Humans are in the middle of a long-overdue awakening. As a collective, we are awakening fully to the challenge of eliminating personal and systemic racism. Black people’s lives matter. Brown people’s lives matter. Indigenous people’s lives matter. Just as your life matters.

I hope and pray that racism is no longer going to be tolerated or condoned. And I want to do my part to make that prayer a reality. I don’t consider myself a racist. And just saying “I am not a racist”, does nothing to solve the problem. I believe that I – and every one of us – have to look deeper. Racism does exist and if I see it out there, then  it exists somewhere inside me. That is where each one of us has to root it out.

Here is a primer in case you need it. I did.

Prejudice is when a person negatively pre-judges another person or group without getting to know the beliefs, thoughts, and feelings behind their words and actions. A person of any racial group can be prejudiced towards a person of any other racial group. There is no power dynamic involved.

Bigotry is stronger than prejudice, it entails a more severe mindset and is often accompanied by discriminatory behavior. It’s arrogant and mean-spirited, but does not require a system or a power dynamic to engage in it.

Racism is the belief that someone’s personality, behavior, and morals can be traced back to their race, the belief that one race is superior to another, and attributing qualities to someone based solely on their race. Racism also refers to the system that allows the racial group that’s already in power to retain their power. It has happened on many continents to many indigenous peoples. For instance, since arriving on American soil, white people have created preferential access to survival rights and resources (such as food, housing, health, legal protection, safety, education, jobs, voting, citizenship, etc.) for themselves and other white people. Simultaneously, white people created systems and rules that impede people of color’s access to these same rights and resources. Though “reverse racism” is a term you may hear in the United States, it is not a correct one. That’s because white people are the only racial group ever to have established and retained power.

Discrimination is racism, prejudice, or bias made real. It includes taking action Whether the action is intentional and deliberate, or unintentional and unconscious, on racist beliefs and thoughts. Discriminatory behavior affects the opportunities and quality of life for so many people.

Affirmative Action is a governmentally required positive effort, in addition to the elimination of discrimination, to seek out and employ persons who have likely been discriminated against. It is now a requirement imposed on all U.S. Federal contractors including almost all employers and universities. Quotas for hiring or educational placement are not racism, they are equal opportunities under the law.

BIPOC stands for ‘Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.’ It is a phrase meant to be inclusive of all people of color and all multiracial backgrounds, who have also been mistreated, misrepresented, and discriminated against for the color of their skin, their culture, heritage, or their way of life. As we work for equality, and realize that not all people of color face the same levels of injustice, using the term BIPOC gives marginalized communities a broader, louder voice in a way that doesn’t erase the identities of other people of color such as black and indigenous peoples.

My father was a bigot and a racist.

If you weren’t a college-educated, white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP), middle or upper class, healthy, attractive male, you would be the target of his nastiness. So, most everyone was, including my mother and her family whose partial Irish heritage and Catholic religion infuriated him. I was exposed to his daily rants from infancy until I was 14.  As a tween and teen, I rallied against it. As an adult, I argued and did what I could to change his perspective, though now I realize I wasn’t impervious to some of the effects. Now, it’s again time to root it out, this time from inside myself.

When I look deeply for the racist parts of me, the discriminatory aspects of me, the prejudiced aspects of me, I can find them. I also feel the shame, denial, grief, regret, anguish, guilt, and sadness that they, and any actions I may have taken because of them, bring up. I know that by becoming aware of my own conscious or unconscious racism and bigotry, I can continue to transform it.

As a middle-aged white woman, I can’t even imagine what life would be like as a person of color with the all-pervasive and overt racism directed against them. It’s likely that people can’t imagine the extent of racism that exists unless they’ve been the recipient of it. Though I can’t imagine or know what racism is like, I am certain it does exist and has been allowed to exist, inside ourselves and in our world.

To you reading this right now, whatever your race or ethnicity… I want to learn from you.

My mission is to help people wake up to the wonder and beauty of their lives through meditation. I want each one of us to awaken to and reach our full potential and have been teaching meditation and training meditation and mindfulness teachers who help others to do the same.

I am committed to creating an environment of safety, inclusion, and support so all of our students can awaken to all parts of themselves, transform, and evolve to create a kinder, more just world.

As you might know, the staff, teachers, and trainers who work with us or graduate from our Academy sign an ethics agreement that ensures that they will maintain respect for others. (See it in its entirety here.) A section of it reads:

I acknowledge the inherent worth and individuality of each person, therefore I do not discriminate against anyone regardless of their age, race, gender, sexual orientation, country of origin, income, physical abilities, or level of education. I aim to be inclusive. I strive to respect all peaceful religious beliefs and points of view. I will continue to explore and mend any biases that arise within me and am committed to doing my personal work to be more inclusive.  

As the director of the McLean Meditation Institute, I am committed to doing my part to champion inclusivity and help to abolish racism. I will continue to educate myself on how to be more proactive in the fight against systemic racism, exclusion, and oppression. I will continue to create a safe environment for all our teachers-in-training and our students so they feel heard, seen, valued, and included.

Help me to understand. Help me to transform. Let me know what I can do as a business leader and a teacher to support you.

If you have suggestions of how I could do that better, or if I have ever caused you pain or you felt discriminated by me or our staff, please let me know.