Building Anti-Racist Habits

Hello friends,

One of the things that came up in the SHHARE anti-racism membership community a couple months ago was the question of how to build and sustain anti-racist habits. In other words, while everyone's heart is in the right place, sometimes things slip through the cracks, and people don't feel like they're living up to their values.

In response to this, I put together a live learning session on the topic, centred around the productivity practice of habit stacking. In my previous career as a freelance writer, I wrote about habit stacking for OnePageCRM:

“take a few of the small changes you want to make and combine them into a single routine that helps you achieve them. Once you get used to doing the first task, all the others will fall into place as a matter of course.”

Why did I think habit stacking was useful for anti-racism? Because small actions, repeated regularly, can add up to lasting change.

Getting Started With Anti-Racism Habit Stacking

Many of you will have started with one small action, which might be as simple as following a Black or Global Majority activist or creator and reading, learning from, commenting on or amplifying their work. I'm guessing that's how many of you found me. But imagine the power when you start daisy-chaining multiple actions together, to create daily, weekly and monthly anti-racism habit stacks.

In the session, I looked at habits:

• to support an anti-racism mindset

• to create a foundation for learning and taking action

• to spot and deal with racism both in the workplace, and in social and family settings

• for reflection and self-awareness

• for going further once you get beyond the initial phase of habit building.

And I shared this sample habit stack for anti-racism:

• Daily: Reflective practice morning and evening; amplify a Black creator or activist; identify and learn from a new source and reflect on your learning; add to your list of new sources

• Weekly/Monthly: Support a Black-owned business (regular donation or one-off); volunteer in a Black-owned business; advocate for an anti-racism cause; track your progress

• Regularly: Accountability check-ins; seek support from the group; speak up; interrupt racism; self-care

My Personal Habit Stack

Since I believe in applying what you learn, the week after the learning session there was another task for the community: to create and share their own starter habit stack. And since I'm part of the community, I created and shared my own.

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