Man Enough by Justin Baldoni

Author:Justin Baldoni
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperOne
Published: 2021-02-27T00:00:00+00:00

I Am Responsible for My Response

There is part of me that feels completely overwhelmed at the work that I need to do in myself and that our society needs to do collectively in regard to racial justice. There is part of me that feels ashamed that it has taken me as long as it has to intersect my journey with masculinity and male privilege to white privilege and racism. And then there is part of me that reminds myself that shame is an invitation to lean in, not to run away from or repress. Ijeoma Oluo says, “I know that the issue of racism and racial oppression seems huge—and it is huge. But it is not insurmountable.”

I have a lot to learn and a lot to unlearn. I can apply some of the same principles, and use some of the same tools, that I have discovered in my journey to undefine my masculinity to help me on this intersection of the journey as well. I can get comfortable in the uncomfortable, listen more than I speak, pick up some damn books and educate myself, and get brutally honest with myself about what I don’t know. And while I’m doing the personal work, I can also be doing the practical, systemic work of supporting businesses and projects of Black people, Indigenous people, and other people of color, and amplifying their voices in all contexts, from social media to donating to organizations that are doing anti-racism work, and voting for leaders who are actively working toward an equitable society.

We aren’t taught about masculinity and the social context of it in the same way that I, as a white person, wasn’t taught about whiteness and the social context of it. But while I may not have been taught it, I can still learn. I can learn so that I can teach our children, so that they grow up knowing what I didn’t because growing up without having discussions about white privilege and racism is a privilege in and of itself.

When author and speaker Layla Saad was about seven years old, her mother talked with her about her lack of white privilege. In Saad’s book Me and White Supremacy, she details what her mother told her. “She said to me, ‘Because you are Black, because you are Muslim, and because you are a girl, you are going to have to work three times as hard as everyone else around you to get ahead. . . .’ She was pointing out to me that in a racist and patriarchal society, I would be treated differently. I would not be rewarded the same for the same effort. And she wanted me to know that though this was not fair or right, it was (and still is), sadly, the way things were.”

In the same way that Saad has those things working against her, I have my gender and skin color working for me. Since she has to work three times as hard to get ahead in the

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