postcard from North Carolina - March 2026
Now, the days feel as if they are counted off by some existential metronome that swings incessantly: Oppression. AntiOppression. Oppression. AntiOppression.
Oppression. AntiOppression.
Oppression. AntiOppression.
Oppression. AntiOppression.
That's the whole game.
My eyes open. I put the kettle on in the cold morning air. Oppression. AntiOppression. My son can’t sleep if the house is too warm, and this suits me. I punch the thermostat up once he’s left for school. Spring with her cool nights and warm days. Soon, the clocks will adjust.
We face the day, my spirit and I. There are a few health insurance navigations and a prescription to pick up. I find myself not wanting to work, which is uncommon. In spite of the fact that I do not listen or watch any news, I know the war, I know the ICE Raids. Gaza still burns. In the South, Black women are still 3 times more likely to die in childbirth than white women.
How do we facilitate liberation conversations when everything is so heavy? Then again, how can we not?
Oppression. AntiOppression.
The nurse at my doctor’s office remarked, “God wants you to live another day,” as she told me my blood pressure.
Oppression. AntiOppression.
Do I engage? I don’t believe in god. The god I believe in doesn’t resemble your god; do you want to talk about it? Thank you for your kindness? Silence?
Yesterday, I felt the daffodils and lenten roses mocking me with their cheerful offerings. I walk slowly, making my way around my wooded neighborhood. The twilight enchants me. I think this would be a gentle place to die. Not in my doctor’s office, but in these woods, among the moss.
Dismantling racism is a contact sport.
Our bodies weave in and out of each other’s realities with overlaps that sometimes feel antagonistic, sometimes loving.
I have come to believe these are five things:
How white people created racism. We need to know How America Invented Race and how the racial wealth gap persists today.
That knowledge is not enough. We have the obligation to develop our analysis and better understand how racism impacts our society and our organizations.
White people are responsible for disrupting the racism we see all around us. As supervisors and as parents, as neighbors and as friends.
Do not work alone. Ultimately, it’s so easy to do nothing. And what I have learned is that white people need accountabillabuddies. We will not be as successful at centering antiracism if we act as a lone hero.
Antiracism work is spiritual work at its core. To know our ancestors, to reckon with our feelings of shame, and to root in a new identity is a leadership journey that puts us back in right relationship with ourselves.
On March 24th, I will begin the 10th cohort of my antiracism coaching group for white people with rank and influence, New Ancestors. We will journey for 12 weeks on these topics and more. If you are interested in learning more, please reach out. No one is turned away for lack of funds.
Oppression. AntiOppression.
These days are full of opportunities and harm. I seek balance of what I must do and what I long to do, what I dream and what I endure. The privilege of choices and responsibilities stack up with the mail.
I put my PTO in the calendar for 2026. Have you?
Oh, and I have a snappy new website thanks to WEGO!
Listen, you
who transformed your anguish
into healthy awareness,
put your voice
where your memory is.
You who swallowed
the afternoon dust,
defend everything you understand
with words.
You, if no one else,
will condemn with your tongue
the erosion each disappointment brings.
You, who saw the images
of disgust growing,
will understand how time
devours the destitute;
you, who gave yourself
your own commandments,
know better than anyone
why you turned your back
on your town's toughest limits.
Don't hush,
don't throw away
the most persistent truth,
as our hard-headed brethren
sometimes do.
Remember well
what your life was like: cloudiness,
and slick mud
after a drizzle;
flimsy windows the wind
kept rattling
in winter, and that
unheated slab dwelling
where coldness crawled
up in your clothes.
Tell how you were able to come
to this point, to unbar
History's doors
to see your early years,
your people, the others.
Name the way
rebellion's calm spirit has served you,
and how you came
to unlearn the lessons
of that teacher,
your land's omnipotent defiler.
Remember how,
from the first emptiness,
you started saving yourself,
and ask yourself what,
after all,
these words are good for
in this round hour now
where your voice strikes time.
Copyright Credit: Tino Villanueva, "You, If No One Else" from Chronicle of My Worst Years. Copyright © 1994 by Tino Villanueva. Reprinted by permission of TriQuarterly Books.
Source: Chronicle of My Worst Years (TriQuarterly Books, 1994)
Provocations and Nourishment
Upcoming Opportunities
New Ancestors Coaching Group: A place to unpack privilege and be a more confident and clear white antiracist coconspirator.
Toward Justice,
Evangeline
Please forward this blog to any of your friends working to build more just communities and organizations.