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—————- The next find out more meeting for our March programme is on Tuesday 23rd February which is in [cntdwn todate=”1 September 2020 23:59″ timeoff=”0″ showhours=”0″ showmins=”0″ pretext=””] Check myrise.co.uk/briefing-meeting to find out more, see what the meeting involves and, potentially, take that next step to transforming your life and body 🙂
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The recent Black Lives Matter movement has inspired a lot of reflection in me (and, hopefully, many others).
I have always considered myself as “not racist”.
I clearly remember at school people saying “Don’t tell Hally a racist joke – he doesn’t think they’re funny”.
—————- As an aside, the jokes we never actually ‘funny’. Irrespective of being racist, the ‘humour’ rarely went beyond “Huh huh, look at him, he’s got funny skin” —————-
But, let’s be honest, who does consider themselves racist?
How many times have you heard someone says “I’m not racist, but……..”
Followed by something you consider to be horribly racist.
There was recently a lot of conversation online (and in-person, but I didn’t see that) in my home town about a pub sign that depicted a black man’s head.
And many responses I saw online followed the “I’m not racist but……. RACISM” format.
It’s all been percolating in my head for a while.
I’ve noticed that over the years we haven’t had a massive number of BAME members.
It’s not hugely dissimilar to the percentage of the local population reported as “black or minority ethnic heritage” in the 2011 census.
But it’s not quite the same.
You could say that we can only chose to serve those that apply to join us.
But are we doing enough to show representation and inclusion?
That’s something I’ll be looking into in the coming weeks and months.
But it’s not what this particular blog is about.
I’ve come to the realisation that racism isn’t a (excuse the term) ‘black or white’ situation.
It’s not one or the other.
All or nothing.
When we consider it to be so, we have in our head a definition of what racism is.
And if we don’t quite ‘meet’ that definition, we could consider ourselves to be “not racist”.
“I don’t do that, so I’m not racist”.
It’s not something we should ever switch off to and think doesn’t apply to us.
It’s, potentially, in every decision we make.
In the thoughts we have.
The words we use.
The action we take.
We aren’t just ‘racist’ or ‘not’.
It’s a choice.
Like many such labels we could use.
No one is fundamentally “fat”.
They might display behaviours that will cause them to gain (or maintain excess) body fat, sure.
They might have “fattening thoughts”.
Eat, on average, in a “fattening way”.
But where is the imaginary dividing line between “fat” and “not fat”?
————- If you’re wanting support to move more in the “non fat” direction though, we’re really good at that and it’s less than a week to the next find out more meeting –> myrise.co.uk/briefing-meeting —————
No one is fundamentally “lazy”.
They might struggle to get motivated to exercise and / or prioritise their time and effort into things other than nutritional improvements.
But, at the same time, putting hours of effort every day into their work, family and / or other areas.
None of these things are things that we just “are” or “aren’t”.
They are choices.
Actions.
Behaviours.
Thoughts.
And more.
All individual.
That don’t need to be shaped by what’s preceded them anymore than we choose to allow.
Things we can question.
Just decisions we can make about what we want to do.
How we want to think, act and behave.
Who we want to be and become.
Much love,
Jon ‘Green Man’ Hall
P.S. I’d be genuinely interested to hear people’s thoughts on what we do (or don’t) with regards to showing inclusivity, representation and so on.
