White women I’m calling you in (again …)

The Queens death is another mirror moment and it’s time to step into the revealing and into the work.

Yes feel your feelings (revealing some deeper griefs, losses and longings that are present for you - all useful to explore for your own healing)

AND let’s keep paying attention.

The incessant 1 note sycophancy in the name of ‘respect’ is getting tiresome now. The pressure to conform with the single narrative smacks of constraint and control.

Let’s get comfortable with questioning the single narrative.

For millions of people across the world she represents a legacy of systematic racism, pain, trauma, displacement, violence, domination … that’s upheld by patriarchal white supremacy and resonates through the generations ….

And racism in our society continues today @everydayracism_

And state violence against Black bodies continues today @justiceforchriskaba

Our rights to peaceful protest are being eroded, at the same time some citizens are being stripped of their citizenship @ukfactcheckpolitics @amnestyuk

Our asylum and refugee system is cruel and ineffective @refugeecouncil @lovecalais @chooselove

Unprecedented cost of living increase disproportionately impacts poor families, and minoritsed communities. Food banks, homelessness services, mental health and domestic violence refuges are seeing exponential demand, while we’re spending untold millions on pomp and razzmatazz.

This is another revealing for our society, a moment in history that holds a mirror up to who we are, it’s another reckoning.

We can look in that mirror and see who we are, see our history, see the implications, see all the present day contradictions and hypocrisies.

We can acknowledge it, take responsibility, strive to do better.

We can stop gas lighting Black and brown people who are calling out racism as they see it and experience it.

We can take a breath, humbly listen and learn.

We can educate ourselves, listen to the stories that are not amplified by the media, stay compassionate, increase our empathy.

So yes join in the collective grief catharsis if that’s your thing AND….

Let’s not get distracted.

Lets keep educating ourselves and seeing the ways that society conditions us for compliance.

Let’s hold space for nuance in our conversations - at home, at work, on social media, in our national debate.

Let’s keep doing the work

With love xKaty

Listen to and learn from these brilliant writers and educators:

Afua Hirsch

Kelechi Okafor

Nova Reid

Naomi and Natalie Evans at Everyday Racism

Anti Racist Cumbria

Austin Channing Brown and Layla Saad bring an outside U.K. perspective.

Books that I highly recommend if you want to educate yourself on this context:

📘Brit(ish) - Afua Hirsch

📘The Good Ally - Nova Reid

📘The Good Immigrant - Nikesh Shukla

📘Natives -Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire - Akala

📘The Mixed Race Experience - Naomi and Natalie Evans

All available in Katy’s Bookshop UK where you can browse curated reading lists on topics such as Inclusion and Inclusive Leadership, Whiteness, BIPOC authors, LGBTQ+ authors, Allyship, Feminist poetry and literature, Career Development and Personal Development.

Katy’s next Change Makers mini programme is coming soon - you can join the waitlist here.