Doing the Work despite Hesitations

It sounded like a wonderful idea. A webinar series meant to underscore the realities of racism in healthcare, the origins of white supremacy and how that intersectional, socially constructed and maintained oppression met the experiences of educators and students in CPE, an intentional climb and invitation toward liberation and wholeness and better world-making. For a number of reasons, I was excited about joining colleagues in the work of gathering materials for the 8:46 Webinar series.

And then came the already in progress work of the Anti-Bias Taskforce. They were working hard to develop this year’s conference, a focus on anti-black bias which was set to initiate an increasingly painful and needed focus for ACPE in its continued turning toward other biases. When I was asked to join them, I knew I should, and I knew I didn’t have what it took. Time, focus, energy, and capacity—all things I had little of. Isn’t it generally true that the important things we do can pull us away from other important things? They can also be invitations to transformation, deep learning, and freedom. I was hesitant, joined hesitant, and have worked with, by, and through those same hesitations. Indeed, I’ve been grateful and surprised by grace-filled vulnerability at the ways connections flourish with my soul-friends in the effort.

This conference is part of a timely response within our broadest ACPE Community of Practice to attend together to issues of injustice. Unfortunately, the timeliness of this conference – and the prior webinar series and the things you and your students and your clients have already developed relative to the injustices of this time – is something you can set a watch to. The troubles, pains, and griefs underlying our focus have a way of persisting, of not being timebound, of continuing as they have over centuries in the United States of America. Racism and its origin in white supremacy; racism and its oppressive siblings impacting all the sacred and colorful communities we love; racism and its role in leaving us and our students and clients unbuilt and destroyed; racism must be dealt with, in lovingly severe and direct ways.

You are probably involved in some loving, severe, and direct dealings with anti-racism. I hope you will bring those involvements to our collective work. And if you aren’t involved, join us. Become a learner and sojourner on this way. Take one step closer to competency in this painful and beautiful work of better world-making. Either way, you won’t be alone there. We’re intentional to ensure that we’ll all be there, appraising our selves and doing our work together.