Most of us have been taught that being nice is a good thing. In racial equity work, it might be the very thing standing in the way.
Today, we’re making a distinction that many get wrong: niceness and kindness are not the same thing. Niceness keeps the peace. Kindness pursues justice and in antiracism and DEI work, choosing one over the other has real consequences for real people.
Dr King wrote about this very issue in his Letter from Birmingham Jail in 1963. He had a name for the people who agreed with him in principle and did nothing in practice. That name still fits.
We explore what niceness looks like when it operates inside institutions and inside relationships and why, according to racial discrimination research, it is rarely as harmless as it feels. We look at examples from across the globe and draw on scholars working at the intersection of systemic racism, racial harm and what genuine inclusion actually requires.
And we make the case that kindness, real kindness is the currency that allows people, especially those with marginalised identities to keep showing up.
This episode is for you if you have ever stayed silent when something harmful happened and told yourself you were just keeping the peace. It is for you if you lead a team, run a business or show up in community spaces and want your values to match your actions.
LINKS:
I’d love to invite you to dive deeper into racial inclusion work by joining the waitlist for my 10 week online program REPRESENTED. Check out all the details and join https://anniegichuru.com/represented-waitlist/
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With Love,
Annie
