Becoming anti-racist: it takes discomfort

I’ve been thinking a lot this week about discomfort. Much of my career has been spent teaching others in some form or another, be it in formal or informal learning spaces. From preparing teenagers for their GCSEs, working with adults returning to education, and now facilitating training and offering consultancy, I’ve learnt that discomfort is central to learning. Without discomfort, we cannot learn and grow.

Transformation and growth require discomfort, unease, and making mistakes.

That doesn’t make it easy; even as a lifelong teacher I struggle to be uncomfortable, to sit in that place where I don’t know all the answers, and to accept my imperfections and the work I still have to do.

We need to be vulnerable, open and honest with ourselves. Being in our comfort zones won’t make change happen. There is a need to identify where we are and the level of guidance we need, which is explained well in Len Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development.

For those of us who are White, it is uncomfortable to confront how our whiteness has privileged us in many ways. It is uncomfortable to consider how institutions have privileged us over others. However unpleasant it feels, we should embrace this discomfort. It is a gift, a sign that we are unlearning the biases and prejudices we inherited from the societies we grew up in, and we can start making genuine change. It starts with facing the parts of us we least want to, seeing them clearly, and committing to grow.

Anti-racism work is uncomfortable. I think that all inclusion work, done well, should be uncomfortable. Otherwise we aren’t growing. And without growth there is no change.

To talk with the Inclusive Employers team about working within your organisation to become anti-racist get in touch at info@inclusiveemployers.co.uk