’s thoughts on Parenting Beyond Power
31:14 Kerry talks about which tools from the book resonated with her and if she's been able to use them
43:02 Why Kerry agreed to join the Culture Talks Panel Event
47:22 Jen’s commitment to addressing issues like White privilege and patriarchy, striving to make a positive impact
50:38 Kerry’s Ideas for Anti-Racist Actions for Parents
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