I was *robbed*…..

of the opportunity to comment on Joe Bruno’s post positing ra.ci.sm as a mental illness.

He deleted it before I could weigh in.

I’ve been away, plus I don’t *do* LinkedIn on Sabbath or on Sunday.

This is my de facto comment on his post….

“Joe BruNO, first of all, NO. Then factor in NO. Another point is NO. And then finally, just NO. The cause/source of racism is white people. White people invented it. White people perpetuate it. Periodt.”

I expelled him from my community of learners/unlearners who are striving to be impactivists™️.

He was expelled not for equating racism to mental illness.

He was expelled for NOT…

• learning/unlearning
• owning harm he caused
• accepting feedback
• accepting correction

The biggest irony is that as a member of my private community, Joe could have, at any time, posed a question or broached a topic in community. Though the community is uncomfortable, there is confidentiality and safety to eff up, get feedback/correction in order to learn/unlearn and get your sh*t together.

Joe ironically opted to forego some important re-work on his *practice* impact apology that I rejected. And it would appear that instead of focusing on the deep-dive work we’ve been doing on impact apologies, he went outside the community and posted dumbfu k k k ery that he was rightly called out about.

I had even explained to community members why I was slowing them down purposefully in order to invest upfront energy on impact apologies.

What an abject lesson-in-action on the consequences of *good* white people NOT LISTENING and NOT decentering themselves so others can lead in the anti-racism space.

His actions have violated every single thing I coached and cautioned against….including

• offering no apology for the harm he’s caused
• doubling-down on the harm he’s caused
• taking no accountability for the harm he’s caused
• taking no responsibility for the harm he’s caused

Notice a pattern?

It’s HARM HE’S CAUSED

And when I DM’d him, his focus was directed at other people who are “not tolerant of diversity of views,” and he insisted that he was the *victim* of “ad hominem” attacks.

Important takeaways for all striving true anti-racism allies and true anti-racism allies-in-progress—

GENERAL

✔️ Progress, not perfection is the expectation. Mess-ups will happen. We know that you will mess up sometimes. What’s often way more revealing than your mess-ups is how you respond after you’ve been called out for your mess-ups. If you play victim or pick up your toys and exit stage left, you’ve revealed that you are SO not ready for this anti-racism life.

✔️ Being a bull in the china cabinet means you are doing damage. Your *zeal* to take action and barrel ahead is NEVER a substitute for doing your own self-work. Your desire to act or help should not take priority over your own learning and unlearning. A white man acting without awareness makes him a weaponized white savior.

✔️When you neglect your own self-work and have low self-awareness, you are more a danger than a help. Educate yourself. Uneducate yourself. Don’t be a loose cannon, a stray bullet.

✔️ If you can’t get past your feelings or your ego, you are wearing your whiteness as a bullhorn. A signifier. This makes you both useless and dangerous in the anti-racism space.

✔️ LinkedIn is not a safe space for anti-ra.ci.sm. It is a safe space for the opposite. It is a welcoming space for the opposite. It’s a *professional playground* for racists and bigots whereby they practice and perfect their *sanctioned* hate and ignorance. Dog whistles—deliberate or otherwise—have serious implications for Black, Brown, and Indigenous folks. *Playing devil’s advocate*—à la Olivia Walker style—is both ignorant and irresponsible.

SPECIFIC

✔️ It is very damaging to recipients of racism to have a white man “even considering that mental illness can explain racism.”

✔️ It is highly offensive for a white man to be *toying* with such a hypothesis.

✔️ It is sheer and utter white privilege and cluelessness to put forth something that’s basically throwing out raw meat to rabid racist dogs……dogs who don’t forget the *taste of the meat* after you’ve moved on to your next experimental and publicly articulated hypothesis without regard for what you leave in your wake.

✔️ Under this system, white men will be fine no matter what. Others of us won’t. Check your privilege and stop treating anti-racism like Russian roulette whereby your flippant attitude about what you say or do is *If I stub my toe, I stub my toe. It should be allowed.* This is not a game. This is high stakes.

✔️ The last thing that white people need is an excuse for their willful evil and hate. Using a mental health narrative in this way is very dangerous and is not to be tossed around casually. It has implications for those truly affected by mental health issues.

✔️ Just like racism is not a debate, equating racism to possible mental illness is not a discussion point to toss around in a social media post. The more racism is explained away—especially by white men—the more it will result in more of us who experience racism to be harmed and killed by it.

I’m done.