What is “White guy, Black liberation”?

I’m a white guy.

I don’t know much about Black art, history, theology, music, food, writing, culture. But I want to. I should have been taught these things in school but I wasn’t.

I’ve learned so much through the efforts of my Black friends and teachers to make these things easily consumable by people like me. But I’ve realized in the last year (2020) how much of what I’ve learned is through passive consumption, not active and intentional learning.

So, I want to change it.

I’d like to share everything I learn. But I’m wary that if I do so, I’ll risk becoming—or falling into the desire to become—a self-appointed “ally”, or “anti-racist”, or “woke white guy”. I’m worried I’ve already fallen into that space, which means it becomes more about me than the people I’m claiming to care about learning about and supporting. It’s more about my curation than about the people whose voices I’m hoping to amplify.

So, this is an experiment. To see if I can really be consistent in learning actively and intentionally instead of passively. And to see if sharing my learning here will fulfill my desire to share everything I’m learning without the risk of wanting it to be about me.

Let’s see how it works out.