Since posting a black square on my Instagram feed last week I have reflected a lot on my responsibility and previous failures as a privileged white female to call out racism and truly acknowledge the existence of white supremacy.
This post isn’t about virtual signalling or tokenism, to be honest the last thing anyone needs is another white woman’s voice on this. But it doesn’t feel right to say nothing. I needed to visibly acknowledge that I have not been enough and pledge to do the following:
-to inform myself, to read, to explore further into black artists, writers and composers
-to sit in my discomfort, look these issues in the eye, be verbal and active about them in my life without hiding behind the safety of ‘I don’t want to get it wrong’
-to listen to and raise up black voices wherever I can
-to raise my daughter consciously and deliberately to both read about and discuss race and inequality
-to donate to a charity that champions, promotes and celebrates diversity of race within the arts
-to look at my role with more scrutiny and invest my energy more throuhouly in decolonising the music curriculum
-to set an alert on my phone next month to remind me of my commitment to this and to take further and better stesp.
LG