Rushing is Not Arriving
Dr. Moyo Rainos Mutamba
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” — African Proverb
Since May 2020, most of our clients have cited the murder of George Floyd as the watershed moment for addressing anti-Black racism in their work. Many wanted to do something immediately to show that they cared and to ensure that they were not perceived as indifferent towards anti-Black racism. I worry that while this sense of urgency can be an effective catalyst for action, the actions taken from a reactive mindset might not adequately address the depth of anti-Black racism. Fix-it responses risk being superficial and unsupportive of Black communities.
We have learned that there are no shortcuts in accompanying organizations towards anti-racism and cultures of belonging just as there are no shortcuts to getting to the top of a palm tree. In this, there is a tension between the urgency driving the work, and the pace required to dive deeply into understanding, building connections, and creating the conditions for transformation. Without being able to resolve that tension — I often consider the consequences of speeding up, as well as the potential opened by slowing down. I invite you to join me in this contemplation and see what connects with you and your work.
What we’ve noticed is that speeding up:
Reduces our capacity to understand the current realities within our organizations. It takes time to listen to a multiplicity of perspectives within the organization, understanding lived experiences that diverge, mapping patterns, and making sense of the priorities for change at this moment;
Can constrain creativity if organizations resort to ready-made solutions that are not consistent with the present reality and emerging contemporary understandings of oppression and liberation;
Will, without fail, exclude many people in anti-racist organizational change. We have seen these efforts lean on hierarchical inclinations that characterize many organizations, with leaders dictating the anti-racism initiative’s form and content at the exclusion of staff;
May trigger performative responses that serve to virtue signal and uphold an organization’s reputation or status, rather than transform it. Examples of this include social media posts without commitments to concrete action, but this is also felt when we are invited to do a single anti-racism workshop that feels more like a box-checking that we know does not go deep enough to change mindsets and behaviors;
Might de-center Black people in organizations as most of the ready-made workshops on anti-racism prioritize educating those with ‘privilege.’ Caring for Black people becomes an unintentional latent effect of this education;
Might, in effect, slow down organizational change in ways that endanger internal organizational health. We are learning that sometimes doing something is better than doing nothing at all. We are also learning that sometimes attempting to hack organizational change might lead to too many missteps and a lingering perception of things not changing in a meaningful way.
Addressing anti-Black racism requires an organizational culture change. The two processes needed for a culture shift are divestment from white supremacy culture and cultivating a culture of belonging. Slowing down signifies going forward with an action in a measured manner. In other words, it means to intentionally take the time needed to account for as much as we can to engage in actions that have a sustainable impact. At Bloom, we believe that slowing down is critical for creating cultures of belonging and achieving racially equitable organizations.
Here are five African proverbs that offer some considerations and gains from slowing down:
1.There are never eggs in a broken nest.
Organizations need the time, space, and capacity to build the necessary relational container to do the work well. Anti-Black racism operates at the personal, interpersonal, and systemic levels. As such, it requires creating containers to foster safe enough, brave, and loving spaces to address these levels and their transversalities.
2. A single stick may smoke, but it will not burn.
Anti-racist organizational change is collective and shared work. Slowing down supports building the necessary relationships and bringing together stakeholders to influence the change process. When we slow down, we can leverage the entire system’s wisdom towards the change we seek.
3. A clear sky fears not the thunder.
Clarity is priceless. Organizations are complex entities nested in complex social, political, and cultural systems. Slowing down allows observation, noticing details and patterns. With more time, we can be clear on collaboration agreements, accountability, priorities for change, and decision-making processes.
4. Those who want to build high must dig deep.
We are learning that undoing anti-Black racism and creating cultures of belonging require going deep at the personal, interpersonal, and systemic levels. Stakeholders need to have space to feel all the feels at a personal level and engage in deep self-reflection and transformation. Interpersonally, all stakeholders will need time and space to get to a point where they can speak openly about racism and its intersectionalities. This requires the building of trust, the clearing of assumptions, and slowing down to deeply listen to one another and express vulnerably with courage. It means navigating fears of reprisal from speaking honestly within a professional space. It requires us to navigate conflict, a natural and inevitable occurrence in life and this work, and have the time and space to slow down when ruptures occur in order to repair. We need to stay on the team, with our shared purpose at the center, even when we disagree, rather than becoming or staying divided in silos. The whole system needs to dig deep to understand how its building blocks are made with anti-Black racist matter and understand how it perpetuates racism. Digging deep enhances the chances of long-lasting change.
5. By trying often, the monkey learns to jump from the tree.
All organizations are learning entities. That does not mean what they learn always leads them towards equity and liberation. However, organizations that take the time to make anti-racist learning and critical reflection an intentional part of their structure will most likely become more equitable. Learning entails trying, making mistakes, revising, and trying again: action, reflection, and action.
The urgency to undo anti-Black racism should not be in the speed with which we show solidarity, it should be in the way we prioritize addressing deep organizational systems, cultures, and practices that are responsible for institutional anti-Black racism and inequality. It’s about centering relationships in the work of co-liberation, creating and sustaining the conditions for trust, authenticity, collaboration, and navigating rupture and repair in our shared work. We might need to slow down to give ourselves the time and space to go the distance to do this well. A fire that smolders lasts longer.