Inclusion or Exclusion
by Michael Feeley
REMEMBER WHEN YOU were little, at school or in your neighborhood, how you were included or excluded
in some games or groups?
You wanted to be liked so much, to be picked first for kickball or jump rope or sleepovers, and never the last choice, or
wholly left out, told you couldn’t play at all because you weren’t good enough.
“Inclusion – The act of creating environments in which any individual or group can be and feel welcomed, respected, supported, and valued to fully participate and bring their full, authentic selves”
(definition by Hella Social Impact)
There’s incredible beauty and comfort in these words and pain because of racial bias and exclusion.
Some people have been deliberately discriminated against because of the color of their skin, culture, beliefs, lifestyles,
life choices…
What is different from us is not always liked.
I’m changing racism in myself and creating racial justice.
I’m using discrimination I lived through as a gay white man – along with sincere regret for racial pain I caused as a white man of privilege – to understand and end the cruelty that black people, and indigenous people of color, have endured and, unfortunately, still live with.
Self-examination, knowledge, compassion, emotional labor, opposition and commitment are urgently needed to end racism.
I begin with myself.
Thanks – Michael (he, him)
Please share my Daily with your tribes.
I know this matters too – Equity – Racial Justice
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