At the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association virtual fall show's Thursday keynote lunch, Rashad Norris of Relevant Engagement Consulting led the audience in a 90-minute interactive session called "WAIT (White Allies & Advocates In Training)... The Time Is NOW!" Grace Rajendran, event host for Seattle's University Book Store, welcomed everyone and pointed out that antiracist books have been independent booksellers' bestselling category. She also said that "it's important to be good allies," and the goal of the day's workshop was "understanding allyship and equity."
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| Rashad Norris | |
Rajendran introduced Norris, who acknowledged the ancestral homelands of the Puyallup tribe, from which he was speaking in his office in Tacoma, Wash., and asked for a moment of silence while attendees honored the "Heir Names" of African American lives lost, printed on a slide before his presentation began.
With warmth and wit, Norris told his own moving story, of relocating with his military father and family from Fort Bragg, N.C., to the Netherlands at age 6. He struggled with a speech impediment, but his mother told him, "One day people are going to pay to hear you talk." His loving family served as antidote for a young Rashad, who was becoming aware of what being Black meant in a country that celebrates Zwarte Piet, whites in blackface who accompany Santa.
Norris quoted James Baldwin, "If you don't know what happened behind you, you don't know what's happening around you." He spoke of the 1921 destruction of Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Okla., over a white woman's allegation that a Black teen assaulted her in an elevator, and teenage Emmett Till's murder as revenge over allegedly whistling at a white woman in 1955 Mississippi. Norris also talked about almost leaving college because he was one of only two Black students, but a white teacher became a mentor, introducing Norris to The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass. Dr. Joy DeGruy also became a mentor; she explains her research in her book Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, and Norris played a video clip of her describing how the past shapes the present.
Norris's message was one of healing. The logo for his company, Relevant Engagement Consulting, is the (West African) adinkra symbol for collaboration. He emphasized a "Call In" vs. "Call Out" culture and offered helpful prompts for discussion for whites doing antiracist work: "I need to stop you there because something you just said is not accurate" or "I'm having a reaction to that comment. Let's go back for a minute" or "There's some history behind that expression that you just used that you might not know about."
Norris built his work on that of clinical psychologists Derald Wing Sue and David Sue and what they call the four pillars of the "Foundations of Justice" and gave a question for each. Awareness: "How do I contribute to injustice?" Knowledge: "What do I need to understand about others?" Skills: "What can I do differently, to honor difference?" Action/Advocacy: "What do I need to do to institutionalize change?"
Norris recommended books, too, one he called a "hidden gem," The Mis-Education of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson, as well as What a Coach Can Teach a Teacher: Lessons Urban Schools Can Learn from a Successful Sports Program by Jeffrey M.R. Duncan-Andrade.
He suggested ways that bookstores can be safe havens for BIPOC people: offering workshops on how to get small business loans, making books available for research, being welcoming through book displays that reflect BIPOC authors and artists, and employing staff members of color. --Jennifer M. Brown, senior editor