Black Lives Matter: Statement & Call to Action
We write today to share Still Harbor’s full support of the Movement for Black Lives nationally and globally and to call our community to action in a moment when we are confronted by the ongoing and deeply rooted oppression of Black and Brown people across our country.
As a member of the Still Harbor community, we implore you to engage in deep reflection, root in healing practices, and take clear action at this time.
To the Black folks reading this, we are committed to learning how to be anti-racist and to rooting out racist policies, practices, and actions in our learning communities and accompaniment practices. We support and amplify your spiritual leadership. We make space for your personal and collective spiritual healing.
To the non-Black folks reading this, we ask you to humbly listen, to take stock of the ways you need to grow and change, to educate yourself, and to be more bold in breaking your racist silences and in taking action, even when it’s uncomfortable.
STATEMENT
Still Harbor universally condemns anti-Black racism and the systemic violence of policing in this country. The murders of Black people at the hands of police is a direct result of a system of white supremacy and racism that has been ingrained in the very fabric of our society. As a community of spiritual leaders called to the places where spirituality and social justice intersect, we must take responsibility for both the inner work and the outer work of social transformation. This requires naming what is true and real. We live in a society built on racist policies and practices intended to oppress, marginalize, imprison, and kill Black people while promoting the interests of white people. We cannot dismantle these policies and practices if we don’t acknowledge them as they are.
But acknowledging it alone is not enough to make change.
Still Harbor bears witness to the grief and the ancestral and ongoing trauma of Black people around the world. We make space for the grief, mourning, sadness, and rage of Black people not just today but everyday as they hold the burden of living with systemic violence as a constant threat against their lives and their humanity—a burden that no one anywhere should have to carry.
But making that space alone is not enough to make change.
Still Harbor commits to actively dismantling racism within ourselves, our organization, and the network of spiritual leaders we train. We commit to interrogating business as usual, to challenging the status quo, and to examining the myriad ways white supremacy culture and anti-Black racism show up within our thoughts, decisions, and actions. We commit to this reflective work so that we may do better, change our ways of being and doing, and hold ourselves accountable to anti-racist ideals and practices.
It is through our acknowledgement of white supremacy culture and anti-Black racism, our commitment to make space for and honor the experiences of Black folks in our community and beyond, and our anti-racist actions together that we believe we can make change. And it is in this vein that we call the alumni of our programs and all future cohorts to action.
CALL TO ACTION
There are many calls to action right now. We encourage you to follow the lead of Black movement leaders in taking political action: using your vote, your wallet, and your voice in advocating for policies and resolutions that will condemn police brutality, supporting the Movement for Black Lives’ national and local campaigns to defund the police, and getting engaged in local politics wherever you are to push for anti-racist policies that will replace the racist ones in place. This work requires committing to the collective leadership of the Movement for Black Lives. Still Harbor does so, and we ask you to do the same. Actions like these are essential for seeing the systemic changes needed in our country right now.
We also ask that you take the following specific actions within your spiritual life, practices, and communities:
Examine and articulate the ways white supremacy culture and anti-Black racism show up in your spiritual life, practices, and communities.
What are the ways that you and the communities you belong to suppress the free expression of Black identity? (Think of comments like: “let’s not use the word racism” in a anti-racism conversation or “where are you from?” being directed towards Black community members.)
How have you internalized and perpetuated the presumption of Black guilt and white innocence that has been used to justify horrific violence against Black people for centuries? (Think of Amy Cooper’s actions and behavior in Central Park only weeks ago or the assumption that white symbolizes “good” and black symbolizes “bad”.)
How have you turned to tokenism or slogans over the more difficult work of transforming thought and behavior personally and communally? (Think of the ways you’ve seen folks edit their words to appease a racist donor or stay silent in the wake of a racist commend made in a meeting while simultaneously posting a BLM banner or quoting the calls of our Black movement leaders.)
How have you adopted a white capitalist-centered view of your own and others' bodies? How can you reimagine your own and others' bodies as inherently deserving of life, regardless of how our bodies appear, function, or have been treated by others? (Seek out and challenge places in your life where your thinking transgresses the inherent value of Black bodies. Uproot ideas about Black people needing to earn the right for their body to be safe from violence. For support, check out Resmaa Menakem’s work, which these ideas come from.)
Take actions to decolonize your spiritual life and practices.
Investigate and examine the ways your tradition has been colonized by the forces of white supremacy and anti-Blackness: Consider language, teaching, and practice. What has been lifted up as good or right or truth and what has been dismissed as bad or wrong or false? What stories have been shared and which ones have been pushed aside? What deities or images have been dismissed? Create discussion groups, community conversations, or study groups to work through this together.
Cease from appropriation: Appropriation is the taking or use of spiritual or cultural knowledge, expressions, teachings, practices, rituals, icons, or artifacts without consent and/or outside of cultural or spiritual tradition. White folks have a long history of feeling entitled to take what is not theirs and use it as their own. Spiritual appropriation and commodification of indigenous traditions in this sense is a form of colonization. Stop doing it. This does not mean you cannot appreciate or participate or even practice outside of your own tradition. It simply means that you need to appropriately seek training, consent, and contextual understanding per the norms of cultural or spiritual tradition you are exploring.
Speak up against the ways your spiritual tradition is used to enforce oppressive social teachings and/or used to bypass the real social change needed for collective liberation: Question and interrogate any teaching used to silence or suppress the experiences of people who are suffering at the hands of anti-Black, racist, or otherwise oppressive policies or practices. Prepare yourself to speak up by doing your own study, reading, and learning within your tradition and beyond. Explore the history and context of why and how certain teachings, stories, or scriptures are lifted up and others are suppressed.
Invest in Black healing spaces and Black spiritual leadership.
Pay and fund Black spiritual leaders who are committed to anti-racist policies and practices in their ministry, practice, and accompaniment. If you don’t have the money to pay or fund them yourselves, fundraise for them and amplify their voices and leadership by encouraging others to support their work in material ways. Don’t know which Black spiritual leaders to support? Consider the Black spiritual leaders who you trained with at Still Harbor. Consider the Black spiritual leaders within your tradition. Consider the Black spiritual leaders aligned with the Movement for Black Lives.
Create and fund Black Healing spaces within and outside of the institutions and communities that you are affiliated with. Take note of the spaces that have already been created by the Black spiritual leaders in your communities and support them financially so that they can be sustained. If such spaces have not yet been created in your communities and institutions, seek out leaders who are called to build such spaces and seek out funds to support and sustain such spaces. Don’t think you have the funds? Take action to identify the racist policies and practices within your community or institution, defund them, and redistribute those funds towards Black Healing spaces.
As we ask those of you reading this and all of our alumni and future cohorts to take these actions, the Still Harbor leadership is also committing to taking these anti-racist actions within our own practices, policies, and programs. We recognize that to do this meaningfully and sustainably will create discomfort and call us to change both personally and collectively. This is precisely why we remain committed to operating in increasingly radical models of collective leadership.
Thank you for supporting us and joining us in these efforts.