Being ‘not racist’ is not enough, you need to be ‘anti-racist’.
In late August I shared a post from a Black RV’ing family, Soulful RV Family, discussing the ongoing safety issues Black people face in RV Parks in dealing with racism. This experience is a common occurance and a major safety concern, as this family’s terrorizing experience shows, as well as this most recent example of the experience of a Black man on a camping trip demonstrates. These concerns are often a deterrent to Black people to even consider getting involved in those kinds of activities, as they already know the potential danger.
The post certainly resonated with me as I’ve had to relocate my tiny house twice now due to my own personal concerns of safety while dealing with racism; once in 2015 when it was in a RV Park in Charlotte and just a few months ago when located on a farm in a rural area, just outside Charlotte. The post also resonated with me because it’s the conversation I’ve been trying to host within the tiny house movement for the past 3 1/2 years, within the broader tiny house acceptance conversations and for awareness of experiences that weren’t being discussed. In my opinion, if we’re addressing concerns of housing and building community, these concerns should most certainly be included in the conversations. Very unfortunately, those conversations weren’t received well or received at all.
In addition to the challenges faced with seeking placement locations for tiny houses on wheels, Black people must also factor in safety concerns related to racism that’s prevalent in the areas that are most accepting of them. As the current world climate continues to decline and become even more accepting of racist behavior, this remains an ongoing safety concern for Black people to just simply be able to navigate throughout the world.
One of the commenters on my post, suggested that there needed to be a “symbol” that people could place on their property in order to self identify as someone willing and ready to help those (hear “Black people”) in need. A symbol that represented a “safe person” and/or a “safe place”. If you’re familiar with history you know that symbols of this sort have also been necessary in the past and much to the dismay of many, myself included, they are needed again. With that suggestion in mind, I tagged a few people I considered to be “allies” in the movement because, while racism is our experience, anti-racism work isn’t really the work for Black folks, only white folks can end racism. Macy Miller, Minimotives, responded to my tag and post and hence our partnership on this project began.
We’ve been having some in-depth conversations around racism, while she’s now digging in and doing the work, and I’m excited to share this simple, but significant project.
Check out our conversation...
Macy and I had a beautiful conversation about our Anti-Racist Project; why it’s needed and why it should be supported in and around the tiny house movement. We also talked about this modern day movement and it’s historical lack of support of diversity and representation, the ways people in and around the movement can and should do better - and so much more!
